Vacation coverage

[Inquisitive one]

To all you MDS nurses, who covers for you when you're on vacation? I've been delegated to be the stand in when our MDS nurse/coordinator is away which is later this month. I've been sporadically working with her to learn the ropes but there's so much to learn and my head is spinning! I get nauseous looking at the hard copy then the screen when inputting the information into the computer. I will also be running the careplanning show. I will not be submitting anything, she'll do that when she returns. I intend to use any resources available to me during that week but I'm so worried that I'll forget someone or something. I'd appreciate any pointers, hints, suggestions? Thanks.

[sls0703]

My Director of Nursing covers me when I am on vacation. Have the RAI manual(Bible) readily available to you when you complete the MDS. That way you can refer to it when you have a question. It amazes me how many people have no idea what the RAI manual is and they complete sections of the MDS. I know in these days it is hard, but try to just think through the items and take your time. I just had UMR in for our documentation review and some of our errors were stupid mistakes, not lack of understanding.

[chaotick]

I'm lucky enough to have an 'assistant' coordinator - though management doesn't feel that there is enough MDS work to justify her doing that alone - so she has other job functions outside of completing MDS. She picks and chooses what she actually does when I'm gone (so far in our 1-1/2 years of working together - I've had 1 one-week vacation and an odd-day-off here and there - I've always come in when I'm sick, since I don't have to have patient contact.)

What she actually accomplishes while I'm gone is minimal - just keeping things going - such as the meetings and such (from my stand-point it seems 'minimal' - I'm sure she really is working her tail off - I should be more grateful). I set up all the scheduling ahead of time - and she has a rudimentary idea of how to access the 'essential' files on the computer we share that need to be distributed (I've tried teaching her how to submit assessments to the state - but reality is that CMS allows up to 30 days to transmit - so that can wait for all but the most extended of leaves to be done).

Ironically enough - I got this job when the old coordinator took 6 to 8 weeks off for a surgery and just sort of never told anyone (except her assistant) that she was seriously considering retiring after that was all said and done. The admins thought the DON/ADON could cope for the 6 to 8 weeks - the assistant ended up resigning from the stress of trying to hand-hold them through the process - neither had the time to take on the extra duties NOR the aptitude for the nit-picky-ness needed to do MDS - so it took me months to clean up the mess they all left behind - all the while, trying to learn the job. The former coordinator eventually came in a couple of days a week to 'orient' me to the job - but by then I had been doing it long enough that all I needed was an occasional impossible question answered (those ones that fall between the cracks of the RAI manual - I agree with SLS703- it is THE most single important resource you have - it IS the letter of the law as to what is the right or wrong answer to filling in the MDS) - and she spent most of that time 'auditing' the stuff done while she was gone to make it more compliant with what it needed to be. I was left without her assistant (who had gone back to the halls) and then they hired (without my input) a new assistant - who (much to my extreme horror) had never even worked in a nursing home before, let alone had any clue what an MDS was.

Oh well. I also recommend developing a network of more experienced MDS people to call on for those impossible questions mentioned above... I would assume most states have people within their hierarchy that will also field calls of the 'help, I don't know what to do!!!' nature (ours are kinda grouchy and make you feel like you-know-what for calling and bothering them - but they will be helpful if you are patient and don't lose your cool). Heck - email me brookshire[underline]mdsnurse[at]earthlink[dot]net

and maybe I can be helpful. (trying to avoid spam robots - just use the characters to replace the stuff in the brackets [] above). If I don't know the answer, I might have someone in my network that does. It's a very helpful community - I've never had anyone I've called - even total stranger MDS coordinators that I got a name from some intermediary - that was even remotely put-off by some weirdo (me) calling them out of the blue.

Go get 'em kid!