Hello!!

I have a major issue going on at work and I'm not sure where to turn to. I'm lost and confused right now and looking for some help, ideas, thoughts and support.

I have been working as a resident care director for almost 2 years in an assisted living facility. Things had been going well dispite the work load until a new corporation took over about 8 months ago. My patient ratio right now is 75:1 and will be increasing very soon by 10. I am responsible for completing yearly assessments as well as bi-annual assessments. I arrange for their yearly history & physicals, monitoring their TB skin tests as well as initiating them as they move in. When a resident goes out to a hospital or nursing home I have to go out and do an evaluation to see that they can return to assisted living. I also have to drop everything and go do assessments on prospective residents wanting to move in, then immediately enter them into the computer system "just in case" Any time there is a change in level of care, I have to do up temporary care plans and lately there are a lot of changes. When someone falls, gets injured,sick or is transferred to a hospital, an incident report is completed which then is sent to the regional RN as well as faxed to someone in corporate and then a phone call placed to the corporate RN. Weekly I have to type up an event trend report and email it to corporate. There are family care conferences each time I do an assessment. NOW corporate says that every Friday I have to dedicate my time to being a marketer on duty and not doing the job I was hired for. Also I'm assigned dining room duty once a week which takes me away from my job for 3 hours that day. PLUS once a week they want me to go out and market the place which again pulls me away from my job, and on one day a week the doctor comes in which takes me off the floor doing my job. I have increased my time at work to be 6 days a week 10-12 hour days and at one point had put in 18 hours in 1 day, and I'm on call 24/7. I feel tired and drained of all energy and have been feeling sick. I am now on a week off for sick time. I don't want to return...EVER!!!

I am also responsible for staff TB's and staff yearly evals. Also have to do staff inservices and orientations which are usually monthly. This week coming up they want me to attend an 8 hour med tech class (I'm an LPN) so that I can pass medications.   ( Since when do nurses have to take a med tech class to pass meds??) We are down a med tech and they now want me to play a med tech on days we are short and STILL do my work on time.

I am only 1 person and I have mentioned to my boss that I'm tired and wearing down, and when I was starting to feel sick she was informed by me as well when I told her I couldn't keep that pace any longer. To top it all off, my boss was the receptionist about 4 months ago with NO assisted living experience or administrator experience (or license) and is now telling me how to manage my job and doesn't have a clue what she's talking about most of the time.

I give up!!  Would I be wrong if I told thecompany that due to heath reasons I couldn't return? I feel bad leaving them in a pinch, but they would have no issue if they left me in a pinch.  I'm still too tired and worn to even go back on Monday! I see LAW SUIT in the future if this continues due to excessive work load and difficulties keeping up.

HELP!!   How would you all handle this situation?

Corporate seems to hold a lot of meetings and that's when they hand down new additional job tasks. They kept the same person in HR.

Hi -

I am an assisted living consultant administrator.

My last client was 5SQC - is that your corporation? Doesn't sound like them.

Depending on your state regs, here is what i would do to start:

With your census, you need two RN's on day shift, a Resident Care Services Manager and an additional RN. You could use one full time LPN on days to assist you (no med cart for that LPN - just administrative and charting).

Marketing should never be your assignment. There should be one internal marketing director and one external.

Dining room duty? Absolutely no need for an RN (unless your state regs are truly weird).

A large corporation will not change, They are too invested in their policies.

Get out and find a more reasonable facility! Or bring me in to straighten them out! LOL

Good luck!

I like LawyerRN and callbelcyboy's responses...............blunt, to the point but very professional.   Great advice in my book,

I was watching CNN yesterday, "Recession Proof your Job".  There were "experts" who spoke about lateral moves within the same company.  It sounds like you already know what you need to do, but, if you are really attached to this place and I know it can be hard to leave friends and co-workers, not to mention the residents we've grown to care about so much, would you consider a lateral move?

I also don't understand why a large corporation doesn;t have it's own marketing team.

Sounds like this "boss" is on the ultimate power trip...I would be filing some grievances.

I recently (2 months ago) signed up and paid the fees to take classes to become a Long Term Care administrator. I had told the previous administrator of my plans and she advised me to inform my new boss of the plans as well so that she could work with me for the upcoming events.

 Long story short, through the signup process, I saw what is required to be a LTC Administrator which is 2 years of assisted living experience and 1 year of management, or to have a degree and 1 year experience. My boss informed me that she does not meet these requirements, so why is she in that position I wonder and why does corporate keep her? I personally think I'm a threat to her job and she's doing all she can to remove her "threat" and the sad part of it all is that it's working.

Thanks everybody for letting me vent here, and I appreciate the shoulders to cry on. I just see my plans made 2 months ago slipping down the drain along with my health due to this job and boss and not having the knowhow to handle this situation.

Hello again!

If the boss doesn't meet the licensing or certification requirments, it is a violation of state regulations - call them and report it. Anonymously if you want.

BUT in some states waivers of requirements can be issued!

This sure sounds like a bad environment to be working in. If it were me, I would ask to see a copy of your job description. Then anything they ask you to do that is not part of your job description, you can tell them that what they are asking is beyond the scope of your practice.

If you have been there a long time and don't want to lose seniority, try to reason with them. I have never heard of a nurse doing marketing!  I quit once without notice over a supervisor. I had 19 years in, but she pushed my buttons and I popped and quit! She herself asked me to reconsider due to my many years, but I was too mad. I got a job the next day, paid more, but I have always regretted not filing a grievance. I know I would have won, but at the time, all I could think about was getting away from her!  The following year, she was taken out of that unit, releived of her supervisory status and the kicker is when I ran into her at the mall, she told me I should have stood up to her!  She admitted that she was like a fish out of water and did not know what to do!

But if you are there 1 or 2 years, I would look for another job! Your talents are not being utilized!