stressed nurses

That is the question! I agree, Spacenurse, there are certain traits which are a plus when it comes to manageing a floor... keeping cool under stress, and promoting productiveness are some of them. This may sound sexist ( gawd forbid) but the male nurses we have that take charge position run a much smoother floor than ANY of the women do.
This particular nurse I and others are having problems with has been there 27 years, this is the only hospital she has ever worked at. Did I mention this is a rural area, small community hospital, max 30 med surg beds, 6 in ICU. ..not that it affects the issue I write about.
I am just trying to figure out how to approach her.

Recently, when there were a high number of med errors ( they said, and not as compared to what) being made on our floor , rather than discussing openly with nurses staffing ratio issues which are a factor, they decided we all needed a refresher course in passing meds. So, for 3 days, we each had a supervisor watching us pass meds much like clinical. It was humiliating and added more stress! Not that it wasn't ok to make a focused effort to try to find solutions...however when a floor nurse spoke up and asked "why is the problem assumed to be one of negligence or lack of competancy, and not one of staffing ratios", she was immediately shut up in the meeting.
So believe me I know hospitals are NOT concerned about pt safelty without first being more concerned about their budget.
and with jan 1st here, staffing ratios have changed but ah ha so have our duties. we now have to note our own orders and that means we have to take the time to get all the stuff done in the orders so we can note them. and we have to get our pts to depts for tests, there is no one to pick them up.

sorry this is so long winded. !!