Out of hours

Re: Out of hours

Laura James — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:10:59 GMT

[quote user="sazzle RVN"]

How does the second nurse feel about coming in to do the majority of cleaning? would this not be better suited to an auxillary who can help with animal handling and walking when needed?

[/quote] We've tried to design the system so that there is a qualified/nearly qualified nurse and a student nurse or auxillary nurse together on night shifts so that if anything crops up there is someone qualified there. Obviously some of the nurses are less happy than others, although most nights you are involved in patient care on the shorter shift. It was also designed that we do a week of the 10-6 (short) night shifts and this was spread between all 10 nurses/students/auxillary staff so it was designed as a fair system as possible. Personally I don't mind it - I can put my head phones in and give parts of the building a good clean that otherwise wouldn't get done (I'm a bit of a night person and love the emergencies that come in and any critical care that can be given which you don't always get to do in the day if you're not rota'd on to look after inpatients)

Re: Out of hours

amy butterworth — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:38:35 GMT

For our ooh we have a night nurse that will work from 6pm till 8.30am and a day nurse that will work till 8pm the vet does the same but they day in the building we also have a aca that will work till 11.45pm and a night aca that will work from 11'45 till 8.30am they do this for a week than have a week of. The aca tends to deal with the phone and walking cleaning the dogs we have a small and mean small enclosed space outside the kennels. The vet and nurse have the option of going to bed we have flats on the top floor at around 2 am the night aca will stay downstairs and watch patients and will ring up to the vet and nurse in an emergency

Re: Out of hours

roughcut — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:32:29 GMT

Hi Vikki,

We are exactly the same as you, the vet will go home and come in if they are called out by us for an emergency, they will come in if we need help with anything so long as they feel it is necessary, but we do have to call them up and ask them to. But generally we are left alone, I personally hate it, we are on an industrial estate and it can feel pretty scary, we have an alarm but by the time it goes off and the security company phone us we would have already been attacked, burgled, etc. However, most of the time the inpatients are ok to medicate and look after alone, generally I find it ok, but not ideal. Don't be afraid to ask them to come in, your safety is of the upmost importance to you and them.

Ruth

Re: Out of hours

bongo — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 09:56:01 GMT

[quote user="Laura James"]A couple of years ago my practice went through a period of time when we constantly had 20025 inpatients in and the building to clean which we were (obviously) unable to do so now we have two nurses on a night shift, one starts at 7.45 and works through to 8am and they are there for the inpatient care. The other nurse works 10pm to 6am and they are there to do the necessary cleaning. It works really well as there are now two members of staff for walking, re-dripping etc during the really unsociable hours of the night. The vet only comes in if there is an emergency.

[/quote]

How does the second nurse feel about coming in to do the majority of cleaning? would this not be better suited to an auxillary who can help with animal handling and walking when needed?

Re: Out of hours

Laura James — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 22:16:51 GMT

Sorry, that shouuld have been 20/25 not 20025 patients (lol) We are a hospital and have 13 nurses, 10 of which work nights on a rota basis - one of which works peermanent nights, all others work mostly days with the odd night thrown in.

Re: Out of hours

Vikki Jones — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:59:30 GMT

Thanks for everyone's response do you all work in hospitals? And how many are on your nursing team :) xx

Re: Out of hours

Laura James — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:01:22 GMT

A couple of years ago my practice went through a period of time when we constantly had 20025 inpatients in and the building to clean which we were (obviously) unable to do so now we have two nurses on a night shift, one starts at 7.45 and works through to 8am and they are there for the inpatient care. The other nurse works 10pm to 6am and they are there to do the necessary cleaning. It works really well as there are now two members of staff for walking, re-dripping etc during the really unsociable hours of the night. The vet only comes in if there is an emergency.

Re: Out of hours

Lisa Whitehouse — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:31:43 GMT

Our ooh nurses start at 9pm have another nurse on the premises till 10.45pm, the vets take the phones & usually go home, so the priority is the patients, we have an secured/covered run so that no one has to leave the building to walk patients. Apart from that all meds etc are to be administered by the duty nurse alone, the vets will try to get drugs in when there are 2 nurses available.

Re: Out of hours

SmegSlayer — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:37:08 GMT

[quote user="Mlwelsh"]

What i find hard is trying to get everything done before 8am when theres 9-10 patients in and your on your own, with meds etc due every 2 hours. Then theres floors, bins, washing up, laundry etc to do. Even getting up at 4am is sometimes not enough!

[/quote]

I feel your pain- I once had 23 inpatients all to myself as a 1st yr student...as soon as you've checked them all, it's time to start the next lot of checks...

Re: Out of hours

Mlwelsh — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 21:15:10 GMT

I am one of 4 nurses who does OOH. We do 22 hour shifts during weekdays and 24 hour shifts on weekends. then day off (well from 9am finish till next day) and then 2 days of 8 hour shifts and then a 'night' shift. (we get about 3-4 hours sleep IF we are lucky which is how they get around the law!!)

We are completely on our own from 7pm when reception leave, until 8am the next morning, unless an emergency comes in which we would call the vet in for.

We have to medicate and walk any dogs on our own, walking from the back door all the way around the side of the practice to the grass at the front. We cant hear the phones ringing from the grass, however the answer message does say to hold and that a nurse will be with you as soon as possible.

We do have panic alarms for security purposes but we are in the middle of no-where and so it can be scary at times!!!

Re: Out of hours

Sal the 1st — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:10:19 GMT

I have 'lived in' at a number of practices and ooh care unless it has definitely required that the vet be present was done by myself, including the late night 'wee' run. This is how it is done at quite a few places. the practice could invest in a panic alarm bracelet linked to the cop shop or security company or another staff member if this is an issue - but my experience has been when you need them it can take whoever an awful log time to arrive. (nearly 1/2 hour in the case of Northamptonshire police whilst the burglars were trying to break into the flat I had barricaded myself into, and trying to raise the bosses who lived less than 5 mins down the road - well I may as well have been trying to raise the dead!, they arrived for work at 8.45 am totally oblivious even tho the police had being trying to contact them as well

Re: Out of hours

jules007 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:07:43 GMT

our nurses do OOH on premises and for the most part do all the walking and medicating on their own. This works fine although it can take them a while to get through everybody on a busy night, but they start at 4pm and leave at 12 pm the next day so the hours aren't too bad. We have to exercise them on public ground too as we have no private garden, but it's a very safe neighbourhood (relatievly speaking - no where is completely free of nutters!) so never had a problem.