nurseklw72

As the years go on, I find that I'm saying more things to patients to shut them up. I get more complaints about the food and the comfort of the beds than anything else. My reply to them is this: I'm sorry your bed/food is not to your satisfaction. But, I imagine that if the food was great and the beds were heaven to sleep on, people would never want to leave the hospital. Maybe there's a reason things aren't perfect! My hospital has a real issue with visitors staying overnight. Mind you, there's only 5 cots and maybe 10 recliners in a 120 bed facility. So, people actually bring their own blankets and camp out on the floor. I would just love to get on the overhead speakers and announce, "We're sorry, the campground is closed for the evening. All those not in a bed need to leave at this time."

I got in trouble for the same issue. I'm a single mom. Between my son & I, there's no way we're going to keep call-ins under the mandated 5 a year. I found a way to work around the whole call in issue. I only call in if it's my son who's sick. When I'm sick, I show up at work looking like death warmed over. The boss agreed that I was definitely sick and sent me home. No call in, no point against my record. I was hoping to throw up in the floor just for good measure because I think it's ridiculous that we're only allowed 5 days a year and we're exposed to all kinds of illnesses. Administration and their rules aren't exactly based in reality.

I have moderate hearing loss in both ears. I wear digital CIC hearing aids. Of course, it's a big PITA to remove the hearing aids to use the stethoscope, but I make do. I use a Littman electronic stethoscope. I think it's a 2000. I've had it a few years. Over the course of 8 years, I've purchased 3 electronic stethoscopes. They tend to break down easily. I was talking to my audiologist about the stethoscope issue. She was telling me there's a stethoscope on the market that is compatible to some hearing aids and can be worn over the top of them without interference. Apparently it's ridiculously expensive and you have to purchase the hearing aids that are compatible. I don't exactly have a gold mine. As far as letting your director know what's going on with your hearing, it's a good idea to let them know. If you were having trouble, they might assume that you just don't know what you're doing and may not be cut out for the job. It's best to be up front.

I was fortunate not to witness this. It happened quite a few years ago on a med/surg floor. A patient with a new colostomy who had psych issues decided to pull the thing apart. The night shift staff heard him yelling in his room and went to see what was going on. He had pulled his colostomy bag off, tore his stoma apart and was pulling his colon out of the hole & shredding it to bits. There was a lot of blood, poop and tissue thrown on the wall. I'm so glad I wasn't there. The staff that was still makes faces over that night & it was over 5 years ago.

We make it a habit to connect the chest tube to a canister and the canister is connected to wall suction. We do this for chest tubes to bottles or pleuravacs and for NG suction. We had an incident where someone couldn't remember that NG suction should ALWAYS go to the canister and they set it up so that gastric juice got sucked straight into the wall. YUCK!

I had the same thing happen to me. I had a stable patient that was planning to be discharged home that day. When I made first rounds that morning and asked him if he was glad to be going home that day, he said,"I'm going to die today." I brushed the statement off & jokingly told him that I didn't think it was on the schedule. About 3 hours later, he died. From that point on, I've taken those sort of statements seriously.

I am a preceptor at my hospital. I get paid $1/hr to precept any nurse new to the hospital whether it's a new grad or a seasoned nurse. Of course, new grads are going to take more hours to precept. Also, if the nurse stays longer than 6 months, I get a retention bonus of $500.

The bad attitude meeting must be in a book for managers or something. Anytime the staff is upset about staffing shortages and the fact that it is directly detrimental to the quality of care they can give, management pulls this trick out of the bag. In my department, every nurse has attended a bad attitude meeting with management including myself. I simply told them that I found it interesting that everyone had a bad attitude. I told them that perhaps the problem wasn't with the staff but management's inability to implement better working conditions. They had no response to that statement.

I interviewed for a family practice clinic associated with a hospital. As an RN, I was offered $12.00/hr. I told her I can't work for less than $20 since at the time I was working in a hospital for a base bay of $21.00 and I've been a nurse for 6 years. She upped her offer to $14. needless to say, I didn't take the job.

I have no idea what possessed them to do it, but this year, we got pocket knives. I'm hoping no one who is armed has a mental meltdown.

I'm getting ready to be a bike commuter. I live 3 miles from my hospital. We don't have bike racks and I am currently asking human resources to make one available for the employees who wish to go "green".

I work on a stepdown/pcu unit that is currently using 16 of 28 beds due to staffing. Our ratio is 4:1. Usually we have one secretary and one aide on day shift. Nights has a secretary until 11pm and every once in a while, they'll have an aide for part of the shift. On good days, we staff 5 nurses per shift. 4 nurses with patients and a floating charge nurse that is SUPPOSED to help out where it's needed. sometimes, to keep the hospital from going on diversion, we'll have 5:1 ratios and the charge nurse will also take a group of 2-3 patients. We still have one aide & one secretary when the census goes up.

I live in northwest Arkansas. I'm an RN with 6 years experience in a cardiac unit. I make a base rate of $22.66/hr. Throw in shift differentials for 3-7pm & weekends. I bring home about $1300-1500 per 2 week pay period. Cost of living isn't that high here. My house payment is only $560 a month. (I bought before the prices went through the roof). The wages are ok but I wish I made more since I'm a single mom and I'm living paycheck to paycheck as it is.

I was offered a med/surg supervisor position after being a nurse for about 3 years. Like you, I was flattered and jumped on the offer thinking about money and better hours. I thought since I had been a charge nurse for 3 years and could lead the unit without a problem, this wouldn't be that big of a change. Boy was I wrong! I was made the supervisor of a floor that had serious problems. Half of the staff had already quit leaving the floor seriously under-staffed with no float pool or registry to pull from. I had one aide for 20 patients on day shift only. I had 2 nurses maybe each shift if we were lucky. I ended up working the floor every day because I knew it was too much on the staff. On top of that, I had my supervisor duties such as staffing, payroll, scheduling, evaluations, etc. I didn't get a raise and was actually making less money as a med surg supervisor than I did working as a charge nurse on a critical care unit because of critical unit differentials. I only stayed in the position 2 months before I just had to get out because I was informed that my unit was more important than my home life (I'm a single mom) and I needed to work a 16 hour shift if necessary. I spent a long time thinking I was a failure and simply not management material. I finally realized that the administration in my facility is completely unrealistic and will throw anyone under a bus if they can.

I work in a cardiac unit. We're having some serious problems. We have recently acquired a new supervisor that has initiated several changes in the way our department is run. This has caused discontent among the nurses and the physicians because this new setup is not very efficient and leads to more probability for errors in patient care. Also, team leaders were selected based on their "natural ability to lead". These individuals are all now permanent charge nurses. With the exception of 1, these individuals have held their licenses less than a year and lack the experience to run a unit. Also, the individuals chosen have personality types that I call "yes men". They do not question authority, rock the boat, or say no to unsafe work conditions. As leaders, they are not required to take a patient load and do not assist the other nurses staffed on the floor when asked to help. Since the arrival of the new supervisor, who sees the world very black & white, the number of write-ups and verbal counselings has skyrocketed. She does not hesitate to let us know that we are whiny nurses who don't know how good we have it. The nurses, aides, and secretary on the unit are all currently looking in other places for employment. I know, because I'm one of them. I've been a long-time employee of this facility and have worked this unit for at least 4 years. I am watching this unit which once had a reputation for being the best place to work, completely fall apart.