[JeanineLPN1984]

Wow, I have been in LTC for 23 years in various capacities and would never speak to my DON or anyone I worked with like that. Lack of self respect for themselves, and others. I have been really blessed over the years with everyone I work with, and have not really had to deal with it, unless I was GIVEN THE PROBLEM.
I mean in one facility I worked for, I was assigned such employees to work with, helping them with their problems, working with them side by side, you name it. Within a short period of time they either became very valuable and team building employees or they left. Personally if they are that rude in public, I would'nt care to leave them with our geriatric patients alone.
I would suggest having her work with a strong minded nurse ( one that the staff respects and does'nt take any gruff), that may help. Otherwise you will be dealing with your write up procedures and she will go. Always better to keep your patients safe. Good Luck

[chiya]

OK Newbie sticking in her 2 cents, Is this an ongoing problem/pattern of behavior with this nurse or a one time thing? Years ago when moving on to another job in my exit interview, my supervisor for whom I had a great deal of respect asked what can I do to be a better supervisor. My response you have one habit that really bugs the nurses. When someone is having a bad day and is overwhelmed and just needs to let off steam, you always hit them with "you think you have it bad so and so has to do this and this." So if this isnt a pattern behavior with this particular nurse maybe she was just having a bad day and just needed to vent. If it's a pattern then yeah write her up. If it is a one time thing my response would have been what can I do to help you. Especially in LTC good nurses are hard to come by because it is very hard work with little thanks, and if I have to stay an extra hour to get my work done because I was out on the floor helping out a good nurse who was just having a bad day well that's part of my job.

[ChanceORiley27]

I have been an nurse for only a year and a half - definitely what most people would consider a 'fresh' nurse. I have worked only in LTC.

I agree that I would never 'yell' at my boss - it's unproffesional.I would also like to think that we all know the difference between venting and yelling.

However, I have been most definitely yelled at by my CNA's several times so clearly this is not the case - some people just don't understand how to be professional and I haven't seen any one particular age group that was better or worse.

I wasn't a very good supervisor when I started, but I did learn quickly that a nurse who will do a bedcheck herself gets more respect from her aides and has more respect for her aides - that work is hard as heck.

Also, most often when a nurse tells her supervisor that they'd like to see them do there job - they mean it. I would think much higher of my supervisor if I saw them come in when we're short.

In my first 6 months as an LPN I would take the keys to extra halls because my bosses made me feel like I had to so they wouldn't have to come in. I learned eventually that there is a limit to what one person can do.

However, if you work in LTC you have to accept that the facilities will ALWAYS be short on staff. When I am so stressed, angry, and overworked at work that I absolutely HATE my job then I leave. And in some cases you might be doing a very disgruntled employee a favor my terminating their employment. There's also the possiblity that your facility is simply not supplying there staff with the bare minimums needed to succeed. Ever LTC nurse learns to work with what they've got - but there IS a limit...

LTC is not for everyone and there has to be give and take between bosses and there staff.

[Dixiecup]

Originally Posted by chip193

I've read this thread with great interest. To give my background before I get onto my soapbox, I'm in a leadership role, at night, in a busy emergency department. In my past life, I served in all sorts of leadership roles in the EMS world. So, for the past 19 years, I've been leading people.

You may have noticed that I choose the word leadership over the word manage. People hate being managed. People like being led. Part of being a good leader is knowing the difference between the two and allowing people to develop.

Managing is focus on what the person is doing wrong and how to punish for what has been done wrong. Leading is having the employee make the right choices based on the framework that you have provided for them.

The folks that work with me do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. They take exceptional care of the patients, they make sure the families are informed, they explain delays, and they are always looking to go the extra step to make sure that everything is taken care of. Why? It is the culture that the leadership team has created. Our leadership is never too busy to talk to a staff member. If we cannot answer the staff member’s question on the spot, we make sure that we get the right answer and let the staff member know what the answer is.

As for doing clinical work – we do lots of it. When an RN went home sick last week, who picked up her assignment? Who watches over patients when the primary nurse gets a real sick patient? If a staff member has a question about a procedure or an assessment finding, who do they call on?

Yup, it’s our leadership team. I’ll admit, it’s fun to watch the Department Director transfer patients to the floor in a Talbot’s suit and heals, but it’s what we do. It is how we lead.

Part of leading is developing staff. Our Charge Nurses are probably the most empowered group of Charge Nurses that I have ever run into. When they come to me with a question about how to deal with a situation, the answer is usually “what do you want to do about it?” rather than a concrete “do this”. Why? It continues their empowerment and makes them able to replace me one day.

It seems that CapeCodMermaid is managing. It seems that rather than lead, she is looking to motivate through negative reinforcement. This was typical of the “Head Nurse” type of management that is still epidemic throughout healthcare.

I’ve never heard “I used to do that and more” or “I don’t see why you can’t do that” at my job. We focus on what can be done and fixing what needs to be fixed.

Does your staff have the equipment that they need to do their jobs? As silly as it may sound, our folks had problems finding thermometers. How did we handle it? We got more. There were reliability problems with our transport monitors. How did we handle it? Biomed now replaces the batteries quarterly.

Yeah, you may have taken 50 patients every night, with one hand tied behind your back, and had to do multiple dressing changes, tube feeds, and even answer the phone. Your staff doesn’t want to hear that.

You can’t start motivation and leading with the big things. You have to start with looking deep inside yourself and realizing that you may not have been doing things the best way.

I’ve heard many of my peers from other departments laments on the current state of the nurses. Many of them sound like CapeCodMermaid. They blame the lack of respect, lack of caring, lack of work ethic on the newest employees. We don’t have the same problems. It is our culture – the staff members hold each other to standards – and their standards are much tougher than the hospital’s! They come to our department and watch the staff and how they interact with each other. Usually, the comment is something to the effect of “my staff isn’t like that”. Then I will generally say something like “do you lead them to be this way? We do.”

But, what do I know. I’ve only been a leader for 19 years.

I totally agree. Those days are gone. Or if they're not, they should be. I've been in "management" a long time and I will rarely ever write anyone up, it is a last resort for me reserved for the worst of the worst. I hate it that it seems to be everyone's answer now days, just "write them up" for every little thing. It breeds discontent in my opinion. Discussion, teaching and "leading" seems to work in a much more positive fashion.

When someone gets called in my office, I'm proud of the fact they're not scared to death they're going to get "written up" for something and know I usually want to talk about a problem and see if we can solve it. Even for the most severe cases, there's just no point in writing someone up. I've never seen it work as an incentive for someone to improve or do a better job, usually quite the contrary.

[achot chavi]

Originally Posted by LPN,RNNow

I'm sad to say but society as a whole has become more rude than I could ever imagine. That is really mild compared to my facility. It seems younger people now think that the world owes them something, and that they don't have to earn it. I would have also reminded her back in "the day" we didn't have the luxury of computers. Seems computers makes everything faster. I wish I had a solution.

YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN- There is no solution- just have patience u will probably outlive them anyway- it doesn't pay to let it get to you, Stay cool

[Ghosts_Angel]

I have to say, I've been in a leadership role for most of my nursing career. That's not to say that I haven't done my fair share of the work, though. I've done a lot of work in hospice, long term care, home health, and now corrections. But, it seems the attitudes are getting worse and worse.

Until recently, I was the charge nurse in our infirmary. Everything ran great. And the nurses were never rude to me when I asked them to do something. But, it seems like now that I'm the DON, they expect me to fix everything for them. No one wants to help anyone else. The other day I asked one of my pharmacy nurses to check on something for me (it would have probably taken her 2 minutes to do it) and her response was, "Why can't Ms. ... do it?" I'm so tired of this! And these are not new nurses doing this. They have more help now than they've had in the last 2 years, but they complain that they have to much to do and not enough time to do it. But, yet, they still have time to take their breaks. And they don't just complain about their own job, they complain about the jobs other people have and why they can't come help them! Like they don't have anything else they need to get done! It seems like they are all so scared they might do 1 thing more than someone else. I just can't believe these nurses.

And, they have only 1 job they want to do. The worst thing about it is that they all know how to pass out meds. But, can someone please let me know how to remind them that they learned this in nursing school??? They seem to have all forgotten.

If anyone can tell me how to deal with these "nurses" PLEASE let me know. I'm at my wits end.