January 8th, 2011 by CodeBlog in Better Health Network, Interviews, True Stories
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“NurseExec” is the director of nursing (DON) at a 120-bed skilled nursing facility (SNF) that has a 50/50 mix of patients needing short-term rehab and long-term care.
After working in the OR as a circulator nurse, she started out as a charge nurse in her current building, which entailed pushing a med cart and taking care of 20 patients. After nine months, she was promoted to Risk Manager and three years later became the DON.
She starts her day at 7am by rounding on nursing units, consulting with unit managers on clinical issues, and dealing with grievances and employee issues. She checks in with the charge nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNAs), checks shower rooms and utility rooms. Then it’s off to Morning Standup with department heads, followed by clinical rounds with the interdisciplinary team to discuss new admissions, new orders, and a report for the last 24 hours. Most days this is all followed with other meetings, lasting until 11am or so.
The afternoon is filled with reports, employee issues, clinical and education issues, pharmacy issues, and another rounding of patients. She typically ends her day at 4pm.
What do you like about your job?
Every day is a different set of challenges. I have great benefits and a wonderful team to work with.
What frustrates you about your job?
People who know the right thing to do, yet don’t do it. Makes me crazy! Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
December 23rd, 2010 by CodeBlog in Better Health Network, Interviews
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Ever wonder how all those hospital systems are created and maintained? (Computer charting, systems to report data to national and state organizations, to name a couple.) Sure, they could hire some IT guy to run them, but everything seems to flow better with a nurse’s touch. After all, we’re the ones using them all the time, right? Jen C, RN, BSN almost MSN gives us a look into the world of nursing informatics.
Jen has been doing this job for two years. She says she “stumbled into it” when she was interviewing for a new job and mentioned that she was starting her master’s in informatics. Although she was hired to be a staff nurse, within four months she was working in informatics.
What do you do all day?
Each day is different. I do a lot of troubleshooting. I go to a lot of meetings. I do system development and upkeep. I listen to the nurses and what their issues are with the various systems. I do education. And I still fill in at the bedside (I’m still a NICU nurse at heart.)
What frustrates you about your job?
Little definition and recognition as to what my job is. I often seem to be a catch-all. I also don’t have a mentor. I’m the only one in my hospital that has formal education in this area and only one or two in the whole hospital. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
December 5th, 2010 by CodeBlog in Better Health Network, Interviews, True Stories
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For my first interview, I thought I’d interview someone who would tolerate my novice interviewing abilities — my mother. Ginny, RN, BS, DDRN has been a nurse for over 30 years, most of that time in the Intensive Care Unit. (The apple did not fall far, did it?) She currently works as Developmental Disabilities Nurse and has done so for nine years.
A developmental disability is defined by Wikipedia as “a term used in the United States and Canada to describe life-long disability attributable to mental and/or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18.” Ginny says that her clients have a range of mental and physical disabilities including cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, mental retardation, and autism, with autism being the most prevalent. Her clients live in normal houses along with nurse’s aides and “direct support professionals” (DSPs).
How did you get started as a Developmental Disability Nurse?
A friend encouraged me to come work with her after I lost my job when they closed the children’s home where I had been working.
Do you like it?
I have had other nursing jobs including med-surg, peds, ICU, factory nurse, WIC nurse, children’s home nurse, and finally this job. I have liked all of my jobs but this has been the most rewarding. The people I care for just love it when the nurse comes around. There is always a “thank you” in their eyes.
What frustrates you about your job?
It is, of course, a job which requires state controls. Their idea of “nursing” is an awful lot of useless paperwork that makes no sense to me. The pay is not commensurate with other nursing jobs considering the reponsibilites of delegating nursing tasks to laypersons. There are so many things these people need and it’s hard to get. There are so many state mandates that are designed to move people toward being as independent as possible but the mandates also make us take many steps backward in that process. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
September 29th, 2010 by CodeBlog in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Humor, News, Opinion, True Stories
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So who hasn’t heard about The Policeman vs. Nurse? A nurse was pulled over for speeding, told the policeman that she hoped he would never end up as her patient, and was subsequently fired when the policeman complained to the hospital she worked at.
Really? I have the utmost respect for the police of course, but put on some big boy undies and get over it. Should the nurse have made that comment? No. Not in front of him, at least. That was pretty dumb. But being fired for saying it is ridiculous in my opinion. Does that cop go complain to the pimp when the hooker he’s arresting makes a sassy comment? Nurse and Lawyer had a pretty good discussion about the whole situation.
Next up: Rapid Response Teams Sign of Poor Bed Management. Really? I think GruntDoc summed it up best in his tweet about it. The article states that rapid response teams (RRTs) are utilized due to overcrowding because sometimes patients aren’t placed in a unit that is appropriate for their needs. Therefore, their condition worsens and they need help. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
March 26th, 2010 by CodeBlog in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
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I received this email from a dear friend of mine recently:
So, for the last 2 1/2 weeks my husband and I have been seranaded with alarm tones every day. We thought it was the new alarm system we had installed (it does a lot of automatic things we have since disabled), then we thought it was the smoke detectors…a new ringtone on our iPhone?… the battery charger on his new bike…his computer when his e-mail was hijacked?…the battery on my bike mileage computer?…my new alarm clock?…the refrigerator ice maker?…the clothes dryer? …everyday we checked everything, and everyday we thought we had found and fixed the culprit, until the next morning when we would hear it again!
It was not until yesterday morning when we figured it out… can you guess?
It was coming from my husband’s chest! The battery on his pacemaker/AICD was alarming to let us know that he was just about out of juice! Four years ago they told us we would hear that when the battery got low, but that was a very long time ago…and it just didn’t sound like it was coming from him! We sent a modem transmission, and the doctor called back to say, “come on in!”
After talking with my friend later, I found out that her husband had his pacemaker replaced and all is well. It took about 2 weeks to figure out where the alarm was coming from, since it only sounded once a day and only for about 20 seconds at that. My friend expressed disbelief that it was so hard to determine that it was coming from her husband but surmised that going through body tissues helped the sound disperse enough to make it a mystery!
This left me wondering if any of Dr. Wes’ patients have had similar trouble with figuring out that their chests were alarming!
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
