I freaked out

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I totally freaked out at work the other day. It was extremely inappropriate and uncalled for. I am embarassed to go to work.

The other morning, right during our 8am med pass ~ including all the insulins ~ the janitors were waxing the floors which meant that whole portions of the hallways were totally blocked off from the pt. rooms. I had a heavy assignment which was the farthest from the med room, pts that were unhappy, tons of meds. Each time I entered the pt's rooms there was something extra that they needed. Well, with just "busyness" and inability to even remotely catch up, I freaked out at the janitors. Okay, I am very embarassed to even admit this, but I began what started as asking them why portions of the unit were totally blocked off, why couldn't they just do half of the hallway, etc. in which I eventually got more worked up. At this time, there was PCA's, other nurses, new orientees, student nurses that stopped to watch the whole confrontation. I eventually "mini" stormed off. Afterwards, I apologized profusely to the janitors, in which they accepted my apologies, but of course, I am now looked at upon a different light. Usually, I am happy, friendly, smile at everyone and I am not like this. People were kind of keeping away from me and talking about this incident all day (understandibly). I am working tomorrow and I don't even want to go in because of this.

I respect the janitors. It is not my opinion that they are below us (my husband was a janitor), it was basically that I felt that the management scheduled it at time when the floor was the busiest without any consideration for the unit. I sometimes feel that the nursing staff is disregarded and unimportant to basically all involved in hospital operations.

Please help me. I don't know how to face work now and am terrified for tomorrow and every shift after.

Where I am from, if there are patients in rooms, one side of the hallway MUST be open and accessable to staff at all times. JCAHO rules too. Where is it you are?

Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

We have had this probelm before..and some other things that have come up that hindered med pass as well...like working on the water lines and not having water during med passes! GRRRRRR!

We nurses spoke to managment (and yes, angry pts did too), and our managers spoke to administration to have certain times of the day off limits to any maintance/janitorial tasks that would hinder our ability to pass medications safely and in a timely manner! The administration also had to fork out the extra money to have many of these things done at night (things that do not make much noise!).

The times of these items were put on a calender or marked daily so we could alert our pts that there could be delays during such and such time and to please plan accordingly (typically announced at meals, and reminded by staff). In the case of the water deal, that had to be announced three days before, and all pts got the notice...posted everywhere...announced at meal times...and staff reminders! We also made sure each nursing station had a jug of water just in case, or even gatoraide or what not!

Sounds like your management should step in and manage the time of janitorial tasks vs nursing tasks. The medical end should always be top (healthcare facility..hello!).

Specializes in MR Peds, geris, psych, DON,ADON,SSD.

I too believe there is a safety factor and a "law" that one side of the hall has to be accessible at all times in case of emergency IE not putting items (linen carts) etc on both sides of the hall.

Specializes in ICU, Surgery.

Bring donuts to work for everyone (enough for janitors especially!!!).

That always works, LOL They'll end up laughing with you!:saint:

Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.

I would just apologize to the janitors the next time you see them. I would also take this issue up with administration, because there is clearly a lack of prioritization going on. The patients come first!

I ran into a similar situation about a year ago in the lab. I had a critical patient coming out of surgery (CABG) and I could not get at my blood gas analyzer because the janitors were stripping the floors in that area of the lab. When I initially stated that it would be better to come back later because I might have to get at the analyzers, they did not seem to understand that I mean every single one and that included the blood bank! Try telling an ICU nurse that they will have to wait a half-hour for a blood gas on their fresh post-op because the floors are being waxed...I certainly wasn't going to do that! I could have been nicer to the housekeeping staff, but they just did not see to understand that patients come first...I did apologize later on that night...

In the end, my supervisor talked with the housekeeping supervisor, and from what I understand they were able to come up with a solution that was more sensitive to patient and caregiver needs.

I have not since had to deal with this situation, so I do not know how they worked it out.

Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.

As in aside, who would choose to put in flooring that has to be stripped and waxed in a hospital? Obviously that is poor planning on the part of the designers, because there are many areas of the hospital that must function 24/7, and interrupting the work flow can affect patient care. I applaud the hospitals that include nurses in the design of units, pharmacists in the pharmacy's design, etc.

I totally freaked out at work the other day. It was extremely inappropriate and uncalled for. I am embarassed to go to work.

Oh boy, I can really relate to this one. I got on my soapbox with the CEO ,of all people :uhoh21: , last week in a meeting and now dread going back to work this week. I am the talk of the program and do not want to be. Keep your chin up - we all have our moments...

Bring donuts to work for everyone (enough for janitors especially!!!).

That always works, LOL They'll end up laughing with you!:saint:

Food is a great healer. I was going to suggest taking a plate of brownies for the janitors and the nursing staff on shift. Just say "yesterday was a bad day and I felt really bad about it." Period.

It's not necessary to do anything extra. You said you were sorry and we all have bad days. But sometimes just a little extra something goes a long way.

Specializes in LTC/Behavioral/ Hospice.

Hugs to you! Bring in donuts for the janitors and I'm sure they will forgive you anything. :) I totally understand your frustrations about trying to work under those conditions, too. It seems that every afternoon, when I had time to call doctors and family members, housekeeping chose to vaccuum right in front of the nurse's station! I finally did ask them to vacuum elsewhere in the afternoons.

Hey,

Dont freak out, I can totally empathize with you. I have MANY days like that. Im sorry you had such a crappy day but Im sure your colleagues understand. Besides, you apologized, as any normal human bieng would have. ( you should see me when I have nutty days,,,,,im a total nut) lol.

Hang in there and go back to work.

Naomi:wink2:

Specializes in Orthosurgery, Rehab, Homecare.
Yeah, one day I'm going to go completely mental on one of those floor polisher machines. Just pound the fricken tar out of it. This is one of my fantisies. Get out of the way if you see me running with a bat.

I thought that I was the only one who HATES those things. They're loud, smelly, and hugely in the way at the most inconvienent times. May be we could lead a revolt against them.

~Jen

This is the very reason why I transferred out of med/surg nursing! That type of environment can bring the craziness out of anyone! You're not a bad person, you're just experiencing burn-out. I'm sure your many years of being cheerful will buy you some forgiveness for this one incident. You'll be OK.:wink2:

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