Two med carts, three halls, to many patients

[Kashia]

I think patient count on my team 36.

But the main question I have is ....has anyone here worked out of two carts before?

Patients scattered in three halls. New system, I was first on this new design. Agency nurse.

mars missing, no report on two pts or mars! did not know until around noon I had them.

I think it was the two carts and finding things ( my second shift at facility, my first time on this team.

Meds not all in one drawer, split in two drawers in each cart. one must have been the overflow meds.

I am simply and honestly trying to see if the experience I had is common or was it just pure and simple

dysfunction I walked into.

14 hrs straight no break and no one seemed to care or offer.

Asked one nurse to help with something and she said she would have to count narc drawer if she got into cart and

did not have time.

Asked the aids to do some BP's for me for meds and they refused.

Just wondering thoughts on this arrangement from those of you doing this all the time..

[Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN]

I work in a combo assisted living nursing home facility. Currently I am doing evenings covering the 2 assisted living floors. 54 residents to give meds to and about 10 treatments. Add in the "not feeling good" complaints, MD phone calls and whatever else comes up my med pass takes 7.5 hours!!! I am getting more anxious with every shift because I am seeing more that makes me nervous.

We have a new DON starting soon and the nurses hope that we can get at least a 11a-7p nurse or even a 3p-7p. I just pray at the start of every shift that nobody has any real issues.

The "not feeling good" complaints are very bothersome ... don't feel alone there. Especially when you have 10,000 things going on at once and only a half hour left in your shift to do it. This is how I think of it. I take 10 seconds to take a drink of water and tell myself.. I am here for the patient.. it is part of my job to take care of them when they aren't feeling good.

[kfarinato]

To top it all off we get written up if we don't punch out for a half hour lunch!

[makes needs known]

But then 1 nurse will come along and do it all, and she is the model that we all have to live up to. How does she do it? I take short cuts and commit dirty little secrets, does she?? Doesn't seem like it. They all think she's perfect. I must study her.

She makes the rest of us look like we are unorganized.

[makes needs known]

Our LTC unit has become a sub acute rehab unit. We have a new owner and they have made some very nice changes, carpeting in the halls, new wallpaper and new furniture in rooms and dining room. It's beautiful. We are being called a premier facility. We are to give excellent care and be welcoming nurse angels and be everything, be everywhere, solve everything, and always calm and smiling. Well 1 nurse passing meds for 40 patients is not right. They need pain meds and breathing treatments and a patient needs to talk, and family members need to talk. I start passing meds and I get so many interruptions while doing it. I am supposed to be able to stop and tend to a variety of needs, I can not complete a med pass like this. If I could start, work and finish my med pass without having to stop and tend to other things, maybe. But what really sucks is that there is another nurse. But our Head Nurse says she is to do only paperwork and not stop. Also I have been ridiculed because I do not do paperwork. I don't have time. Why are they so stupid. Ha ha, they are so funny!!!!