Done with LTC, or maybe just this facility but it is making me sick. Mentally and physically sick. I have so much internal anger... and I am never able to express it at work, so it gets vented out on my poor family.
Our facility is WAY WAY overbudget for staffing. Mostly because they were so understaffed that they kept hiring agency to fill in the gaps (which costs more, of course).
Now their new cost-saving policy is that if somebody calls in sick, you just deal. Other people pick up the slack. Nobody is allowed overtime, and you can forget about picking up those extra non-staffed shifts.
This sounds like a good idea in theory, but not in practice. Today, my fellow nurse had to fill a lower, yet absolutely essential position, so I was the sole nurse for almost 60 patients. And we had 2 admits. In fact, I was so busy that 1 of the admits arrived, and I was not even notified (somebody else must have signed with the EMS). At the end of my shift, the night nurse said that the patient was in their bed... I was certain they had not arrived yet, since I did not know. Turns out, I walked down the hall, and there they were! Now, how is that safe nursing care?
I am so exhausted. I cant even talk about my day with my husband when I come home, because the expletives and cursing are not appropriate in front of my children.
EXCUSE ME!!!! I would have Never accepted count knowing I would be responsible for 60 patients during the 7-3 or 3-11 shifts! It would be physically impossible to complete the med passes within the 2hr alotted time (hard enough to do it with 30 patients), to say nothing of PRN's or treatments, answering call bells, answering phones, etc... and keeping your patients safe. And then throw in 2 admitts???? You seriously had your licence put in danger! I would rather lose my job for refusing to take the floor than to endanger my patients and livelyhood by accepting an impossible assignment. Even in LTC you do have the right (and responsibility) to refuse unsafe assignments. I ran into something simular the other day, I was scheduled for a 4 hour shift, (I work per-deim & was returning for an additional shift later that day) management told me to count off with the remaining Nurse, leaving her in charge of 58 patients, I advised her to refuse the assignment, knowing that I could be stuck there until they found a replacement. They "found" someone once she refused the assignment. I would quit that job if they expected me to do this on a daily (or more) basis.
Yes it is true that there are no legal restrictions to the number of patients you can be assigned in LTC. But this is where you use Nursing Judgement, if it seems to be unsafe then it is! Talk to your BON, they will tell you that anything over 30 patients per Nurse is unsafe. We seriously need to have comprehensive limits set on LTC's as to just what they can force on us.
I don't know about you but .. I don't think I ever got done in the 2hr time with 25 residents. Except on Thanksgiving.. because half of them went out lol.
I don't know about you but .. I don't think I ever got done in the 2hr time with 25 residents. Except on Thanksgiving.. because half of them went out lol.
Nope, I haven't been able to get them done in the 2 hr period either. I managed to do it in 3 hours a few times, but the more serious patients were in the hospital at the time so I had about 10 pts that recieved 3 or 4 pills each. They seriously have to set limits for LTC, I think it's getting downright dangerous for the patients and the Nurses. Faculities will push the limits until we reach the breaking point, then dump us and find another Nurse to take our place.
Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN
1,261 Posts
I don't know about you but .. I don't think I ever got done in the 2hr time with 25 residents. Except on Thanksgiving.. because half of them went out lol.