mtjoanna

In my area, a lot of the folks have grown up on ranches, so it's not uncommon for older gents (and ladies) to feel the need to get up and check the livestock. It's also very common for people, especially in the evening, to feel the need to "go home" ...

Unfortunately, the best advice I can give is to tattle. Doesn't sound nice, but if this person is willing to be this blatant at this point in her career, it's better for her to be kicked out of the program than to face a lawsuit later on. If she was ...

I had a visit with a state surveyor a couple of years ago--our yearly visit. She was watching me at my med pass and asked why certain people were hi-lighted in red. I told her that those were late meds. She knew that I was the only nurse in the facil...

Indeed it is! When you send a resident to the hospital with vomiting, a bloated, taut abdomen and NO bowel sounds whatsoever and you get yelled at by the DON (with a few expletives thrown in for effect) because of the "unnecessary" additional paperwo...

Pretty much not. I don't know how it is in the new place that I'm starting on Monday but in the facility I just left, for admissions we would sometimes get hundreds of pieces of paper, often triplicate information that we had to sort through or nothi...

So, I am finally leaving the SNF that I have been working at for the last 3 years. Over that time, I have seen a steady decay in the quality of care provided--mostly r/t reduced staffing, scarcity of supplies, loss of faith and trust in the DON and a...

"A tip to the state would never hurt either." A few of you have mentioned calling the state--it is something I considered but ended up not doing as the State surveyors showed up, completely unannounced, my second to last day of work there. Someone (d...

I've been a noc nurse at a LTC for 3 years now. I won't rehash all of the (very accurate) details given by IsabelK above, but will add a couple other things that I have noticed during my time there. The information that is sent to the admission commi...

Nope--not even close! The facility that I just left had a surprise visit from the State my second-to-last day there--we'd had someone call the state and complain about the constant short-staffing and a few other things. We got 2 tags that I know abou...

The facility that I have just left does not allow the floor nurses to declare whether a wound is a pressure ulcer or not. We are to describe its size, shape, location and characteristics, but only the DON is allowed to state whether it's a pressure u...

Just to play a little bit of devil's advocate, perhaps the daughters (not knowing them or the situation) also work irregular hours and 10pm on a weekend is a normal time for them to be up and about? The facility that I recently left had a few rehab r...

Would it be possible to speak with your local nurse's union rep and get an idea of your liability here? Or possibly your state board of nursing? If you've documented unsafe conditions, addressed it with family and admin, documenting their responses, ...

I haven't started yet, so don't know about the CNA staffing, but the unit I'll be working in has 48 beds with 2 nurses--so I'll have 24 residents, with other nurses for back-up in cases of emergency--and, get this--I'll actually be able to leave the ...

Yup--done that many times! Except not the calivianya part. :)

I've been out of nursing school for 6 years and about 2 weeks ago, had to start my first IV catheter. On a 92-year-old dehydrated woman with veins that looked about as wide as sewing thread. She had a critical high potassium level and the on-call PA ...

I got a $0.21 merit raise this year; last year was similar at my for-profit, multi-state facility. For other reasons, I've sought employment elsewhere and the place that hired me has my base pay going up by $6/hour at a not-for-profit church-run faci...

I concur with the gal who commented on noc shift staffing issues. I don't do blood draws during my noc shift because we have no lab facilities at my place--it all has to be transported to the local hospital during the day. There is no noc shift "admi...

I'm fortunate that my husband works graveyards and so completely gets the sleep thing (I work 1800--0600), and his family isn't terribly close so they have never dropped by. My family has also been cautious about my sleep time, so I'm very fortunate ...

What time do you go to bed? When you get up at 1530, have you had adequate sleep? Long-term sleep deprivation can cause increased irritability with reduced ability to cope with every day things--including CNA drama, unappreciative patients and nurses...

My interview (3 years ago now) was pretty much a formality. The administrator saw an RN who was moving to the area and so my interview was basically "when can you start?" They asked a couple of necessary questions to make sure I didn't hate "old peop...

You get written up for not calling over a bad dream while I get cussed at (f-bomb) because I called the doc over a resident with a distended, taut abdomen and absolutely no bowel sounds because that call produced too much paperwork for my DON... yeah...

Pepto bismol or tums; Vicks vaporub or an essential oil of your particular chosen scent (sweet orange or lemon verbena work well) to dab under your nose when you have one of those patients with a really smelly wound or bad diarrhea. I also like to ke...

I use Keens hiking boots and knee-high compression stockings. I started using the stockings after a bad horse accident left me with some permanent damage to my leg, and without the compression I have bad swelling. The stockings actually help with foo...

The facility that I work in does not have a crash cart, an AED, a working suction machine (at this time--it worked a few decades ago I'm sure), or a requirement for staff to maintain CPR status. Most of our residents are DNR and those that aren't get...

You are assuming that the facility will actually have a functional suction unit readily available. Ours is not; has not been for some time, DON and administrator are aware but it is still on the fritz.