When I returned to work after my stress leave I asked for a new assignment and was granted it. I'm still thrilled! I'm enjoying the work and the doctors and the clinics very much! I actually feel like I'm nursing people instead of paperwork! I think I've told the manager "Have I thanked you for my new assignment?!" everyday since I started in it!
It's so nice to have job satisfaction and leave the workplace knowing that I've made a difference instead of freaking out and in a constant state of panic that I've missed something critical and didn't give my best to my patients! In my other assignment I felt like a horrible person and nurse.
So anyway, on with the update!
Remember when I said they added another doctor to my old assignment last October 2010 and I kept telling them that it was too much on top of an already busy assignment?
Let's refer to the first doctor as "Doctor A" and the one they added in October as "Doctor B".
Well, when I asked for a different assignment, they reassigned my old assignment to another nurse, but they didn't give her "Doctor B", only "Doctor A".
While they were transitioning "Doctor B" to a new nurse, one of the lower management nurses did that doctor's clinic and the work generated.
Two weeks ago they assigned "Doctor B" to another nurse.
Today I found out that the work is just too much for the nurse who took over "Doctor B", and that they now have 2 nurses working in that "Doctor B" assignment.
My "Doctor A" assignment was very busy, and should actually have 2 nurses working it full time. The part that made it so very busy is the new patient consults; I got up to 100 or more new patient consults per month. To process the chart initially took about 15 to 20 minutes. I had to make initial contact with the patient, explain the nature of the consult, answer their questions, determine when they could come in for blood work, arrange for other tests (scans and other tests), and type it all up and then give the chart to the clerk to process. That isn't the last I see of the chart. After the patient has the tests, and the results all come back, which can take days or weeks and they come through a bit at a time and I'm having to look through each chart every couple of days to ensure that the tests have been done and match up any results that come through with the chart. Once all the results are back, I had then talk to the doctor about each chart so he could decide whether to see the person in clinic or not. If he does, I have to book them in. If he doesn't he dictates a letter to the referring doctor explaining why. However, I still had to call the patient and tell them they do not need to be seen and that the doctor was going to dictate a letter to the referring doctor with his findings; This too ended up a lengthy telephone call most times because many had a gazillion questions about "why not!" and demands that they want to see the specialist anyway, regardless of what the tests show.
That is just the new patient consults I'm talking about; No other part of the clinic.
All of that is in addition to doing 3 patient clinics per week with the doctor, doing my own nurse assessment clinics outside of the doctor's clinic time, sorting through an inch high stack of mail and blood tests and other assorted tests every single day, answering around 30 or so phone calls per day and sometimes doing 1 or 2 extra clinics per week. The work with "Doctor A" rightfully should be a 2 nurse job: One to just process the new patient consults.
So now that they have 2 nurses doing "Doctor B" assignment, and the fact that my "Doctor A" is a 2 full time nurse job, means that I was doing the work of 4 full time nurses.
No wonder I was cracking up and had to go on a stress leave!!!
Oh, and since I've been back (middle of September), 2 more nurses have resigned, and one that started over the summer is already talking about finding another job.
It's so nice to have job satisfaction and leave the workplace knowing that I've made a difference instead of freaking out and in a constant state of panic that I've missed something critical and didn't give my best to my patients! In my other assignment I felt like a horrible person and nurse.
So anyway, on with the update!
Remember when I said they added another doctor to my old assignment last October 2010 and I kept telling them that it was too much on top of an already busy assignment?
Let's refer to the first doctor as "Doctor A" and the one they added in October as "Doctor B".
Well, when I asked for a different assignment, they reassigned my old assignment to another nurse, but they didn't give her "Doctor B", only "Doctor A".
While they were transitioning "Doctor B" to a new nurse, one of the lower management nurses did that doctor's clinic and the work generated.
Two weeks ago they assigned "Doctor B" to another nurse.
Today I found out that the work is just too much for the nurse who took over "Doctor B", and that they now have 2 nurses working in that "Doctor B" assignment.
My "Doctor A" assignment was very busy, and should actually have 2 nurses working it full time. The part that made it so very busy is the new patient consults; I got up to 100 or more new patient consults per month. To process the chart initially took about 15 to 20 minutes. I had to make initial contact with the patient, explain the nature of the consult, answer their questions, determine when they could come in for blood work, arrange for other tests (scans and other tests), and type it all up and then give the chart to the clerk to process. That isn't the last I see of the chart. After the patient has the tests, and the results all come back, which can take days or weeks and they come through a bit at a time and I'm having to look through each chart every couple of days to ensure that the tests have been done and match up any results that come through with the chart. Once all the results are back, I had then talk to the doctor about each chart so he could decide whether to see the person in clinic or not. If he does, I have to book them in. If he doesn't he dictates a letter to the referring doctor explaining why. However, I still had to call the patient and tell them they do not need to be seen and that the doctor was going to dictate a letter to the referring doctor with his findings; This too ended up a lengthy telephone call most times because many had a gazillion questions about "why not!" and demands that they want to see the specialist anyway, regardless of what the tests show.
That is just the new patient consults I'm talking about; No other part of the clinic.
All of that is in addition to doing 3 patient clinics per week with the doctor, doing my own nurse assessment clinics outside of the doctor's clinic time, sorting through an inch high stack of mail and blood tests and other assorted tests every single day, answering around 30 or so phone calls per day and sometimes doing 1 or 2 extra clinics per week. The work with "Doctor A" rightfully should be a 2 nurse job: One to just process the new patient consults.
So now that they have 2 nurses doing "Doctor B" assignment, and the fact that my "Doctor A" is a 2 full time nurse job, means that I was doing the work of 4 full time nurses.
No wonder I was cracking up and had to go on a stress leave!!!
Oh, and since I've been back (middle of September), 2 more nurses have resigned, and one that started over the summer is already talking about finding another job.
