Restorative nursing

[bklynborn]

Any restorative nurse here? Just wondering waht is included in your job description. I jusdy startd a new job and I get to review all the incident reports. I have held this position in another state and incident review was not part of the job description. It is quite time consuming even though done on the computer and I am learning lots about how other nurses chart (or don't) regarding incidents.

Would love to hear from anyone on this.

Thanks

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

This new job probably requires that you review incident reports, because incident reports can be valuable in determining if the patient has declined in function. Patients who are functionally declining are sometimes worth plenty of dollar signs to therapy departments if they qualify for PT/OT/ST.

[bygrace]

[daveplpn]

Any restorative nurse here? Just wondering waht is included in your job description. I jusdy startd a new job and I get to review all the incident reports. I have held this position in another state and incident review was not part of the job description. It is quite time consuming even though done on the computer and I am learning lots about how other nurses chart (or don't) regarding incidents.

Would love to hear from anyone on this.

Thanks

Hi Restorative Nurse here. I was hired as a second shift neighborhood nurse, just so happens that at the time the restorative position came open and I was slid into it. I had done my research into restorative programs and unfortunately, was not told about Incident Investigation, alarms and such. I understand how they fall under Restorative from a safety device perspective, however it is a very time consuming job and all of the acutual restorative assessments and 14 day and quartely and monthly and annual charting, assessing and reporting falls to the wayside as a result, not to mention, you really don't have time to manage the restorative aides, so much cannot possibly be done in a timely or accurate manner. My facility has 100 beds with a rehab neighborhood which mostly stays full with LTC Residents to keep it full. We have 71 residents on some type of alarm, and average 8 or more incidents a week with 70% of those occurring on residents with alarms. Trying to pull it all together when the majority of the day is spent following up and completing, charting, documenting, filing and completing incident reports, it is very difficult. I would be interested in either the actual restorative or the safety, but find if impossible to do both in the manner at which I would like it done. leaves very little time to adequately get to know the residents and assess their needs pertaining to focusing on keeping them at the highest level of self care as possible. I have found that many facilities are doing this now, combining safety and restorative as a way to decrease the budget, but get the highest reimbursement possible. I'm a little stressed to say the least, but am slowly getting a handle on it and focusing on the most critical issues first. I just don't feel that I am providing an adequate service for the residents, (which is why I accepted the position when offered.) I won't be doing this position for very long, I'm sure, which is unfortunate, as I was really excited about the Restorative Part. I also was given 4 days training and than let go, so you can imagine with all that is entailed and incident reporting is not done on computer, just implementing a safety device as a result is. The other problem is just anybody, CNA, Nurse, etc puts an alarm on a resident and than I have to go behind them everyday, check alarms only to find residents on alarms that are not ordered, If I can get administration behind me in not allowing that to happen, I might feel my nose rise above water.