JadeEclypse

While it isn't an ideal reason to be calling in you have to take into consideration what it is you actually do for a living. This isn't the kind of job that you just sit behind a cash register or do simple repetitive things over and over again. You're not dealing with machines, you're dealing with machines that are hooked up to actual living people and safety is a priority not just for yourself but them. If you can't mentally focus and concentrate then you're not useful and you're being unsafe. Being unsafe in our line of work could cost somebody their life. Now as a nightshifter I'm kind of used to going without a lot of sleep because that is sort of what happens when you work 3rd Shift. It's also what happens when your co-workers on day shift have absolutely no respect for your schedule and have no hesitation calling you on a morning that you worked off at 8 a.m. at noon asking you to come in at 3 and wondering why you're pissed to be with woken up... But that is neither here nor there. Ultimately it depends on how you feel if you feel that you are capable of functioning on little sleep then you can go in, we've all had those days were sleep just wasn't happening but we were still able to function enough to do our jobs. But we've also all have those days where we've been so run down and so exhausted that we couldn't mentally think straight and felt like utter **** and those are the days where you're literally useless and dangerous.

If your hospitals are anything like mine I'm sure your manager doesn't care about paying overtime because you're so short-staffed that it evens out in the end. I work on a unit it supposed to have a ratio of 10 nurses and 4 CNAs for 34 patients and we're lucky if we have 6 and 0. So the extra clock in time to do bedside report really doesn't matter to them in the end.

That's exactly what the articles I listed cited. Because we don't treat them like patients any more. We're even encouraged to call them "clients" now days. And the client gets, what the client wants, even when it's not what they need. Even when you attempt to educate them. Many learn that if they pitch enough of a fit, they'll get their way (my combative turkey sandwich guy), because we're allowing certain behaviors and notions. We're telling them that their satisfaction is more important than their health and our safety.

Right? I mean yes I guess in a way higher patient satisfaction is linked to lower readmissions because it's hard to come back in when, like what could have happened to the gentleman in my scenario, you choke on the turkey sandwich you were told you were unable to swallow. The other caveat to that is that not only are we reimbursed by patient satisfaction, even in instances where patients are unreasonable, but we're reimbursed by certification programs as well. I work at a platinum level stroke center on the east coast, we maintain that certification by remaining completely diligent with how we screen patients and what our bylines are once they're admitted. I had a grown man threaten to kick my teeth in over a sandwich, and somehow I was the bad guy, bringing down patient satisfaction, when our accredited hospital, could get points deducted from their score, because we allowed a patient to eat that was not verified as safe by speech pathology first. It's literally a no win situation.

While it isn't discrimination if her employer is anything like my employer there is a list and those names are put on a list and you transfer to the shift of your choice based off of that list. Being out for maternity leave or illness doesn't take you off of the list. So if there actually was a list and she was second in line to go but the person behind her got put first that's a violation. Using the term discrimination in this case is kind of questionable but if it's something that you're serious about then you need to talk to your manager even if the end result is that you find a position with a different company or a different hospital.

I'm sure that your friend is probably egging your family on a little bit and that's partly why they're giving you so much crap about it. Pictures that you shouldn't have to put yourself laugh just to get her first, I'm sorry but nursing requires a lot more science and a lot more critical thinking skills Than Physical Therapy does typically. You also shouldn't be expected to coach her and somehow get her straight A's when she has no interest in actually putting in the effort herself. College of serious everyone needs to take it seriously and well your friends, parents and everything might I think that you're blowing her off, putting yourself and your education that you're probably paying for first is not blowing her off.

We do a bedside report, it's a new JCAHO standard so it's pretty much being phased into most hospitals. But thus far they haven't been so bold as to give us an actual script of what to say, only the highlights of what we're to go over and give the patient time to respond and ask questions. And actually, no, the shift to improving satisfaction does not have direct link to improving outcome. Majority of recent studies conducted are showing exactly the opposite. They're showing that the higher the patient satisfaction the higher the overall mortality rates. Why? We're giving patients what they want, not necessarily, what they need. We're letting that stroke patient have their turkey sandwich that they pitched a fit about not being allowed to have because they're not safe to swallow but because they refused to abide by our order sets and are demanding it and getting verbally abusive over it we're caving and giving it to them only for them to aspirate and choke. True story, almost had to call security on a stroke patient once because he was threatening to kick my teeth in if I didn't let him eat, despite him being COMPLETELY unsafe. I call the doc, the doc tells me to feed him, despite him being COMPLETELY unsafe. I made a note about noncompliance and against medical advice, but that doesn't change the fact that a fresh stroke patient pitched such a fit over a sandwich, that he got what he wanted, not what he needed. UC Davis Health System: 4

The general consensus on the first post of this was that the OP was the rude and inappropriate one. Did you expect that opinion to change? Yes assignments should be based on Acuity not numbers, why does he need to know you ask? Maybe he was curious, maybe considering the tone of the op from the beginning what she saw as nasty wasn't actually nasty but just general curiosity which I'm willing to bet, maybe he was wanting to know which patients were hers because he did something for a patient and thought telling the nurse might be appropriate (I mean teamwork, what am I thinking?)? Judging the entire tone of the Ops post, I'm willing to bet that he didn't ask it and as nearly a snide or rude manner as she makes it seem because it's her comments that actually come off as horribly rude and ******, if she actually responded to him the way that she says she does. Personally I hope I never meet this nurse. Who reports someone over them asking you how many patients you have??!?! The sad thing is that while I would like to give the op a little bit of credit here, reading through this thread and seeing the responses toward people that are sharing their opinion when she asked what else she should have done and they are calling her on her negative attitude and behavior, I fully believe that she is part of the problem. The comments to many of the posters here have been just as passive aggressive and nasty as the original. I seriously hope you lighten up honey because if you're a new nurse and you're already like this you don't exactly have a lengthy future. You're quickly making yourself that nurse that no one wants around.

I really don't see how asking someone how many patients they have that is inappropriate, it sounds to me like the nurse that asked this question a little too sensitive and maybe you should consider his/her own approach to things? Making conversation and asking someone how many patients are taking care of is not inappropriate.... Maybe what you thought was sneer and sarcasm or inappropriateness was them asking if you were in need of help? But this is why there are some units at my hospital where people don't ask for help because they don't want to "owe each other favors", sounds like the OP might be a good fit for those units. We're nurses, we're nothing without our team other than bitter and burned out. Maybe you should consider that, and think about your own responses, because reading your responses, the only one who was rude, was you. You should also consider that maybe he was asking you about your assignment because he did something for one of your patients and was wanting to tell you about it but he wasn't sure if you had the patient or not. I mean God forbid we actually help each other.

We had a guy hooked up to the EEG equipment for seizure monitoring that kept setting off his seizure alert. I finally asked him why he was hitting it so frequently and he looked me bold in the face and said, "It gets people here a lot quicker than using the call bell does." Needless to say even our Neurologist was unimpressed and discharged him the next day.