sueseact

Boy do I know where you are coming from but thankfully it's only been the last couple of years that the management has been so bad. I feel as you do, with 3 more years till retirement and 38 years in the same facility under my belt every day I worry some insignificant oversight will cost me my job.

Wow, I guess I am lucky. I love my patients and most of the families I come in contact with. I am an LPN charge nurse on an Alzheimer's Unit with up to 27 residents in my care at any given time. I have 2 nurses aides and I don't know what I would do without them. They are overworked with too much to do and not enough time to do it all! Held accountable for the care and the charting. Doctors are another story, they are often rude but to some extent I can't blame them. Our protocol leaves much to be desired and working second shift and having to call a doctor for a scratch on one of his residents to me is unreasonable, not to mention time consuming when it involves the call of the doctor, family and all the paperwork. We cannot leave anything for the next shift even though we are told it is a 24 hour facility. It's not what it used to be. I can say that cause I have worked in the same facility for 38 years! We get zero support from management. There is no professional courtesy and when we need to stay to complete a task we have to chase down a supervisor like a 5 year old getting a hall pass, with specifics on why we are late. Our facility boasts "restraint free" but I hear nothing about how many falls are averted by heroic sprints by staff or 1:1 multi tasking care, or even how many falls happen because of no restraints. I'd like to brag about "Fall free facility" We are written up for being 2 minutes late (while I am stopping for candy for one of my residents) when we don't have time to use the bathroom and never take our lunch or even one of our 2, 15 minute breaks. The programs on the computer are junk and the computer freezes more often than it works. We have no supplies for the treatments ordered and have to search them down. We see management once a month or so, when corporate comes into our building to inspect the building. They have no clue what goes on on the floors. I was once told I have a negative persona while I was waiting for a warning in the DNS's office... seriously, I never get called in there for praise. I'd have to be stupid to walk in smiling, knowing what was coming? Now come down to my space and see me with the patients and then tell me who I am. Shows me you don't know what you are talking about! Thanks for letting me get this off my chest!

It's not a 3 day deal for me... I work in a nursing home with patients who have been there for years. I have also gone through it with both parents and my grandmother, so it's personal for me too. It is NOT easy for you, nor was it easy for me. I was lucky enough to have my mom and dad CHOOSE to let me be there and I found it a miracle as I drove my yearly trip to Florida when my dad died when both my brother and I were there and he made the trip from the Bahamas in time. I walked through the door to visit my mom 1/2 hour before she passed. My Gram decided she didn't want me to see her pass so she did peacefully in the hospital in the middle of the night. It's hard to let go, but if you love them, you let them go when it's time and there is no other compassionate option. It's about what THEY want and everyone reading this should, at the very least, have a difficult discussion with their loved ones, BEFORE they become sick, or even before YOU do! Quality of life is, or should be, an important part of decisions made. Being fed by a feeding tube, or using a tracheotomy to breathe is not a compassionate decision... it's not God's way, like one family told me, to keep someone alive by placing tubes in them. I understand not wanting to let go. I miss my mom, dad and gram every day, but I know it was the right thing to do FOR them! Talking to them, I knew they didn't want extraordinary measures and didn't want to spend the end of their lives in a nursing home. They were also not afraid of death. I have found the older I get the less afraid I am too.

I absolutely agree with you and often see the same thing where I work. I think it's never too early to talk about your own end of life decisions. I also find as I get older that wish to live forever is fading.

I have worked 38years in the same nursing home. I also had two parents with serious long term medical conditions. I cannot understand people who are so selfish as to watch their loved ones suffer. When I have opportunities I preach about my experiences in the nursing home and in my life. I had a patient with a g-tube, non verbal and only rare visits from the family. They wanted God to make the decision on whether she lived or died... Really? God didn't decide to put the g-tube in her. When my mom had reached her limit of admissions to the hospital, the doctor gave the speech and he was brutal. I left all this up to my mom, but in a way I was brutal too, explaining to her the end game and she decided no more hospital. She went back to the nursing home and when she had another flair up I was unavailable and she was sent to the hospital on her request... the doctor called and ranted at me! I would have had his job if I could have. There is a compassionate way and compassionate words you can use when talking about someone you have loved your entire life. He was out of line! All these things should be decided by the individual and it's never too early to make your wishes known, but when the time comes be unselfish, be strong and let them go because you love them!

I just received an invitation for this in my linked in account. Having a bad year with all the pressure put on nurses, I hoped for a minute it was true.... that I was actually being appreciated for all the hard work and caring as a nurse of 42 years, 38 in the same place. Oh well, the best I can do is visit a patient and as they cheer me up, I'll cheer them up. I love my job as much as ever, but the dealings with management are becoming more and more confrontational as their goal is money and mine is care. That will not change no matter what they do or say! Someone I have known since she was born just graduated and I told her I didn't know whether to congratulate her or tell her I was sorry. Things sure have changed over all these years!