peeves

systoly · Mar 21, 2014

I hear you

unless there is a fire, don't interrupt me when i'm with a patient

i know you can't do this, but one time i'd like to see a CNA

ask this kind of co worker, "do you need a refresher on oral care?"

RNstudent13renee · Mar 22, 2014

One of my biggest annoyances is when a nurse walks out of a room, sees you, and tells you a task needs to be done in that very same room, like they're urinal needs to be emptied, needs trash taken, etc. You were just IN there. Or when a nurse sees something needs to be done with a patient such as the above and will take the time to look for you to tell you it needs to be done...I could literally scream at nurses like those. I understand if you're crazy busy or if its a larger task, but c'mon...

JDZ344 · Mar 22, 2014

Mine was a nurse who walked the ward for at east 10 minutes looking for me (I heard her asking everyone where I was- I was busy in another room). I called out I was there, with this patient. So after I finished, I found her afterwards and asked her if she needed me. "Oh yeah.. Mrs. Y wants a bedpan..."

JDZ344 · Mar 22, 2014

I've also overheard CNA staff tell patients they are standing by who ask for stuff "press your nurse call" and walk off. I mean, really? Just because it's not your assigned patient, you're going to refuse to help them?

schnookimz · Mar 22, 2014

You can help the nurse pass her meds and chart her assessments right??

Oh wait you can't. So why should she be forced to do the job that you are being paid to do?

She isn't being lazy and wasting her time to seek you out. She's delegating to you and guiding you to do your job---and this delegation and overseeing is also in her job description. So while you see laziness and are annoyed, she's doing exactly what she was paid to do.

ChristineN, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2014

You can help the nurse pass her meds and chart her assessments right??
Oh wait you can't. So why should she be forced to do the job that you are being paid to do?
She isn't being lazy and wasting her time to seek you out. She's delegating to you and guiding you to do your job---and this delegation and overseeing is also in her job description. So while you see laziness and are annoyed, she's doing exactly what she was paid to do.

As an RN, I will say that any nurse that wastes her time searching for a tech when a pt needs a urinal or bedpan is being lazy. We are all in this together, and just as a nurse can't be everywhere at once nor can a tech. Also, while a nurse does have more responsibility, those responsibilities ultimately include ADL's, skin care, vitals, etc. If a tech is tied up with another pt is is up to the nurse to make sure the Pt's needs are met.

I routinely change incontinent pts, ambulate pts to the bathroom, feed pts, etc. I do it because 1 aide for my 26 bed ER cant do it all, nor would I expect them too

Gabby-RN · Mar 22, 2014

The other day in the ED a newer doctor walked out of a patients room and stood outside of another patients room and waited for me to finish talking before he asked if I could please go into the room he just walked out of and re-cycle the BP and let him know what it is. I like this doctor. I believe he respects nurses and what we do. YES he wasted more time waiting on me than it would have taken for him to just push the button himself. Maybe he thought I would be offended if he did it, or that it would mess up charting somehow, not sure. I did what he asked though (when I finished up with the patient I was with) because it is part of my job. I did let the doctor know It would be about 5 minutes before I got to it. He obviously didn't need it sooner because he waited. There have been other times the doctor needed labs and the phlebotomist and I were both busy so the doctor drew the labs himself.

Last week a PCT was in the room caring for a child that had projectile vomiting. It got everywhere. The walls, computer, floor, bed. The PCT cleaned up the child, the bed, and the bulk of the mess and then called environmental to finish up the cleaning because she had a couple EKG's and vitals to catch up on. Honestly she did more to help out environmental than other staff might have done. I'm sure the environmental workers get frustrated when they are called to clean up messes that could easily be cleaned up by whomever is calling. But it is their job and I doubt it would get them very far if they complained. The pct has a job to do and needs to be able to delegate tasks to others when possible in order to do complete their own job.

We have orderlies in our department that not only bring admitted patients to the floor but also to Xray and CT which is in the department. When a patient needs to go to xray they get put on the transport board for the orderly to bring them or we page the orderly if it needs to be done stat. I am sure they get frustrated when there are a ton of patients on the board for transport to the floor and they see there are 3 patients that just need to go to xray. I'm sure they feel like the doctor or nurse or pct could just wheel the bed over there or even that the xray tech could just come and grab the patient. It is their job to transport patients though so they do it. And when things get behind the good orderlies communicate to the other staff so that other people can help out when possible. Sometimes though a nurse might have another sick patient she can't leave, the pct is getting an EKG to rule out a STEMI and the doctor is at a patients bedside assessing chest pain.

I make it a point to bring my own patient to xray when I can, help the pct's with toileting and other patient care when I can, help the respiratory therapists by starting a nebulizer treatment or suctioning a patient when I can, help other nurses when I can. I can't always though. I think it is important for everyone to remember we all have jobs to do and should all help each other when we can and when we can't, good communication and attitude go a long way.

If a nurse enters another patients room while you are doing a bed bath and asks you if you can please put someone on a bedpan, smile and politely say I have about 10 more minutes with Mrs SoAndSo, the bedpan is in the bottom drawer of the bedside table would you mind putting the patient on it and I will take her off when I am through if you don't get to it first. I would so appreciate it!

duskyjewel · Mar 23, 2014

You can help the nurse pass her meds and chart her assessments right??
Oh wait you can't. So why should she be forced to do the job that you are being paid to do?
She isn't being lazy and wasting her time to seek you out. She's delegating to you and guiding you to do your job---and this delegation and overseeing is also in her job description. So while you see laziness and are annoyed, she's doing exactly what she was paid to do.

Yeah, because during the ten minutes she's walking the hall looking for an aide, she's TOTALLY passing meds, assessing patients, and/or charting..... :rolleyes:

When a nurse is genuinely busy with her job, I get it. And I can tell when that is, thank you, I'm not an idiot. But when she has ten minutes to walk around looking for me, she's clearly not up to her ears in a med pass.

I respect most of the nurses I work with, and do my best to help them. But there ARE a few bad apples, and we're just venting. But hey, if you work in a place where all the nurses have great attitudes and always jump right into patient care, and it's all sunshine and rainbows, well, lucky you. We all envy you.

And before anyone points out the obvious, I am fully aware there are crappy aides out there, too. That's for another thread.

JDZ344 · Mar 23, 2014

You can help the nurse pass her meds and chart her assessments right??
Oh wait you can't. So why should she be forced to do the job that you are being paid to do?
She isn't being lazy and wasting her time to seek you out. She's delegating to you and guiding you to do your job---and this delegation and overseeing is also in her job description. So while you see laziness and are annoyed, she's doing exactly what she was paid to do.

Surely it's faster to put a bedpan under the patient than walk around for 10 minutes looking for somebody else to do it?

uRNmyway, ASN, RN · Mar 23, 2014

I think some of that defensive response was because many of us have been on the receiving end of attitudes from aides or techs who thought we were being lazy and delegating instead of doing it on our own. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be waiting for a call back from a doc for a pt not doing well, I can't leave the nurses' station because that's always the time they call (Murphy's law or something?). I'll ask someone to go do or check on something and get attitude, because all it looks like to them is that I asked them to do it while I'm sitting on my butt.

I'm glad you are intelligent enough to know the difference. I think, or hope, that most people are. Unfortunately, just like some nurses are horribly lazy, some techs or aides think we are lazy when we really aren't. And I think it does make us a bit defensive sometimes.

cdsavannah59, CNA · Mar 23, 2014

Yesterday one of the oldest nurses on our staff got snappy at me while I was doing vitals and said " Are you still doing Vitals" she always does this same saying if we work together at least once a shift. Well yesterday I said Yup I sure am and still got three to do, then she said well you should be done by now, I got a smile on my face and told her I'm taking my time, ain't in no hurry. Her vitals were not pass due so whatever. Lol When I do vitals I'm doing 50 sets each round, mom and newborn and babies are not always fast and easy to do vitals on since I do heart rate, respirations, temperature on all babies as they squirm around, or being held by family, crying, breastfeeding, or warped in blankets that i have to unwrap or i have to return later because babies crying to much to take vitals, or another healthcare worker is currently with patient. it just takes time and patients to do 25 babies and 25 moms. So excuse me if I take longer to take vitals on some days but this particular nurse needs to remember I'm also passing out ice, juice, removing trash and getting room supplies that moms request all while I do vitals. So yes I get irked when I'm doing all this for the nurses and one of them thinks I'm taking to long. The nurse that made this remark is the only one I noticed who is lazy on our staff, all others work as team. This nurse sits at her station all day when not rounding and will be the first to give me a chore to do when she sees I'm done taking vitals, she will say I need one of my babies washed, so I have made it a point to tell her I wash babies in birth order when I'm told they can now have the first bath and if her baby is not at the top of the list she will have to wait her turn for her patient. I'm tired of being wonder women on some days. Just venting, ha I already feel better