This is for my nursy friends :)

[porkysmamma]

Sooooo I'm having some issues at work n wondering if any other nurses might have input!!!! Our facility is an 80 bed facility run by the county!!! Well our DON comes from very large facilities n seems to think that one med nurse can handle passing meds to 40 residents, all the treatments n charting on all of them!!!! All in 8 hours :/!!! I know the federal staffing minimums are 1:20 for evening shift however I don't know if we are included in that since we are an 80 bed facility!!!! I can do all that in 8 hours but I'm dying after I don't get a break n I'm literally running from resident to resident with meds (I have 40 ppl to give meds to n 38 of them have 8 pm meds) IMO it's unsafe!!! I know this is kinda the norm for nurses n if it were an emergency n hardly ever happened id just let it go but our director told me today n I quote "if you can't handle it then you shouldn't be a nurse" this is the 5th time in 2 weeks I've taken 2 med carts!!!! Not to mention we take all the extreme behaviors that the other homes refuse because "we get paid more for them" so I have to avoid getting punched bit scratched n try to keep my residents off the floor during all this!!!! Vent over anyone have any input??!!

 

[mer55]

Wow! It's been a long time since I did shift work, but that just does not seem right. I was the night supervisor for a 120 bed facility many years ago and we had 4 med nurses which was about 30 patients each. You are right, that is not a safe patient load. This is not about you " shouldn't be a nurse" but more about " I shouldn't be a nurse in this type of facility"! I don't know if there is an easy answer. If that is their policy, and it is within legal limits, I guess you are kind of stuck, but maybe you can garner some support from the other nurses and go to Administration. They may listen to numbers. Good luck!

 

[porkysmamma]

Wow! It's been a long time since I did shift work, but that just does not seem right. I was the night supervisor for a 120 bed facility many years ago and we had 4 med nurses which was about 30 patients each. You are right, that is not a safe patient load. This is not about you " shouldn't be a nurse" but more about " I shouldn't be a nurse in this type of facility"! I don't know if there is an easy answer. If that is their policy, and it is within legal limits, I guess you are kind of stuck, but maybe you can garner some support from the other nurses and go to Administration. They may listen to numbers. Good luck!

I've done some research n from what I gather it's a time ratio not an actual resident to nurse ratio!!! Each resident is supposed to get 0.4 hrs (24 minutes) of hands on care from the lpn!!!! Doing math 24 times 40 is 960 which is 16 hours!! Now when I have all 40 residents out of the 8 hr shift I'm on the floor for 6 of it (after breaks as well as their supper time when all care/meds stop) so more math 6 times 60 is 360 divided by 40 is 9 so i have 9 minutes to devote to each resident!!! That includes checking mars/tars popping the meds walking to the resident giving the meds (n most of them get meds twice a shift as well) it's a little ridiculous!!!

 

[MamaAndi]

Are there other Nurses that feel the same way? There is a lot of strength in numbers. Maybe if you have monthly meetings or something and all the carestaff brings that up as an issue?

I wish I had a better answer. It's so frustrating when you are expected to pack too much into the given hours. Vent any time girl!

 

[porkysmamma]

Are there other Nurses that feel the same way? There is a lot of strength in numbers. Maybe if you have monthly meetings or something and all the carestaff brings that up as an issue?

I wish I had a better answer. It's so frustrating when you are expected to pack too much into the given hours. Vent any time girl!

The problem is our DON she doesn't care about anything but $$ we have all gone to her with our concerns n her reply was "well I'm auditing the med times this weekend because I'm making all shifts only one nurse per unit" I'm a low man on the totem pole so it looks like I'll be out of a job after Christmas.