[whartonjelly]

Are there any RNs still working from the Villages. If so , what area, hospital etc and are there clubs for similar Nursing interests?

[rebatewoman]

Yes there are still nurses that live in the Villages that work many at the Villages Hospital. As for clubs there is a Nursing club in the villages look in the recreation paper that comes out weekly. I think you will find it in there.

[funnygirl]

Hi,
I am an Rn and would love to know more about the Nurses club. I haven't seen anything about it in the paper for some time. I worked at the Villages Regional Hospital for 1 1/2 years and just recently resigned. I was quite disappointed in the direction it seems to be going in since Leesburg Regional took over the Hospital.
To make a long story short the nurses don't have a lot of time to take care of the patient's and that's just getting worse. I have been an actively employed RN for 37 years with an excellent record and couldn't stay where I felt my license could be compromised. Good Patient care is just too important to me.
I was also getting tired of people telling me about the awful time they had as a patient or visitor at TVRH.... this happened a lot just as soon it became known I am an RN and worked at the hospital. It got to the point that I didn't tell anyone what I did professionally unless I was asked. Despite anything the hospital PR team tells you there are a lot of unhappy nurses at The Villages Hospital. Many have to work and so they stay. The opportunities in Florida for nurses are very limited. Nurses coming from other parts of the country are shocked by the limited opportunities and awful salaries. I am fortunate that I don't have to work.
I am going to work in Home Health next which is something I did while I lived in California and loved it. I'm 60 and I am not ready to retire yet. I do like participating in the care of people and helping them to better their lives.

[whartonjelly]

I think that everyone complains about the local hospitals. i have workded at a few over the years and people just prefer to go where they are not known.

I am an OB nurse but have worked all kinds of areas in the last 33 years. Where do people go to have their babies in your area. Yes I do realize this is a 55 community!

[villagerjudy]

OB...in TV that is usually a vet's office LOL. Leesburg has an OB department and I'm pretty sure that Ocala and Waterman have one too but I'm not 100% on that.

For people looking at TV please remember that there are folks that would be unhappy anywhere and with anything. Their life isn't perfect but if "it" was they would be happy.

I'm an RN at TVRH. Is it perfect....no. Does the management try to accommodate needs of the nurses, in my opinion yes. Right now we are going through major expansion and from day to day we don't know which elevator works and where we are going to find things. Does that reflect on the care patients receive or the attitude of management? I don't believe so, it is just in interruption in the flow. The only complaints that I hear is nurses being called out (me included)......due to lack of snow birds there is a shortage of patients but that will change.

[whartonjelly]

Is it getting any better for the Nurses who work there?

[Russ_Boston]

I hope we get some response other than the typical 'TVRH emergency rooms sucks!" stories. I'd like to keep this thread open to those that have 'working' knowledge (yourself or spouse) of TVRH and other facilities in the area where RN's work. What is a typical salary? What is the patient ratio? Is the technology current? etc. God willing I'll be in the RN job market in TV before too long.

Russ

[Karen83]

Thanks for asking these questions Russ. I will be arriving in TV on the 1st, will be looking for a RN position and hope to start back to work in January.

I just returned to nursing 4 years ago after raising my family and although the conditions have certainly changed for the worse and in spite of critical attitudes I have experienced in patients who think they are staying at the Hilton, I love nursing! IMHO, the good outweighs the bad. (on most days)

I am concerned about the RN/patient ratios. I interviewed during a visit in January and was told it was 5-6 on a med-surg floor, which leads me to believe it will actually be higher than that, and to me that is unacceptable and no wonder we are hearing much criticism about the hospital.

The trend in hospitals these days puts more emphasis on plasma TV's than having a nurse available to answer a patient's call for help! Because of that I am hoping to find something else and the ability to do that is one of the great things about nursing. I would love to be able to drive my golf cart to work, but will drive further away if a better position is available. I plan on working 2 days a week and don't mind driving at all!

I too, would love to hear more from RN's already there.....good and bad!

Thanks Russ and by the way, getting your license transferred to Florida is a bit involved and I hired a company to get me through the process...$125.00 well spent IMO.

Karen

[Russ_Boston]

Thanks for the advice Karen. I also interviewed at TVRH in April. I was also told the ratio was 5-6 and the pay rate was around $25 an hour to start. I'll be taking my RN boards next year (assuming I graduate in April!). Being inexperienced I'll probably have to cut my teeth in a hospital setting here in Boston, probably in ER, but after some experience I'll be open to other alternatives. I'm sure the TV area has other RN options beside the two hospitals.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Russ_Boston

I hope we get some response other than the typical 'TVRH emergency rooms sucks!" stories. I'd like to keep this thread open to those that have 'working' knowledge (yourself or spouse) of TVRH and other facilities in the area where RN's work. What is a typical salary? What is the patient ratio? Is the technology current? etc. God willing I'll be in the RN job market in TV before too long.

Russ

I SO agree Russ. This is an excellent information passing thread so far. I hope it stays that way. Many thanks from us very grateful patients to those of you who have to put up with so much these days.

[Rozzie]

Originally Posted by Karen83

The trend in hospitals these days puts more emphasis on plasma TV's than having a nurse available to answer a patient's call for help!

OMG! Did I type this? I was complaining to a Doc today that our hospital is spending $$$ to upgrade all the TVs in the hospital to flat screens, but that it takes a act of congress to get basic supplies approved by a financial committee. What a joke the health care industry has become. Okay climbing off my soapbox now...

Thanks for this thread, I'm a RN who will hopefully be moving down to TV within the next few years. I used to live in FL, and luckily have kept my FL License current. I work in a GI Lab now, better environment than Med/Surg---have no desire to return to that part of my life. Good rule of thumb has always been for me if they tell me 6:1 ratio in a interview, add at least 1 to whatever they tell you. I am sure ya'll find that true also in your experience.

Good thing about Nursing is that no matter where we move to, we can find a job. What kind of job that is, well that is always a mystery! Good luck to all the RNs moving down, wishing you all your dream jobs.

[Peachie]

Karen83, oh my, do I ever take umbrage at your remark....


"I just returned to nursing 4 years ago after raising my family and although the conditions have certainly changed for the worse and in spite of critical attitudes I have experienced in patients who think they are staying at the Hilton, I love nursing! IMHO, the good outweighs the bad. (on most days)"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You bet they're staying at the Hilton, better yet, they're staying in a Penthouse in Manhattan, $$$$. I think you are blaming the sad state of medical care in the USA on the patient. Patients are not admitted for hangnails these days, (unless there is a staph or MRSA infection involved), and are only admitted if they are truly ill or a surgical patient. (OB case's excluded). The understaffing situation in hospitals currently is ludicrous and patients are putting their lives on the line in some care situations. I have 5 different medical situations that I could relate illustrating the sorry state of care. My emphasis is NOT on the nursing staff but the lack of adequate nursing staff and aides in the hospital settings. Resources spred way too thin is a huge problem and I have no idea how it will be resolved. BTW, there are 6 RN's in my family and they are the best! But additional staffing is required to cover those shifts. And I will give you, there may be a few demanding patients but some of those become demanding when call bells aren't answered, pain is unrelieved at the appropriate time and so forth. And all that diminished attention for a small fortune. Maybe the CEO's need less income and public companies making their money off the ill could do with a little less and proportional staff to patient numbers could be maintained.

[Rozzie]

Peachie, I understand your frustration. I've had family members in the hospital too, it ain't a picnic. Not only it ain't a picnic, it's downright scary. I would never leave a family member of mine alone in a hospital.

But I also TOTALLY see where Karen83 is coming from, and I am sure she didn't mean any harm by what she said. I think she was referring to is how hospitals are driven by a unspoken voice that says forget staffing! We want Plasma's in the rooms. Forget patient safety! We want 5 star dining by phone available in the rooms. That is where budgets are made these days, each hospital trying to "out-hotel" each other. As a nurse, you don't know whether to scream or cry, or just leave the profession.

I personally knew a RN that left the hospital setting after she was punished by not delivering a hot cup of coffee within so many minutes---what was she doing? Administering life saving measures to a patient in distress. I don't blame her. We are RNs, not waitresses. Sure, I love to pamper my patients, calm their fears, sit and chat with them. That's the good stuff, but I still have a job to do. And more and more I am doing the work of 3 people. People wonder why people are leaving the Nursing profession in record numbers....well for starters, I know I have been punched, kicked, spit on, puked on, threatened with my life, hair pulled, scratched. We can handle that, but to be confronted with a administration that values hardwood floors, room service, plasma's rather than adequate safe staffing ratio's--well that is almost more than you can bear. It's because I know patients are at risk with these decisions.

Okay, off my soap box once again. Peachie, it sounds like you had a horrible experience in a hospital--I hope you went to administration and voiced your concerns about the staffing situation. I truly am sorry you had to experience the reality of where hospitals are going.

[Karen83]

Peachie, I think you and I are on the same page! I totally agree with everything you said, but at least where I worked for the last 4 years, a med/surg telemetry floor, we had more than our fair share of patients who were demanding, to say the least. Add to that the bad staffing and morale could get very low which creates a vicious cycle.

Our hospital definitely seems to put the emphases and money on making the rooms pretty when IMO, everyone would benefit with better staffing. The administrators need to get on the floor, get their hands dirty and see for themselves what it's like in the trenches.

As I said, the good for me outweighed the bad, which is why I want to continue working after our move to TV, preferably at TVRH. Returning to nursing after many years has been an extremely rewarding experience in spite of some of the problems I have encountered. But, I won't work with a 5-6 pt. ratio and will try to find something else.

I could get started on how insurance has created much of the problems in medicine, but think this is not the place for it.

Once again, I think you and I agree on more than you think...maybe I didn't make my thoughts clear in my first post.

A fellow RN, Karen

[Karen83]

Rozzie,

We were posting at the same time!

Thanks for putting my thoughts into words better than I could do for myself!
You absolutely nailed it!!

Karen