futurepsychrn

No. I was a new nurse and wanted to make sure. Maybe it was facility specific.

Hmmm....pharmacy told me not to mix haldol and Ativan.

So I'm on my 2nd travel assignment in a very small hospital. The unit I'm on is a psych unit. Geriatric and adolescents. There are a HUGE amount of things going on in this unit that could potentially cause a problem with my license, and in my opinion could be considered abuse. Now I'm the nurse getting blamed for things that were happening before I even arrived. I realize it's the travel nurse that gets thrown under the bus. I've talked to my agency and they said they can investigate and pull my contract and put me somewhere else if they can't solve it. At this point though, I'm not sure I want to finish this contract, and I'm sure there will be repercussions and backlash from an investigation. I'm thinking I just want to cut my losses, leave, and report them. Any advice? Davey Do or Ned RN, I could use your expert advice. Thanks in advance.

I've been spit on, swung at ( no connection yet LOL), been hit with bottles of shampoo/ body wash they launched at me, kicked, chased, luckily have not been hurt yet knock on wood. I try to gauge moods and try to stop the escalation before it starts.

Me too! Which is why I keep getting reported to the nursing supervisors at work. Oh well!

Update..... back to work after 4 days off, pt was sent to ER after I left that day because the labs came back with an electrolyte imbalance. Well geesh, I tried to tell you something was off! Maybe next time you'll listen instead of letting your ego get in the way.

Orca, I tend to go back and forth between Psych and medical when I get burned out on Psych. It helps me refresh my skills.

Why oh why is it that Drs think if you are a Psych RN you don't know anything about medical? I'm so tired of calling the MD, because a patient is going south medically, and being brushed off, because apparently Psych nurses can't recognize a medical issue. 9 times out of 10 I've been right and the 10th time it wasn't an emergent situation, however, when I came back from days off, the pt was either in the hospital or had made a trip to the ER. Once I tried, for 4 days, to get a pt sent to ER and was told (without any testing or physician visit) that nothing was wrong with the pt. Documented what I was told of course (CYA), came back after 3 days off, pt was in hospital, diagnosis Sepsis. They seem to believe if you are a Psych nurse, your school only trained you for that and nothing medical. It's so frustrating.

I graduated at 54. My first job was on a Skilled Unit at a hospital. Next position was Behavioral Health. I've found that those two areas plus Drug Addiction/ Detox and MedRehab are fairly easy to get into. It at least gets a foot in the door of a hospital and most Skilled Units are sub-acute so valuable experience is gained. Don't give up. Good luck!

I have pictures from where I used to work. I'm a believer?

The SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR, the team you work with!!!!!! From what I've observed, night shift teams tend to be more cohesive than day shift, probably because they have more time to get to know each other. Just my opinion but I've worked both.

Hospital Skilled Unit. Loved the job, great place for a brand new nurse to start as you get to see a huge variety of things. However, I lasted only 5 months because of bullying. 1.5 years in psych, my chosen specialty but a new clinical manager killed that. Currently MedRehab, which I like a lot but since I'm older and it involves a lot of lifting don't know how long I'll be able to do it.

The answer is yes I would to both questions. This us not high school, I'm an adult, and as such don't worry about what people say about me. Furthermore it's none of my business what they're saying. AND they have the same 1st amendment rights I do.

That's the point, where I work the way they do the schedule, I never get 4 days off in a row.

And then they make sure the 36 hrs is in 2 different shift cycles and you don't get the 4 days in a row off anyway. So tired of it!

And that will be next! It's a slippery slope. If anyone thinks that the corporations won't start monitoring what is said in the privacy of break rooms and such they need to wake up and smell the coffee. This is where our country is headed friends.

I'm going to take a slightly different position here. Are we not still in America where freedom of speech is guaranteed by the 1st amendment? As long as HIPPA is not violated, why would you let someone tell you what you can or cannot say when you are not at work? It baffles me that we have come to the point in this country where we allow ourselves to be made sheep for corporations. If your company tells you you may not EVER have a glass of wine while employed by them, will you do that also? If they tell you you can't shop at a certain store because they don't agree with their policies, do you stop shopping there? If you work for, say a Catholic hospital, and they say you must stop attending your church and only attend Catholic services and you MUST attend church regularly do you leave your chosen religion and do as they say? When you are not on the clock, they are not in charge! When do we say enough is enough? A job is just that, a job, at least mine is. It's not my life it's my job.

And meanwhile where I work they took our security because of the expense. We get 1 guard from 7p-7a, and he can't leave the security office. The hospital is in a really BAD neighborhood and there is minimal staff in the hospital at all times. We have no daytime security. The main campus has 1 guard from 7p-3a. In other words, they could care less if we are safe.

The only thing this could EVER, in a million years, have to do with nursing is to report it if it is disclosed to us. In my opinion, this is a non-nursing article.

I am fully signed up with 3 companies actually. 2 regular and 1 rapid response. Compact license in hand. And licensed in a non-compact state also. Just really frustrating. Thanks for the insight. I'm new to travel nursing and I'm also pretty impatient as a rule.

In your experience, what is the average turnaround time between applying with a travel nursing agency and being put to work? I've had agencies tell me tomorrow (of course the job magically disappeared) and 3-4 weeks. Just feeling frustrated.

I have literally been in trouble for "not showing the Dr enough respect." My reply? "Respect is earned." This for a Dr that placed an 89 year old pt on a Behavioral Health unit because (his exact words), "You actually qualify for a skilled unit, but you'll get much more attention paid to you on this unit." At the time we had an extremely loud, violent pt and the poor man was terrified, and offering people money to " keep me safe." What I learned in nursing school was to be an advocate for my pt!

Travelnursing.org is a wonderful resource. Employees rate travel agencies.