understaffed and dangers to license?

[lpn2b2006]

i went to work last saturday and recieved report. after report i was told there was no cma or wound care nurse. i called staffing and don. they told me they were working on it. a cma showed up to work 8 of my 16 hours. i did my duties and wound care. when cma left after 2pm i did my best to then add med pass. i missed some vitamins but nothing life threatening. i then got a phone call before my next shift that i wasnt on schedule. i called staffing to confirm and was told i would recieve call from don. it has been 4 days and no call. 2 days ago i ran into a cna that no longer works there and was told i was suspended for not passing meds. someone who no longer works there heard rumors from coworkers and was the only person so fa to tell me whats up at work! what are my rights? is my license in danger? im in oklahoma.

[lpn2b2006]

i found out from board of labor we are an at will state. they can do what they want to me.

[vivacious1healer]

Check with HR to see why you were suspended. I cannot believe they can just suspend you, and not give you a reason. Call and see if you are still employed.

Update your resume, and get it out there! Best of luck!

[cmcoulis]

I work as a Nurse Tech on a med-surg floor in Texas, and although I will not be an RN until December, I can tell you now that the nurses I work with feel understaffed 100% of the time. A couple months back a float nurse called Safe Harbor, and the unit, including the nurse manager, were under investigation. I have no idea how the investigation turned out, nor what happened with the float nurse, but I do know for about two weeks after that incident, we miraculously became adequately staffed. The adequate staffing was short lived-and we are now back to back breaking , running around with our heads cut off work. A nurse I am particularly close with went to the clinic during her shift one time because she felt extremely exhausted-the NP told her that her BP reading was so high she was almost certain if she did not go home for the rest of the day that she would suffer a stroke by the days end...when the nurse brought the signed slip back to our floor, it was pretty much ignored since allowing a nurse to go home mid shift would leave us even more understaffed.

[noyesno, MSN, APRN, NP]

This is the main reason I quit floor nursing! I was put in this situation many many times.....and to top it off, most of the patients blamed me when I couldn't answer the call light the second they pressed it.....stress, stress, stress! It was hard, bc in nursing school they told me that I worked very hard to obtain my nursing license and I needed to protect it by not placing myself in a situation where I could lose it! But when my employer put me in this type of situation I didn't fell like I could say no and leave my coworkers even more short staffed. So I put my license on the line many times and made to fell like I wasn't doing good job when my patients wouldn't be very patient (even though I would only pee one time for 12 hrs and miss lunch with no scheduled breaks)......I did my year and then got out....very sad. Often times hospitals want you to give better care so they can get higher satisfactory scores....in my opinion.....stop building million dollar addition so often and use a liitle of that money to HIRE MORE STAFF!!!!

I want to give you 500 kudos. Great post.