Ramifications of leaving midcontract

[ewrn]

I'm sure this topic has come up before but I wanted to hear opinions from other travelers. So I started a contract on December 28,2015 at a hospital in Grand Forks, ND. I signed up to work on a 55 bed Cardiac unit. I was told during the interview that the highest nurse to patient ratio on nights would be six to one. So I went in optimistic but a soon as I got on the unit I could see issues. They are super short staffed even with other travelers. The management basically tells everyone to suck it up and pickup extra shifts. They lumped all the high acuity patients together and gave them to me each night. I didn't complain just sucked it up. Even the monitor techs would make comments about the patients I was given. The staff are not helpful. If an IV was beeping they would just walk past the room. Also, they hardly have any CNA's. I worked nights when there was no CNA for 50 beds. The real wakeup call was when they gave me 6 patients that included a patient with severe interstitial lung disease who was near death and another high acuity elderly lady who would constantly set off her bed alarm by getting up. She had a rounder who was supposed to be watching her but he just paced the hallway. I spent the first hour of my shift trying to get the lung disease patient treated so I wouldn't have to call a code and then I went to check on the elderly lady. I was standing outside her room asking the rounder a question and we hear this thud. We run into the room and she is one the floor face down. It looked like she rolled out of bed. I could hear her making a snoring sound so I called her name and tried to turn her over. I asked the rounder to help me but he just looked freaked out. I could see her face during red so a ran to get more help to move her. When I came back in she was no longer breathing and her face was blue. No code was called because she was a DNR. The rounder could have called a rapid while I tried to help get her up but he was like frozen. The lady died. A few nights later a get a 7 patient assignment consisting of two completely disoriented patients. One was very combative even with meds and mitts on. The other had a nasogastric feeding tube he tried to pull out. One lady who needed 3 bags of K, albumin, and 2 units of RBC's free flowed in because they don't use blood pump tubing. A cancer patient with radiation burns and multiple IV antibiotics for sepsis, another who was a renal patient who had severe gangrene of both hands with some bone showing through from a bad AV fistula that was recently reversed, a lady with bilateral chest tubes, and a pneumonia patient on multiple IV antibiotics. No one helped me at all. It was that night that I decided I better leave. I know my patient care and charting was suffering and I still had 10 more weeks of this to go. I feel like I could not safely do my job with loads like this. I have never had a med error or other safety issue come up but I think this place is putting me at risk. I told me recruiter and she said talk to management. I told her that will get me knowhere because they don't care as long as they have someone to fill a spot. So I plan on just leaving. My company has been getting worse anyway. I been calling in the past 2 nights but I plan on telling the manager that I'm leaving on Monday. I have been traveling almost 2 years and this is the first time I thought of quitting. That place has issues though. I was told many other travelers walked off the job and they have lost 87% of their staff over the last year. I know it is unprofessional to leave like this but I am not giving the patients the care they deserve either.

[NedRN]

The contract determines penalties and the rest is simply negotiation between your agency and you. If you have completed assignments with that agency and have proven value and are willing to continue with them, it is likely you will get off easy. Don't try playing a license in jeopardy card (just too lame), just say you cannot continue working at a place where you cannot prevent unnecessary death and morbidity.

[thenursemandy]

EWRN,

How did things turn out for you? Did you quit?

That place sounds horrendous. I hope you name names on the hospitals to avoid forum.

[Bluebolt]

Wow, that did sound like an unsafe environment. I would have made a formal complaint to agency and management. Then I would have given it one week to change then I would leave if it didn't. Then you at least have a paper trail showing you tried to work with them and provide safe care. Your agency will probably not fine you if you are willing to stay as a traveler with them.