RN @ Adult Day Service - Anyone else doing this?

AshleyRN706 · Sep 27, 2014

Hello,

Seems like some time has passed since this post. How are you holding up? Do you still need some advice, pointers?

boneal · Sep 29, 2014

I am still at this job. :) Despite how it may appear above, I do love my job. I love our participants and we have an amazing staff!! I can see me staying here many years - as it is a fun job with great hours and TONS of autonomy. Just a little difficult when I actually have a technical / nursing question. Absolutely no one to go to. We have no charge nurse or MD director. We did just get through JOINT 2 weeks ago, and did very well with that.

I would love to touch base with someone else who does this, as I have not talked to another RN in the same position. I am in the process of rewriting some assessments and reworking my assessment procedure for new participants to better address the care plans.

Do you this type of job as well? Any advice, pointers, hints?

THANKS!!

AshleyRN706 · Sep 29, 2014

I do work part time at an adult medical day center. I love it as well but could definitely understand the difficulty of being the only medical professional there. I do not know one nurse, seasoned or new, that doesn't ask questions and utilize the other nurses/physicians for advice or information. Especially with this being your first job out of school you need that support. My advice would be to get in touch with a trusted nurse friend that is available for all of your questions and to bounce ideas off of. I would definitely be available as a resource if you ever have any questions. I would definitely push to have the facility hire another RN or some sort of medical professional just to have that extra resource. Keep up on your continuing education. Subscribe to nursing journals. Evidence based practice is constantly changing and its your responsibility to know what the standards are. Since you do not have another person to work with, keeping up with your education is the best thing to do. I would maybe try to set up some sort of nursing education at each meeting to relay to the other staff, even though this may not directly affect their role. This will help you stay up to date on issues/practices, and help you to learn and retain the information by educating the staff. It will also give you an extra set of eyes/ears. If the staff is educated on different problems, they are more likely to bring it to your attention if something doesn't seem right to them and you can further assess. I actually had a patient who was having respiratory distress and no one came to tell me. They thought he was "pretending for attention". He was cyanotic and had a pulse ox of 70% when he got to me. I decided that educating the staff on what to look for and when to alert the RN was very much needed. Read your policy manuals inside and out so you know exactly what your role is, what to do in emergency situations, what you are legally allowed to do, and what is outside of your scope. If a mistake is made, usually the medical professional is the one blamed. Protect your license. You are obviously doing a great job if joint commission came and you passed their inspection. In this position, I think organization and time management are the most important thing! I do not know exactly how your facility runs but mine is very busy and mandated documentation can get backed up really quickly. Don't be afraid to delegate to any support staff that you have so you can get the state mandated things completed. I'm only at my facility part time and we have about 6 other RNs and it is still crazy busy! I cannot imagine all of the work that you are solely responsible for! Do you have any specific questions that you can think of off the top of your head? Hope this helped a little…. If you want my email let me know and I'll be available anytime to help out. I have a few nurses that I have met throughout my career that I keep in touch with just to get their advice and opinions on so many different issues. It's a nice cushion to have when in doubt!