I have been travel/agency nursing for the last 5 years of my 28 years in nursing.I am currently in a contract at a facility that I feel compromises the quality of care I can deliver, and the safety of my patients.Not to mention MY license,, of course.
It is a fast paced observation unit, only 11 beds, but it is not uncommon to discharge 3 and receive 3 patients in the same 12 hour shift . I share the RN responsibilities with one other nurse. Recently I received 2 direct admissions, and an ER admission within a 5 hour time frame.
My main concern is the lack of physician availability to report changes in patient conditions that require additional orders. They simply do not respond to pages, calls, etc. For example,I received a direct admit in a third degree heart block,, called 3 times for physician support, no answer, Come to find out,, it was a totally inappropiate admission to this unit.
Another patient was experiencing chest pain, unrelieved with the nitro and morphine orders I had. I obtained an Ekg, and was told there was not a doctor to interpret this EKG, and it was up to me to do so. When I approached the manager of the unit the next day, I was told I would need to fax the EKG to the cardiologist on call and ASK if I should do anything else!!!
Please give me your input, have 2 days to decide whether to continue.
