[smbrn]

Just venting here. Has anyone else had this experience? I am doing a travel assignment at Yale New Haven Hospital and have been flabbergasted at the nearly abusive way the oncoming shift treats me as well as other nurses. It's not so bad giving report to the AM shift but those who come in at 7PM are absolutely rotten to the core. Today I had a patient going bad and I was in her room pretty much from 3PM to 7PM. Even though these losers all knew that, I was still peppered with questions, did you do this, why wasn't this done, etc, ad nauseam. I have a good mind to tell them all to go to **** and leave except then I won't get my completion bonus. I've been a nurse for 25 years and frankly have never seen anything like it and I've seen my share of witches in all those years. One of these nurses, an "older" nurse, even older than I am, got all ticked off because at 8:15PM, when my shift was over at 7:30PM, I said I was not about to stay to try and resolve something I had spent nearly the entire day trying to get straightened out. The big issue was that a patient who had a continuous infusion of chemo going had an order to go for an MRI. The attending working the floor in the early AM didn't feel comfortable saying the chemo could be interrupted for the test. He told me to tell the intern to pursue it with another attending. This was at 10 in the morning. I must have asked this intern at least 5 times if he had been able to reach this attending and he said he had called at least 8 times and received no response. So, when they called at 8:15 to see if the patient was ready this old witch blew a gasket and wanted me to stay there and hunt down the intern who was covering then and I told her absolutely not. She did not ask me if I would do that, she just sat there and told me I "was going to get the intern on call..." and then she wanted me to fax some sheet over to the MRI people. I said I would do that and then couldn't find the chart anyways and I basically walked off the floor to go home after telling the secretary that I couldn't find the chart. I couldn't believe it. When I explained all I had gone through trying to get this situation resolved, she simply said, "You should have done more". What an idiotic place anyways. Is it really a productive use of people's time to try and get such a simple question answered as that? When I worked at private hospitals it would have been a simple matter of, either the attending knowing enough to write the order to interrupt the chemo when he ordered the MRI, or, if he forgot, a simple phone call would have cleared up the whole matter. Honestly. I am so tired of being hassled there. It's ridiculous. Anyways, just venting. I've had enough of nursing. At 48 years of age I don't think I can take it much more.

[cassioo]

don't those interns have some other chain of command and if they had paged 10 times with no response they should have gone someplace else and when it's time for shift change that oncoming nurse should have been able to go up the ladder to get some response. You're right the witches are everywhere why you got a bunch of them who knows maybe it's all the interns good luck finishing the contract.

[nursinghumor]

You have to ask yourself if the completion bonus is worth the aggravation. Hopefully, this is an isolated day, and the rest that you've spent there were not as frustrating.

If they have been, and look like they will continue to be, I'd say to **** with the completion bonus frankly. Long as you've got a license and warm body, there are plenty of other places you can go.

Here are a few good articles I found on working as a temp and travel nursing:

Born to Roam Travel nurse-turned-entrepreneur gears her agency to nomadic nurses who crave job security, Nurseweek.com:"On the strength of the nursing shortage, Terri Hill, RN, has traveled from the operating room to the boardroom of her own small but growing company, HC Travelers. Travel nursing for the Indianapolis surgical nurse began as a lark with a purpose. It was a chance to reconnect with distant family and-at least by one nurse-alleviate California's desperate need in 1990 for operating room nurses. With her husband and four children in tow, Hill accepted a six-week assignment to a Los Angeles-area hospital. It was a memorable month and a half of work and leisure that years later would lure her back to travel nursing and a career that she could not have imagined."
http://www.nurseweek.com/news/featur...9/hill_web.asp
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Have Stethoscope, Will Travel:"Nurses who are willing to live out of a suitcase, face picket lines and work in different hospitals from one week to the next are nearly doubling their hourly wage. Hospitals in places such as California, Hawaii, Florida and New York are paying big money to recruiters for temporary staff to supplement their own employees during a national nursing shortage. The American Journal of Nursing reported that an estimated 255,000 traveling nurses are working throughout the United States, and that some 10,000 temporary nurse positions went unfilled earlier this year. "It's good money, but I don't just do it for the money," Mobile, Ala., resident Lois Veselits said from Estes Park, Colo. "I do it for the experience of living in other places."
http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/...hey122702.html

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Working As A Temp, How to make it a successful experience, by Jeanne Willard:"You've probably worked along side registry nurses in your unit and thought "I could do that." Maybe you decided it would be a great chance to expand your clinical knowledge, check out other hospitals, or perhaps you'd just like to whittle down that credit card balance. With the current nursing shortage, the idea of working as a temporary nurse can be an attractive option. If you are an experienced nurse with solid clinical skills you're in great demand. Most hospitals use registry staff to meet the demands of a fluctuating census and to manage labor costs. The rewards can include additional income, job comparison, a flexible schedule, and an opportunity to learn from your peers. If you're ready to make the leap, here are tips to make this experience a successful one."
Working World Magazine
3600 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1526 Los Angeles, CA 90010
Tel213)385-4781, Fax213)385-3782, WorkingNurse@WorkingWorld.com
http://www.workingworld.com/magazine...cleno=260&wn=1

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Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursefriendly.com/traveler

[smbrn]

Dear Andrew,
Thanks for the response. Unfortunately that particular day was not an isolated event. This is the usual on that unit, particularly directed at travel staff. Actually, those who are willing to just stay and stay and stay to meet the ever increasing demands that all kinds of non-urgent things be completed before the day nurse leaves, get along just fine. I just won't do it. I don't hassle people I get report from. I am pretty flexible and pretty much give people the benefit of the doubt since I show up actually expecting to work rather than boss people around in order to get out of doing things myself. It's unbelievable. I did speak with the clinical liason nurse from my agency about the situation. For now I am just going to grin and bear it for the next two weeks and not look back. Thanks for the links but I seriously doubt I will be staying in hospital nursing any longer. I have been at it for 25 years and have had enough. I regret that since I have done all types of med/surg nursing including ortho/neuro, general surgery, gyn surgery, general medicine and medical oncology. I am chemo and ACLS certified and it was all just a big waste of time. I just can't do it anymore. Whatever satisfaction comes from feeling competent to deal with all types of patients pales in comparison to the exhaustion and aggravation of working twelve straight hours with no lunch break and barely enough time to go to the bathroom. The younger ones don't seem to mind but it's too much for me. I have an interview to do home IV therapy day after tomorrow and another possibility of just doing consultant/oversight of the staff and medical needs of people living in group homes. Hardly glamorous but the hours are regular and I can spend a lot of time in the car listening to music rather than nasty people, miserable in their jobs and taking it out on me. Thanks anyways. One more burned out nurse will hardly be a big loss to nursing anyways.

[maggiedanurse]

unfortunately we don't always work with positive people that are willing to help. many times our patient load is overwhelming and we are pulled in 12 different directions from 12 different people who all need something now. on the good side there are so many different types of nursing that we can go an entire career without seeing a colostomy. an infusion center is is a good place to be. the hours are normal and the pay is decent. no weekends or holidays and vacations sounds good to me not to mention a lunch break (what is that?)