Ginger's Mom

Plenty of overtime, rumor has it they cap you 78 hours in one week. My last position was in case management for the oncology units. The patient ratio was from 2-3 on oncology. Med Surg floors up to 4 patients. The nurses neogiated for very cheap HMO plan thru Havard Pilgrim which covers everything. I choose the standard plan since my PCP was not listed and was happy with the standard insurance. Transferring after the program wil be easy. As far as management they are pretty reasonable, but being in the union if you have any disagreements the union will assist

I retired last year after working at BWH for 19 + years. The Nurses just signed an MNA contract which has very good rates. The pros are that you get a raise of 5% each year. You are working in one to the best hospitals in the USA. The hospital is a nursing magnet hospital. The new graduate program is well designed. The benefits the hospital gives are great. The cons, difficult place to get to work unless you take public transportation. While the union provides many protections, it is seniority based, plan on not getting your first choices for a vacation week for many years.

Was this schedule discussed with you prior to you signing the contract? who do you feel should be working weekends? I am guessing you did not rotate during orientation so you are talking about leaving even giving the job a chance. If you were a manager would you hire you over another candidate who did not want to break a contract?

IIt sounds like a flawed system, a couple of monitors in the hall way and the nurses can monitor there own patients. sounds like you are trying to lobby for another tech while in my opinion your assignment sounds very reasonable .

Are you the nurse or the secretary? If you are the secretary, the nurse is ultimately responsible not you. I am guessing the telemetry units have alarms which the nurses can also monitor and the you can recall any missed events. In fact in all hospitals I have worked in there are no monitor techs . I guess I am telling you not to worry.

I have been an instructor in a lpn to rn program. I have had many success stories. Most of my students worked full time and were mothers . You can do it. It helps if your work can accommodate your schooling. I also found the students were a tremendous support to each other. Just take one course at a time and ask your mother and sister to help you. it can be done.

And apply for more than one position at the same hospital, good luck.

I agree with the above poster widen your search not every application will get a response... keep applying and apply to more then one position

I have a hard time believing that your instructor is so unsafe her nursing license should be pulled. do that staff nurses feel she is unfit? The staff are her clinical equals not the students. You may think your issue is important to tell the staff but your instructor may have been told to limit student staff interaction. If the other students feel the same I would report her to the school. But I am guessing you will be the only one speaking up.

you admitted the error and you saw the patient got treatment, yes you are human and made an error but you owned up to it and it will never happen again

A patient this ill needed a physician to see the patient, second the pharmacy should have questioned the order, it was a chain of errors you were just the last link.

I believe your story, did you hire a lawyer to help you when it went to the board. Years ago I would have handled the narcotic the same way but times have changed especially with Pyxis systems. I wish you well and hope you find a job.

I would start your premed courses now, I would not take the courses at the community college though since it is frowned upon for MED school admissions. if you are interested in becoming a physician I would go to student doctor.net for more information. I am guessing you have a high gpa and do well on standardized tests. Be prepared not to have much of the life for 4 years MED school and at least 3 years residency.

Rather then wonder about a substance that may or may not be benifical, I would spend my time on finding a n evidence based treatment for your disease .

Q Centrix, have you looked at their job requirements. they ask you come in fully certified and ask you to pass their test. There are trauma registries, Get with the guidelines, NSQIP. and Bariatric registries. all require you get trained and certified by the sponsoring hospital. There are hospital coders by they also have to pass a test. You have to know ICD 10 codes and CPTs codes.

If this med was a countable med, I can see why you were fired. What was the medication that needed to be counted?

What country is this? Every hospital in the US sets up their units differently. Some hospitals would call your unit a step down unit,a place in between icu and medical surgical.

How about they straight cath prior to her leaving? Or a foley for the day ?Good Luck

In most hospitals a "code" is for someone who does not have a heart beat or unable to breathe. In the hospitals I have worked at a rapid response team would be the right call. It does not seem like your patient was in immediate danger. I am concerned that you do not see the need for a standing order for narcan need for every patient. This would be a good time to review your hospitals protocols.

The bill was not passed it died in Sub Committee, sorry. In the news there is much discussion about immigration, I doubt anything will get passed easliy this year.

While you have the time read and learning the policy manual especially about narcotics. What is your difficulty with pyxis and narcotics? You just have to take time. If you have to waste narcotics find a witness before. Bar coding saves lives, if you give regular meds no problem why is this extra step throwing you off. Also your med surge floor sounds easy and. not all floors are this slow.

From the Medicare Home Care Manual - you are violating number 5- the agency is responsible for the scheduling, not you. Bringing this up about "your visits" just sheds light on the fact you had a good thing going and now you could be loosing it all. §484.14(f) Standard: Personnel Under Hourly or Per Visit Contracts ______________________________________________________________________ G142 If personnel under hourly or per visit contracts are used by the HHA, there is a written contract between those personnel and the agency that specifies the following: (1) Patients are accepted for care only by the primary HHA. (2) The services to be furnished. (3)The necessity to conform to all applicable agency policies, including personnel qualifications. (4) The responsibility for participating in developing plans of care. (5) The manner in which services will be controlled, coordinated, and evaluated by the primary HHA.

Your agency is doing it right it is the regulation. The agency if Medicare Certified is responsible for staffing not an individual. I understand how you can become familiar with an assignment but it does promote a sense of entitlement. For example the "friend" took the less desirable weekends and nights, and now when the original nurse wants more time rather than asking the agency for more visits she is asking the helper to give up her assignment.

Unless you own the agency you do not own the patients. The other nurse has the same rights you do. Good agencies would encourage different nurses to rotate in, why you may ask? Patients benefit from different nurses assessing a patient who need twice a day nursing deserve different providers assessing the patient.

Have you found another job? Insurance companies here in the northeast do not pay that well.