Help, unsafe workplace

[tnurseg]

I took a job as a traveling nurse 6 weeks ago, half days, half nights. This has been the most stress I have ever had in my life and I'm afraid it is affecting my health. I need some advice. I am under contract with a nationwide company. I am on a surgical unit, 15 bed. General surgicals, bariatric surgeries, many very complex patients, lots of TPN, open wounds, all the wound flap surgeries on quads, paras, etc. You get the picture. I have had 7 patients on day shift which I felt is too much. There is no time for real care, just get in, get out, the less you talk to the patient, the better kind of environment. So I contacted my recruiter and got permission to go straight nocs and the hospital gladly accomodated my request. I start my 3 nocs in a row tomorrow. It is not uncommon for there to be 1 RN, 1 LPN, and 1 CNA for 15 patients. I feel this is so unsafe and I"m scared to death to be responsible for that many surgical patients. The LPN can only pass meds, take vitals, I/0. No assessments, charts, MD calls. How can one nurse keep track of this many patients and do an adequate, safe job? Am I being a wimpy nurse? I want to get the heck out of this contract. I am so stressed out during the whole shift because I fear for my licence. What should I do? Also, just wanted to say this is my first travel assignment...i didn't ask any questions. Just didn't think it could be this bad.

I've traveled to 9 hospitals in 4 years. My 8th hospital was in Miss. 15 minutes from the arkansas line. It was suppose to be 13 weeks it ended in 5 weeks. It was unbearable. The hospital was very unsafe plus we were being cursed at the nursing station by other nurses. If the job is really unsafe then you need to contact you agency. The CNO at the hospital said that the hospital was a system failure. A supervisor told us about getting sugar in her gas tank. An example of safety was we had a bleeding hep. pt. and only small gloves was in the room . think safety or help a pt from bleeding out a diaysis port that had gone bad . no b/p in room to help a pt that was coding. the only onces working went backwards. you worked really hard for your license. Our agency tns took up for us even showed up at the hospital . they pulled us off the job and we owed nothing. Good luck. this is the only probelm I have ever had with a hospital 1 out of 9 isn't bad. The goal is to investigate the area and hospital more than the money. Its better to make 34.00 and be able to do a safe job that to make 38.00 and fell at the job.

[panda60]

Update. I quit this assignment on week 9. I admitted a patient one night, he came in with seizures. Ativan or Valium were ordered prn, seizure. We were not allowed to override anything on the omnicell. So, 10 minutes after getting him into bed, he went into a bad clonic tonic seizure. We ran to the Omnicell to get the Ativan, thinking pharmacy had programed it in by then...couldn't get it out, called pharmacy and no answer, put it on speaker phone and it rang for 12 minutes before they answered. meanwhile, we ran to the omnicell and scanned every patient on the unit to see if anyone had ativan, which no one did, so had to run to another unit and do the same thing. Finally found someone who we could take from. By this time, the patient had quit having the seizure and had started into another one. There were 2 nurses on, no aide and 15 patients. This was the tipping point. I called my recruiter and they told me NO PROBLEM. I got all my pay, didn't have to pay anything back and they were really good about it. The hospital was very mad at me but I do not care. I never saw management step in and help these nurses out. I will never travel again because of this assignment. I'm glad to be back at my old hospital where my ratio is 6 to 1 on nights. The past four nights I've had 4 patients, tops. What a change. Thanks for all your advice.

[HeyFraydo]

I have a list of questions on my website for Travelers which I print out and use on every interview with the hiring manager and the recruiter. You may even think of others specific to your specialty. I've turned down plenty of assignments because I found things out in the interview, from other Travelers and searches on the Internet. That said no assignment will be perfect or else they probably wouldn't need travelers but it defintely helps to minimize the risks. Another thing get NSO liability coverage (NSO.com) which also covers you very well if you ever were investigated by any Board of Nursing. Thank God I haven't had to use it for that but it happens to even the best of Nurses. I just renewed mine and it was $98/yr and tax deductable and a must for Travelers. Covers all states and Puerto Rico. Good luck to you and get plenty of rest and relaxation in between shifts. Maybe you could ask to spread the shifts out if not already to give you more down time. Sounds like they are working with you which is a good sign. I've heard of situations and have been in situations where the workload increases and the back-stabbing atmosphere increases. That's why I left my perm position to go Traveling and so far all my Travel assignments have been great. There are a lot of great assignment out there evn in my specialty Psych...you just have to do your research and ask the questions.

CJ Travel NurseToolbox :luck: