Again....lazy workers

[chenoaspirit, ASN, RN]

I am a nurse on a med surg floor. Ive griped many times on here about lazy workers. But there is this one nurse who takes the cake. She had a patient who had messed on himself and needed cleaned up. The assistants were busy doing 3admissions (they go get the patients from ER and put them in bed, do vitals, weight, lock up valuables, etc). So I ask the patient's nurse to help ME clean him up. It wasnt my patient but I was willing to help. I cant STAND for a patient to be left in stool. She says "in a minute, 'jane' is telling me something about a patient" then goes off the floor to smoke....leaving the patient in poop. GRRRRRRRRR. I know it was HER patient, but he was pitiful. Every admission we got, she couldnt take any...she let family members sleep in the other bed which made it "dirty" or she had a drug-withdrawal who couldnt take any room-mate. She would say "I dont feel like cleaning a bed tonight." First of all, visiting hours are over, family members need to leave, not sleep in the next bed. We can get recliners for family members who have to stay or they can stay in the waiting room. She was either on the phone or reading or downstairs smoking. Callbells going off, she wouldnt go. Patients complaining of pain, she rolled her eyes and kept reading. I smoke too, but I do so only when my patients are taken care of and I have the spare time. I NEVER have time to read a novel! I had applied for a job in the next town for a Baylor job. It had just been filled. I live in a very small town with not much job opportunities unless I want to drive hours to a job. All our good workers, includign assistants and nurses, have quit because of having to work with lazy people. By the time I go home at the end of a shift, Im so exhausted and angry. When its time to pass 7 am meds, no one's water pitcher has been filled. No F/C has been emptied. Sometimes I feel like Im doing the work of the entire floor and it SUCKS. I cant ignore a callbell and if I smell poop and no one will clean it, I cant and wont leave a patient lying in it. Does anyone else experience this? Am I going overboard, should I just do my job and leave everyone elses patients to them? And if so, how do I deal with the guilt of knowing they are needing something and being ignored. Help and advice please. Im going nuts.

[loricatus]

You might have to leave other nurses' patients alone in order for the oncoming shift (and management) to realize that the patients have not received adequate nursing care. By you doing the lazy ones' job for them, they appear to have done the job themselves; and, you have been providing them the time to read novels and go out and smoke. I know it sounds cruel to ignore the patients; but, you can't be everything to everybody; and, you taking on the workload of others is burning you out. Invest your time and energy on your patients. You may see when you ignore the other patients, the lazy ones might just have interrupt their leisure time to do what they have been paid to do.

[EmmaG, RN]

One of our nurses left an incontinent patient 'dirty' for the next shift. She was fired, reported to the BON and license suspended for patient abuse.

Perhaps if you told her that story

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Talk to the manager, and stop doing other people's work. Concentrate on catching your patients up with good oral care, hairwashes, etc, and they may demand more of other nurses and complain when it doesn't get done.

If you answer a bell say "I will tell your nurse" and the third time you tell her it goes on your list about her and you are free to fix the problem if you can't stand it anymore.

If "someone" allows the bed to get dirty by bending the rules she is responsible for cleaning it for an admission- get the manager to put that in a memo.

Document your peeves with times and dates, then when the smoke stops coming out your ears review them, and submit those you still think are important to the boss.

When you can't stand to work there anymore find another job, and then submit the list, and when you informed menagement, to the BON. The good nurses on the unit will thank you.

PS Have you thought about working in the ER??

[al7139, ASN, RN]

If another nurse is giving inferior care to their patients, it is your responsibility to report it. It is not (I am sorry to say), your responsibility to take on her patients. I know it sucks, but if you document, and report, something will be done, even if you have to go to the BON about it. You have enough to deal with for your own patients. I was told early in my orientation that I had to start thinking like a nurse and not like a nursing assistant. I disagree with this. If the NA is really busy I am more than happy to help if its needed to toilet patients, empty foleys, etc. for my patients. I do not feel that I have to pick up the slack for a nurse who is not doing her job. Trust me when I say that the families will report issues, and you can count on that. I will always offer to help a nurse who is swamped and behind if they are doing their best. A nurse who just sits around reading and smoking wouldn't get a minute of my time. If it seems that the issues are not being addressed the way they should, go through the proper chain of command to get it dealt with. This person needs to be disciplined or let go if it continues to be a problem. Document everything.

Amy

[MAISY, RN-ER, BSN, RN]

While it is admirable you care for patients comfort whether they are yours or not, your own patients do not have your availability when you are cleaning, or attending to the needs of the others. Unless you are team nursing( which obviously not the case-you are the team), you must be available for your own assignment first! That is what you will be judged on in the event of a problem.

Acknowledging a call bell is the right thing to do, however, caring for another's patient may actually violate their privacy. I am not sure if you are passing meds for her, or doing tasks and charting them, but you did not receive report for them, nor are you the nurse of record.

I agree with the others, start writing down when this nurse ignores requests for help from her patients. In addition, you may want to let your NM know that you would like to be on another shift that is minus her!

Good luck, keep your head up! You sound like a caring person who is getting taken advantage of-don't let it happen!

Maisy;)

[leslymill]

You have gotten excellent advice. Quit enabling her, your gonna burn yourself out. I don't think you need a new job, I think she does.

[PRESLA]

] Keep up you great nursing care. I know how hard it is not to jump in and help make the patient more comfortable but I agree c the others keep a log of the poor care given by this other nurse and the # of smoke breaks (hopefully your facility will become smoke free soon that is great because it makes it more friendly between staff c the amount of fair breaks taken). If you feel comfortable try going to her c your list make sure you have support if needed from other staff, but to make it appear to be ganging up on her if that does not do the trick then go to management c your concerns. Sad to say but every job has someone who will abuse the good workers because of being lazy.

Keep up your caring for your patients and your LOVE of nursing:p:roll:specs:

Lisa:smilecoffeeIlovecof:smiley_ab

[cmo421]

Ok, so I am going out on a limb here. I do not think she should come to the aid of every pt on the floor. But if a pt is in need and being ignored by their nurse,then helping is the thing to do. We have to think of the pt first. I am not saying interfering in anothers work load is right, but when a pt is in pain, it is unethical not to relieve that pain when meds are available.. After reminding the nurse a few times, and letting a resonable amount of time go by, one has to do the right thing. I would fill out an incident report each and everytime u had to take over something she/he was responsible for and did not do.(unless they could not) Also, I would call the NS if they left the floor to go to smoke( i smoke too) when a pt was in need. If someobne sat and read,or was chatting while their pt was in need, it is pt abuse/neglect and she shouldmbe called on it. In stead of going nuts and burning out yourself, call her on it. Let her answer to the powers that be. It will be hard to take a stand, but it will pay off in the end.

[FlyingScot, RN]

I have to say I agree with the above post. If you, as a nurse, are aware of a patient's need and that it is significant (wanting slippers is not significant, lying in filth is) regardless of who that patient is assigned to it is your responsibility to see that it is taken care of either by yourself or someone else. If you have notified the assigned staff member and they ignore the need you need to take care of the patient or direct another staff person to do so, notify your manager and write it up. Leaving the patient's need unmet so as not to "enable" another nurses bad behavior could easily turn into a lawsuit against you. I can't imagine how helping a patient go to the bathroom or cleaning one up could be construed as a violation of privacy. In the units I have worked there has always been the mentality that they "are all of our patients" and I worked in an extremely busy ER. Obviously you can't take care of everyone and you certainly don't want to let your own assignment suffer. I wouldn't go so far as to make sure her meds were passed on time but if I found a patient with an immediate need I have a responsibility as a HUMAN to see that patient is taken care of.

[chenoaspirit, ASN, RN]

Sadly, this nurse knows how to hide such things. When the charge nurse is "watchig" her, she helps the CN with admission paperwork, MARS, etc. She knows how to hide this crap and she knows how to suck up. The worst part is...we have lost so many staff, now we are VERY SHORT STAFFED. We have gone to our nurse manager before about issues such as these, our response is "well, you have to prove it". How on earth do you prove such things. Even once when we were able to prove it, nothing happened. We lost 4 RNs and 3 assistants in 2 weeks. One RN took a $7.00/hr paycut to get out of this place. Nothing will be done by anyone at this facility. Im at a loss. I hate my job. I am already burnt out. I do all this extra stuff, but this nurse somehow manages to make ME look bad.

[squeakykitty]

What this nurse (and the aides you mentioned in another thread) are doing is neglect when she ignores call bells and doesn't help her pts. The only thing I can think of is to document everything on the nurse and the aides, and have your coworkers do the same so that there is plenty of proof. If the NM won't do anything, go up the chain of command, inform risk management, JCAHO, even report them to the state licensing agency if nothing is done.

The scary thing is, she could get a patient that doesn't know her work ethic and is trusting her to care. But--when that patient is suddenly SOB, has crushing chest pain, and can't do more than put on the call bell--then the patient may die because that nurse ignored the bell.:trout: She should dealt with before it ever gets to that point.