Crisis Stabilization Work Values

Daily Duties at Crisis Stabilization:

Supervise 6 health service technicians (HST), 2 Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) and 3 Registered Nurses (RN). Attend daily report to find out what happened during the night and any new admissions that may have been admitted. Make unit rounds to ensure that there is nothing on the unit that could harm the clients such has broken furniture, nails, strings. Complete admission paperwork on any new admissions. Complete all discharge paperwork on the clients that are discharged and ensure they have transportation home by family or friends, if not place on our transportation.Make the follow up appointment with the local mental health within 5 days of the discharge. Make sure that the clients understand their medications and know when and how to take their medications before discharge. Make sure that the client has all belongings that they brought into the hospital. Address clients complaints which could vary from not being able to smoke, not having enough food, not liking staff members, not being able to use the phone as much as they would like, any abuse, or negelect. The patient advocate is notified and they come to the unit. The patient advocate, the client and the charge nurse all sit down together to see what the problem is and how it can be solved. If the case is involving negelect or abuse from staff then that staff member is immediately removed and incident report is completed. Nurse manager, and executative nurse is notified within the hour. Responsible for making the schedule for all three shifts. Prepare the monthly department meetings for the HSTs and nurses meeting. Responsible for conducting telephone interviews for possible new employees, setting up times for the face to face interview if the telephone interview went well. Assisted in the face to face interviews for possible new employees. I probably assisted with 10-15 different interviews. Scheduled employees to attend training in staff development. Repsonsible for the orientation period for the new employees. Implemented a policy so that whoever started the orientation process finished it with the new employee. We found that was the most consist way to orient new employees instead of placing them with different people everyday since everyone does things differently. Helped to review all policies and make sure they are current with what the unit is doing, if not then they need to be corrected. Give medications as needed on the unit. Talk with all the clients and then chart on the clients every day based on their treatment plan. Assist as the treatment team nurse when needed. Respond to all medical emergencies such as high blood pressure, low blood pressure, shortness of breath, seizures and notify the medical doctor. Respond to all psychiatric emergencies such as client found unresponsive, client to client assualt. Perform education to the nurses on new policies that come out. Provide education to the nurses and technicians on the dos and don'ts of charting during the meetings. Perform group activities on the unit with the clients such open discussion, talk about mediction compliance, allow them to watch a movie on mental illness and addictive diseases. Assist with client transfers to other facilities or placement issues. If the client was unable to stabilized in 15 days then we would send them the Southwestern State Hospital to be admitted for more long term care. Perform midpoint and yearly evaluations on the employees that I supervised. Midpoint reviews is a form that consist of either met, not met, needs improvement. This looks at does the employee give the correct medication, does the employee chart correctly on the chart, do they attend classes in staff development, and do the use their annual leave and sick leave appropriatly. This is also where the charge nurse and the employee would work together to come up with goals for the employee to work on. For the HST the form looks for: does the technician monitor the clients correctly, does the technician come to work as scheduled, does the technician report any changes in the client to the charge nurse, and does the technician use their annual leave and sick time appropriately. Again the charge nurse would sit down with each on to come up with some goal for them to work on. The yearly evaluation is exceeds, met, or not met. The ares for nurses are does the nurse give medications correctly, does the nurse attend manadatroy classes in staff development, does the nurse chart on the clients, does the nurse respond to any emergencies on the unit, does the nurse know how to use the crash cart, does the nurse use annual leave and sick leave appropriately, does the nurse come to work as scheduled, does the nurse follow the standards of the hospital, does the nurse use teamwork. Then the charge nurse would pull the midpoint evaluation to look at the goals that were set and see if they met those goals. Then the charge nurse would set new goals for the employee. Give the evaluation to the employee to review and sign. The yearly evaluation for the HSTs is similar in that it is exceeds, met, or not met. Areas that are looked at are: do they monitor the clients correctly, do they chart daily in the charts, do the report any changes in the clients, do they come to work when scheduled, do they attend their classes in staff development, do they adhere the the policies and procedures, do they come to work dressed appropriately. Again the charge nurse would pull the midpoint evaluation to look at the goal and determine if the goals were met and then set new goals for the HSTs. The evaluation is given to the employee for them to read and sign.Completed 9 evaluations. I have also been involved in the disciplinary process for some clients. I have kept records on each employee so that I would have a way to prove that disciplinary action was needed. I have assisted with the firing of 2 RNs and 2 HSTs. Implemented a way to monitor how long clients are staying on special precautions such as sucide watch, assualt watch or elopement watch.

What they like about Crisis Stabilization:

Working for a company with an emphasis on social values and helping society is a clear and important priority for you - a critical factor in who you choose to work for. In contrast to other factors, you place an organization's reputation for fairness and concern for the community above most other aspects of the company. As you search for a new job opportunity, it is usually possible to find out if the company is involved in the community and/or if it is addressing problems and issues in society. Pay special attention to non-profit organizations and those specifically involved in social action. Moreover, speaking with current and former employees should enlighten you to perceptions of the fairness of the company's leaders and the treatment of employees.

Tags

nursing, supervisor

Skills

Software Implementation, assessing clients in crisis, giving medications to clients as ordered, supervising other employees, disciplinary actions towards employees, interviewing potential employees

These are some of the questions we asked our climbers about their experiences with Crisis Stabilization: