PhantomRN

i am not mngt but i dont think it is fair or even a good idea to have them come in and work to fill holes in the schedule. at my last place our manager would do that rarely, but it had been such a long time since she had worked the floor that she had a very hard time. then to add insult to injury the charge nurse gave her the heaviest assignment possible. totally unfair. there was no way she could handle it so the rest of us, who were already swamped had to make up the slack.....so who did our charge nurse slam?????? us her fellow nurses with an extra patient to look after!!!! and the manager. now if i were that manager i would not have had a warm and fuzzy feeling toward my fellow nurses if they did that to me. but believe it or not despite that treatment she still went to bat for us and tried to get us more staffing. i dont know if i would have been that forgiving.

well, the solution is simple....tell all the patients they must pack their little bags and go home at 5:00 on friday and they can't come back until monday at 8:00 am. does that work for everyone? why do we insist on fighting about this? we are all nurses and because we are all nurses we should be above this stupid petty stuff. i am going to get flack for this, but i believe there should be some type of policy in place for those who happen to only get sick on the weekends. those folks are being selfish and are not team players. they are the ones who think they are the only ones with kids and a life outside the hospital. for those folks who truly get sick on saturday: most of them are mature enough to understand that the rn who came in and worked for them gave up their saturday, which was time they could have had with their own kids and they should be allowed to get the next sat off, just as a matter of decency. remember that old addage if you scratch my back i will scratch yours. i think that is what we are forgeting. we are all under the inpression that if we call in mngt should cover the time we call out...guess what they do, but who do they cover it with......your fellow nurse.

You just have to decide if its worth the aggravation. Many people have said to stick it out etc. I am of the vein.....If you try it and dont like it move on. It will be their loss. Just try to get in 6 months experience first.

TID is as the others have described three times a day. What we would do is 6-7 am, 1 pm and 7-8 pm

Oh I left off staffing. Unit normal 1:2 ratio. Renal floor days 6:1, nights 8-10:1 Tele 4:1 days, 8:1 nights

Where I used to work it went like this. We did ativan, heparin Insulin if necessary. Insulin drips went to tele or renal floor....Q2-3 hr sugars. If it was Q1 hr it was supposed to go to the unit......but hey you know how that goes. Ativan drips to oncology, DNR pts...alot. Heparin, dopa, cardizem, milronone to tele. The only thing that absolutely had to go the unit was Levo, nipride etc.

No, I would not rather them put the money away and give us raises........because It has been pointed out just how much they typically spend per person on nurses day. What did she say? $6.00 per person......divide that sum by the amount of hours you work per yr (I used 36 hours a week) and you come up with $0.003 per hour. So that is ALMOST ONE CENT for every THREE HOURS of work. I will take the freebies. Just an aside about the vendor fair......It is just that a VENDOR FAIR. They are happy to come and give freebies, because they hope it will generate them business down the road. Now look at the plan for the week: On Monday, we had makeovers and manicures...free Avon and other samples. Tuesday is vendor day for shopping. Wednesday....employees making the presentations. Thursday is the ice cream party. Friday is 'Professional Day', with continuous 45 minute to one hour CEU presentations, free financial advisors, and Employee Assistance advisors to remind is about our 'back to school' program. The only day they spent hard money was Thursday. The rest of the money spent in the above day is spent in employee time. But you bet your butt I would enjoy it.

It may have something to do with the fact you work with kids...they usually dont SUNDOWN. I thought when I worked nights In the unit that I had to get to days because I was missing something...well I found out I wasn't. After I got to days and developed my routine, I found I was just as bored on days as I was on nights.

let's put a positive spin on this mess. what would i appreciate from admin during nurse's week? it is simple i would like a personal note from my manager. yep, that is right. i would like my manager to remember me as an individual and write a note telling me i am valued as a member of the team..........and in that note i would like the manager (or whoever) to remember a good thing i did during the year and site it. (such as good pick up on joey in 203, or we really appreciate you helping organize the nurse walk etc.) how about that klarern? save the money you were going to use to buy trinkets and use it to pay yourself for the time it would take to get the letters done.

Good Luck Zee in your transition back to the bedside.

I want to thank everyone who has responded thus far. It is great to know that there is so much support on this board. I look forward to joining the ranks of the non-bedside nurses.

Well, I did get the job outside of bedside nursing. I am very much looking forward to new challenges. The only thing that still bothers me about the change is I feel I will loose all the hands on stuff I have learned.....so I am hoping this is the right direction for me, I dont want to wipe myself out of the job market.

To leave bedside nursing is not an easy decision to make. Yes, I am getting or am completly burnt, but I spent 5 years in school to get the degree that allows me to work at the bedside. It really dont seem a waste- to not use the degree at the bedside- but It does feel different[?]. Maybe because we have it drilled into our heads from nursing school that floor nursing is the light at the end of nursing schools dark tunnel. Without question, there is a lot of pressure to stay a floor nurse from nursing itself.

That would happen once to me........then I would write report to her and leave. That behavior is jut rude.

I have a friend who recently hurt herself and she also has a ten pound wt restriction. It is terrible our livelihood depends on being able to be wonder woman.

I am in the same type of situation. I like the people I work with and I like my manager, but I think I am burnt. I just trnsfereed into this position less than a yr ago because I was DEFINALTELY burnt on my old floor. So what to do? These people are good to me, but I still dread going to work everyday.

You are so funny Denny. I just love reading your posts. The reason I had asked if people who left the bedside missed it, is because I do not think I will. Bedside care is not for everyone and it certainly is not for me.

Thanks for your reply. I have applied for a job away from clinical nursing and wanted to make contact with other nurses who have left the bedside. I expect to receive an offer and I am very excited.

Just curious. For those who have left bedside nursing: Where did you go? What do you do now? Do you enjoy it? Do you miss bedside care?

I think it really depends on the mentality of the staff and how the manager backs the floor. I have worked on floors where the manager could care less who backed who and it showed..........however, by the same token I have found that a good manager insists on team work and she strives to hire people who fit into mold.

Oh I would never call RT to just come and suction someone, whether it was an inline or trach.....I think all nurses are more than capable to suction.

I am another one of those people who has never had the experience of living alone. I met my husband when I was young and we married. If something ever happened in our marriage I would not even know how to date. Also, like the others sometimes I do miss the idea of being on my own, just to see what it is like. It sounds like you are dating you just not have found the right oe yet. Keep looking he will show up when you least expect it.

We run Propofol as well in our unit.

we do prn suctioning as well, however we pass off to the next nurse how often it is needed ie q 1, 2 or 4 hours.

i transfered from tele to icu and i recieved 12 weeks orientation. our tele carried many very sick people so the transition was actually pretty straight forward. they actually thought my orientation should end after 6 weeks, i kept adding things i wanted to it.