unsafe staffing

[TerpGal02]

It seems like we're having a lot of mandations lately, and.its not due to things coming up. It's due to lack of staff. Our scheduler will put the schedule out with holes in it, never bother to try to cover the shift and then its just dealt with by mandation. If you end up getting mandated, that's a 16 hour shift which in AMD.of itself can't be safe. Also if you are mandated from evening to night and are scheduled the next evening, you are expected to come in at 3 for your evening shift. So essentially you leave at 0730, get home at 0800 or 0830,try to sleep which is very hard to do when you're keyed up, get maybe 2-3 hrs of sleep I'd you're lucky and drive in again to work another 8 hour shift. I don't know how this is safe. In fact, I think its downright negligent. This happened to me a few weeks ago and on my evening shift I was on another planet with.deleriousness. I consumed so much caffeine and hence became so dehydrated that the next day, my urine was iced tea colored. My the end of the shift I almost felt drunk and was singing show tunes in the nurses station. I had to turn up the AC full blast and point it in my face to avoid falling asleep at the wheel driving.home.

Is there anything.that we nurses can do about this? In the end of you make a mistake when you are dead to the world because of a mandation, of course the hospital isn't going.to have your back.

[hope3456, ASN, RN]

Your staff scheduler can not pull nurses out of thin air. I also have worked in places where there were open spots on the schedule many staff signed up for some of these shifts. It makes it easier if you sign up for them when it is more convenient for you than to have to be mandated. However, if nobody picks up the shift someone has to cover it. In a perfect world we could say hire agency, registry, more full time nurses or prn nurses, etc. Unfortunately, this is the real world and most places don't have nurses standing in a line out front waiting to be hired. I have worked places that have aggressively recruited with minimal luck, there just weren't enough people in those communities to fill all of the openings at every hospital, hospice, LTC facility, physician's office, and the list goes on. I am sure that if you have suggestions on getting more staff that your facility would be open to hearing those suggestions.[/quote']

5 years ago I would agree with you that there weren't enough nurses out there but anymore I think it is a problem of facilities simply choosing not to staff appropriately. They create "staffing matrices" that are unrealistic and often will not staff for acuity and it creates a vicious cycle. Nurses quit because of the immense workloads and don't want to lose their license.

[hope3456, ASN, RN]

How can I tell before I agree to work for a place that it executes safe nursing care? Ratings, complaints anywhere, etc?

Watch out for places that are "always hiring." There is usually a reason. Sometimes you won't know until after you start the job because if you ask to much about staffing the manager will lose interest in you and you won't get the job anyway. Always be thinking about "plan B.". Where am I going if this job doesn't work out?