do you ever get tired of being treated like crap?

[EDnursetobe]

hi everyone;

the last few nights I had a LOT of difficult patients (super demanding). I do my best to get them everything they need, but I can only do so much... (there's only so much I can do as an RN). I call the doctor and other higher-ups and inform them of situations... but beyond that I can't do much besides comfort measures (i.e. i cant write orders for meds)

Anyway, i think I'm getting really frustrated with being treated like crap... I do my best for patients. I try to provide them comfort. But if the doctor/higher up won't do anything (in terms of medication) then I'm pretty much stuck.

I'm tired of getting screamed at for not having pain medication to give. I'm tired of getting yelled at because the blankets are not thick enough. I'm tired of getting screamed at because the food is terrible...

iughhhh I'm just tired of gettin blamed for every single thing that is wrong with patients...

[Guest717236]

I once worked with a psychiatrist who was asked by staff,

How do you do it? Listening to patient stories day after day, and

the difficult patients who yell and scream at you .

His reply-

"So who listens"

If you have done the best you can do (and its documented), put some

boundaries around yourself for your own well being.

[46oldnewrn]

What really stinks is that I am tired of being treated that way by my DON and other "teaching nurses". Example....getting written up for a missed coumadin order on the first time EVER using a computer for our Mar, with having no help at all from IT, they were gone by five o'clock. Getting called into the office for not having a double signature on an order for MOM. Telling my DON I finally passed my boards for my RN , and she stated "well you really need to work on your management skills!" Oh yes, no hey way to go , good job, but you need to work on your management skills. I was a manager for 10 years before going into nursing and I was awesome. You catch more flies with honey, and my boss uses vinegar. Ughhhh

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Don't we ALL get tired of being treated like crap?

Unfortunately, it comes with the territory. Like any job, we have to take a certain amount of crap from Joe Schmoe.

The silver lining: we don't have to deal with it when we get home. We don't have to run numbers, we don't have to take a briefcase home with us loaded with work, we don't have to deal with the BS of politics WHEN WE GET HOME.

We give report, we unwind at home and get ready for the next day.

[noahsmama]

Telling my DON I finally passed my boards for my RN , and she stated "well you really need to work on your management skills!"

If it were me, I would have had to bite my tongue not to say, "Well apparently, you need to work on yours too!!!".

[maelstrom143]

It does come with the territory and ED is the roughest cause you have to prioritize even when the patients don't like it.

How do I deal with it? When it gets really rough, I remind myself ever so gently, "At least I don't have to take them home with me"

[Stratiotes]

I am fine with patients. It is the other nurses and doctors that I feel treated the worst by. Doctors who expect you to vacate their favorite seat when there are 3 other empty identical ones adjacent to it. Nurses who act like their world is ending because you left something for them to do. It isn't even enough to get everything done up to shift change--if anything comes up DURING or even after shift change as long as you're still on the floor, they expect that to be done too else they scowl and pout. lol I wish everyone would just chill and act like adults. Unless I know someone to be habitually lazy who likes to pass the buck, it doesn't bother me to have a task or two passed on to me. That is what 24 hour care is about. Get over it. *rant over* lol

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Imagine an invisible wall.

Imagine that you have built it, brick by brick, so you can see through it and touch through it, but not be touched through it. THAT is your protection from the "crap" patients, families, doctors, managers, and others dish out to nurses on a regular basis. YOU are in control of whether any of it gets through that wall; the way to maintain that control is to focus on doing the very best job you can when you are on duty, and let whatever is thrown at you run uselessly down the outside of that invisible brick wall. It cannot touch you because none of these people who criticize, nag, yell, or curse at you really know you, and thus their opinions of you do not matter; their calling you a name or accusing you of being incompetent/uncaring/stupid/slow/fill in the blank doesn't make it so.......right?

And yes, it takes time and a certain amount of mental toughness to put up that wall and keep it up under the barrage of criticism and hostility nurses face every day. I've been a nurse for almost fifteen years, and only in the past two or three of those years have I been able to mount my defenses. Not that the occasional breach doesn't happen---like everyone else, I have my favorite folks, and on the rare occasions when one of them is critical of something I've done, it stings. But there is a difference between a bad day and a ruined week, a feeling of having let someone down (which may even be deserved) and total destruction of one's self-image. And that is where that invisible wall serves one very well indeed.

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

yes i get VERY sick of it. Sometimes it is easier for me to tolerate but othertimes it takes a lot of strength for me to keep my mouth shut and just stand there.

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

I guess I am fortunate that I find most of my patients treat me with respect and courtesy. And, I usually don't find it too much of a stretch to be respectful and courteous back. I also am pretty good at just listening and letting it roll off my back. SOmetimes they just need to be angry at someone, and there I am.

However, the more I work as a nurse, the more I realize that I really don't want to work in the ER. Its funny, because in school I thought that was exactly what I wanted. No thanks! Good for you that can handle it down there

[caliotter3]

I am continuously tired of getting nursing assistant pay for licensed nurse work and being treated as if I were the maid instead of a professional.

[tiroka03, LPN]

Many times what works for me, is to pullup a chair or to put a hand on their shoulder. I listen and validate their opions. I take the time at the begining of the problem to get them to know I will do what I can. This many times stops them from continual problems. I will let them know what my plan of action is, and how and when to expect it. I tell them I am a nurse, not a doctor and can't make the doctor write an order. I check in on them occasionally and give them updates or check on them. This seems to take a lot of wind out of their complaining sails.