The drama at work continues (and probably will until that place absolutely explodes). I've been unusually quiet about the problems we are having, and basically have been concentrating on my nursing care. So long as patient safety is not compromised, I've been letting others do the complaining.
- We have been utilizing a new scheduling program, and there have been a lot of no-shows on day shift. Now that taping report is a thing of the past, there are many times that nurses must stay late (even though there are as many as FIVE nurse leaders present who could take up the slack and let the night nurse go home until someone shows up). The level of hostility between the shifts is palpable during the shift change process (which is the opposite of the intended effect of face-to-face reports).
- Patient Care Techs are going for as long as 60-90 minutes with no idea of what their patients' specific needs are (such as diets, levels of activity, and fingerstick glucose measurement). This is because they change shift an hour before the nurses do, and their shift change is unstructured at this time.
- Usually, when a nurse returns for another day with the same patient assignment as the day before, the off-going nurse can give just an update of new information. Now, with two-person teams, if the other nurse is "new" for the day (not returning from the day prior), a complete report must be given (even though the primary nurse knows all of the information already).
With all of these problems, whenever I work extra, I've been requesting to work on any floor other than my home unit, which is very unusual. My requests are usually denied due to the fact that the number of core staff on my unit is dwindling, the balance being composed of traveler, agency or float nurses.
Now I hear that a good part of the senior staff have put in for transfers. No idea what they'll do when that news hits the fan.
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