mfarmer88

She's a staff member recently appointed to management. She was out at the nurses station when I arrived and just came in to help transfe the patient from the stretcher to the bed. Ive never had a problem with her before this í ¾í´”

Answer 1b: The nurses in an ICU know this. We couldn't do our jobs without knowing this. Maybe if it was just one newbie berating you, we could chalk it up to a mistake on her part, but not a whole bunch of ICU nurses. So I'm wondering if something was lost in translation here. Are you certain you were administering the medications through different ports of a central line, and not just through something like a y-connector or stop-cock rig hooked up to a single port? I know I've seen nurses administer non-compatible medications through a y-connector hooked up to an EJ (peripheral) line, falsely believing that the y-connector made it two different ports. Yss. I'm 100% sure I had it in separate ports. One blue, one red. I assisted with the central line placement and then after X-ray hooked it all up. I did have saline running with potassium Y sited in, I guess it is possible that she saw that y site and assumed it was that one. I mostly did not appreciate the director speaking to me the way she did in front of her staff. Even saying "are we getting forgetful in our old age?" I'm 28! Although my age shouldn't matter...

So yesterday, I an ER nurse brought a patient to ICU with just respiratory and me. Which is fine. When I get up to ICU the director is waiting for me, and yelling at me for having levophed and NS with bicarb going through two different ports of a central line and how they're not compatible. Then the rest of her nurses belittled me about "oh did someone forget that?" And they all laughed. Humiliating, sure. Frustrating? Very. Anyway, I came here to get some insight from some fellow nurses, aren't triple or double lumen lines like a CL or a PICC designed so that noncompatible medications can go through different ports without having to start new lines on patients? I did not have these Y-sited in. They were through different lumens/ports whatever you want to call them. Was I wrong?

Hello all! I am currently a nurse manager of a busy 32 bed telemetry unit. I am unhappy and want out. I am tired of working 60+hours and only getting paid for 40, I am tired of them forcing me to use my vacation time before I even get a chance to use it, I am tired of my alarm clock going off every day at 520AM...I am just TIRED . I have been in my current position and with this company for 14 months now. I have made HCAHPS scores rise, employee satisfaction scores rise, they are happy with me, I'm just not happy. I want to go back to working 3 days a week, but this company is blocking me from letting that happen here. So I have applied elsewhere. I got a job offer today from a local Emergency Room. I have been a nurse for 5 years, 1 of those being a manager, filling in on the floor an average of 5 times a month. I have been on telemetry for my entire career, I am already ACLS certified, but they would need to provide me with TNCC, PALS, etc.. I love my chest pains, my caths, my funky rhythms.... Anyway, my job offer...I was offered 23.46/hr with a $2 differential for 9 of those hours. I currently make $29.70. This averages out to a $4 hour pay cut, or $7500 less per year before taxes. I plan to counter offer with $25 base pay... there is opportunity for PAID OT, and it is a new,exciting experience for me, and the shift is noon to midnight...I wouldn't have to wake up early, and I could still sleep at night like a normal person! Is that a ludicrous suggestion? Should I keep looking elsewhere? They are offering $3500 sign on bonus for experienced ER RNs, because they're desperate. They hire brand new nurses fresh out of school, so I think having some experience makes me more desirable. Thoughts? Suggestions? I want OUT of management, but I don't want to jeopardize my family life in any way. My husband just got a decent raise, but I am the breadwinner... I have never negotiated a salary before, so I'm unsure of the correct process, how often it is successful, etc

I am fairly new in to my position (6 months) I am a nurse manager of a floor, with a director over me. The director has been there for 32 years. One of the charge nurses on my floor is absolutely terrible in that role. She was in that role before I came, and I don't know why she was elected to be there by the previous manager. She has been on the floor for 25 years, so I'm guessing that is part of the decision. My issue is she is a very low performer. She frequently disappears, does not get her charge duties done, will not ask the other nurses if they need help, and if you ask for it you are told "no, I'm too busy doing my 'charge work papers'" even if I have already completed them. She will only have 2 patients at this time, while all the nurses have 6 and the techs have 10 each. The nurses have to do their own discharges and admissions when she is charge, so I'm not exactly sure what she is doing. Being charge she gets the benefit of a set schedule and does not work weekends. My other employees, both days and nights (because she is constantly there until 2000, 2100, 2300 every night (we work 12 hour days)) complain about her constantly. I've asked them to please document everything, but they all feel it's more annoyances and not actually worth writing down. I will tell my director about these things, and she is appalled, but then we won't follow up on them. I cannot do it myself, and she says she is too busy to do something. A fellow manager she is over told me that my director asked if this person is really that much of a problem or am I making it all up. So I feel a little bit like it's a "good ol boy" society thing and I will never get anywhere. I am at risk of losing my high performers because they are tired of dealing with her. What issues are genuinely worth documenting and not just personal issues? I could write novels on the ways that I feel she is failing as a charge nurse, I get complaints from her patients, and from physicians, but I need my directors backing before I can do anything. I have documented med errors and complaints from June, but I almost feel like I've been holding on to them for too long to address them now.

The pads are kept in the pyxis on the unit. What my director told me I should have done was to tell him "I kept this SAFE for you since it has your number on it" and hand it back to him, and that would have gotten my point across.

what a cool service!

That was my point exactly, and exactly what I did. Glad to know I wasn't crazy!

So last night I found a blank prescription pad that was signed and had a doctors DEA # on it as I was walking out the door. I handed it to a nurse that he had been talking to and told her, please keep this safe, it could be an incident report. She thought I told her to "handle it". So she told him "my boss told me she was gonna write you up for this". So I get an angry text from him asking what I had to write him up for and to call him when I can. I I told the nurse, please tell him I will discuss this with him tomorrow. He's already screamed at his NP in the middle of a nurses station and threatened to fire him, he's clearly in a bad mood and I would rather discuss this in person. Later hat night I get a text "thanks for calling me, I'm filing a complaint, I should be able to reach a director 24/7". Some background on that, I'm a manager, not a director. My position gives me just a little more power than a charge nurse. But very little more. If he wanted a directo, then he should have called my boss, the director. Im not worried about him actually filing a complaint, because he won't report his wrong doing and he would have to first. Also how immature does it make him look to do that? Ugh. I'm tired of babysitting these doctors!