I'm sick to my eyeballs of incompetent agency nurses.

[bulletproofbarb]

:angryfire

I am sick and tired of having to work with incompetent agency nurses. Ones that have no clue what to do but take the shift anyway because it's money.

I'm sick of having to teach them stuff, I am not there to teach them, I am happy to teach our own nurses but not agency nurses. If they feel they are suitable enough for agency, then it is their responsibility to make sure they have the skills not mine.

I'm sick of having to pick up the pieces and listen to complaints from relatives about them. I have had a gutful.

I'd rather work shortstaffed that watch someone do the bear minimum or nothing yet getting paid better. It really irritates me.

I hate it.I have had a gutful. I am ready to crack up.

I think that standards to become an agency nurse need to be raised. I've recently bumped into someone who has been out of the hospital system for 7 years and has come back through agency. She ended up on our ward and couldn't cope. Tonights idiot didn't know he had to empty the catheter bag of the bladderwashout and it burst. Considering they hold 4 litres, you can imagine the mess. He didn't know how to get a patient ready for theatre and a patient who was in pain was told by him to wait for another 2 hours until the medication was due again. Didn't know how to do a NJJ feed. It's appauling.

So I spoke to the manager who said he'd make a note to say he wasn't suitable, but I know from past experience it won't happen.

Then the agency nurse got offended when I told him he shouldn't take placements on a surgical ward if he doesn't normally work surgical. He said he worked medical. I don't bloody care if he is offended, that is his problem not mine.

[SmilingBluEyes]

How did this become or gender or gay issue??????

As to the OP, I think it's dangerous to generalize. I have had the pleasure to work with some AMAZING agency nurses whose skills and ability to "hit the ground running" and get the job done, truly inspire me. I guess, maybe, we have better agencies out here where I am..........I am sorry your experiences are so bad.

I have had GREAT experiences with agency nurses myself.

[jen42]

With the nursing shortage, there will always be agency nurses. Getting a hospital "float pool" is a godsend, since they work at the facility all the time, albeit in different units, and usually have to meet strict requirements for experience.

Most agencies want to make money. The less scrupulous ones will place a geri nurse in the NICU, or a NICU nurse in geriatrics (help! they're all so huge!) or a psych nurse in the ICU, etc, because it makes them more money. The good ones keep people with the skills they know. I have seen agency nurses so good I wanted to become their groupie. Yes, nurses shouldn't accept posts in areas they don't know, but I'd say the larger problem is the agency, who shouldn't allow it. A scrupulous agency with good standards would solve the "dumb agency nurse" problem.

And for the record, I have worked with wonderful, caring, heterosexual male nurses who I would gladly let deliver my children. Everyone breaks out of stereotypes sometimes.

[misschelei]

How did this become or gender or gay issue??????

As to the OP, I think it's dangerous to generalize. I have had the pleasure to work with some AMAZING agency nurses whose skills and ability to "hit the ground running" and get the job done, truly inspire me. I guess, maybe, we have better agencies out here where I am..........I am sorry your experiences are so bad.

I have had GREAT experiences with agency nurses myself.

Tweety started it!

I still say bottom line.........what kind of idiot doesn't empty the bladderwashout?? No one is 2 busy to let 4 liters pile up.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Tweety started it!

I did.

I hope it's realized that I don't generalize that male agency nurses who work night shift are lazy. But the fact of the matter remains that all the lazy agency nurses I worked with were guys. Pure coincidence I'm sure, but as a guy I did take notice and offense.

My statement that gay male nurses make better nurses than str8 ones was purely tongue in cheek. I know plenty of good males nurses gay and str8 and plenty or rotten nurses gay, str8, female and male. I judge each person individually on the quality of their care, if I judge them at all, and do not generalize traits to the population of nurses, which is so large and diverse that's unfair.

I'm always the first to jump on the bandwagon of people who generalize gender issues.

[RN4NICU, LPN, LVN]

It is always the agency nurse's fault if she is too stupid to refuse to go to an area where she has NO knowledge or experience. Those nurses are dangerous fools and I don't want them on my unit. I won't apologize for that. We treat our agency and travellers very well, considering the fact that they ALWAYS get the least acute assignments. I expect them to come with the basic knowledge and experience needed to take those assignments, end of story. That's why the hospitals pay more for them. If we wanted someone with no experience, we would just get a new grad.

Perhaps I should have been more clear. It is not always a case of the nurse volunteering to go someplace where she/he has no experience. Sometimes they get there and are told "you are going here" and are threatened with abandonment of patients and all matter of other horrible things if they do not go. In my state, you cannot abandon patients you have not received report on, but since the laws of different states vary, I will not presume to say that abandonment allegations could not be pursued anywhere. From some of the posts I have read on these boards, some state nursing boards are ANTI-nurse and will condemn their own without giving it a second thought.

Anyway, if you re-read my earlier post, you will notice that I NEVER advocated going to a unit in which you are inexperienced, but was TRYING to say that sometimes nurses are put in bad situations against their will (hence the "not always the nurse's fault" statement), because the agency wants to make their $$ and the hospital thought that a nurse was a nurse was a nurse. The threat against livelihood (being dropped by the agency, being listed as "do not return" by the hospital, etc) and the threat against license (whether they can follow through on it or not) can be enough to make a nurse do something that is a truly bad idea. Yes, there are nurses who will agree to go to an unfamiliar area without giving it a second thought, but some just allow themselves to be bullied into it.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

And I am sick to my eyeballs with dealing with incompetent staff nurses.....

Your point is?

[fergus51]

Perhaps I should have been more clear. It is not always a case of the nurse volunteering to go someplace where she/he has no experience. Sometimes they get there and are told "you are going here" and are threatened with abandonment of patients and all matter of other horrible things if they do not go. In my state, you cannot abandon patients you have not received report on, but since the laws of different states vary, I will not presume to say that abandonment allegations could not be pursued anywhere. From some of the posts I have read on these boards, some state nursing boards are ANTI-nurse and will condemn their own without giving it a second thought.

Anyway, if you re-read my earlier post, you will notice that I NEVER advocated going to a unit in which you are inexperienced, but was TRYING to say that sometimes nurses are put in bad situations against their will (hence the "not always the nurse's fault" statement), because the agency wants to make their $$ and the hospital thought that a nurse was a nurse was a nurse. The threat against livelihood (being dropped by the agency, being listed as "do not return" by the hospital, etc) and the threat against license (whether they can follow through on it or not) can be enough to make a nurse do something that is a truly bad idea. Yes, there are nurses who will agree to go to an unfamiliar area without giving it a second thought, but some just allow themselves to be bullied into it.

The laws here are the same. No nurse HAS TO take an assignment like that. It is not abandonment. The worst that could happen is they would be DNRed from the facility (and since there are about a zillion hospitals around here, that's not much of a threat). Those that do take assignments that they aren't competent to take can't blame the agency here. In the end, part of being a professional is being responsible for not risking your own lisence.

[Haunted]

I worked as an agency nurse for awhile. One hospital I refused to go back to because there was little teamwork with the staff. I asked the charge nurse where to find something and was told that I would have to find my resource nurse to get the information! For pete's sake!

One thing I found out was each hospital does things differently. For instance, computer charting. It used to be easy just to grab the chart and get it done. Each hospital now has a different program and it can be very confusing.

I once had a patient with a PCA pump. I asked the nurse going off shift if we had to check it before she left. She said they didn't check them with 2 nurses and she really didn't know all that much about the pump. When I asked other staff about the pump (one that I was not familiar with), all of them said they don't use them much and didn't know that much about them! When I got an order to discontinue the pump, I asked for help and did not get any. I figured it out myself, but it was a system that used bags of medicine. When I asked about the procedure for "wasting" the medication in the bag, the charge nurse said I would have to find someone who knew how to do that. Of course, no one could tell me. The charge nurse said "just throw it away"! Wait a minute....I should be documenting how much is wasted and have a witness!

At this same hospital, there are no CNA's. I am doing assessments on 7 patients, passing A.M. meds, picking up breakfast trays one by one and taking them all the way down the hall to a closet, getting a new admission, discharging up to 6, picking up lunch trays, teaching breastfeeding, assisting new patient to bathroom, passing pain medications, emptying waste baskets that are overflowing with pizza boxes, standing in line at the pyxis to retrieve medications, calling pharmacy because one drawer is empty, noting orders, chart checks, tearing discharge charts down, stripping beds and throwing things away from the discharged patient's room so all housekeeping has to do is wipe, mop, and remake the bed. Picking up dinner trays and walking them one by one down the hall. At the end of 12 hours, I am finally able to chart and write up the report sheet.

Oh, I forgot to say that on my first day there, the house supervisor was standing right next to me and said "Agency staff DO NOT need orientation". Excuse me, I don't need orientation for my nursing skills and taking care of my patients, but I do need orientation to where things are and how things are done there! Especially the charting now-a-days. I do not find it any easier and was disgusted to find that I had to wait to chart because all of the computers were being used!

I was a very good agency nurse and one hospital loved having me there. I stopped working there because the commute was too long.

I have since gotten away from bedside nursing. It isn't worth it anymore for me.

That sounds like my situation. Did staff nurses get help from CNA's ? Just curious.

[NurseRatchett]

I interviewed one yesterday who was just as spacey and cloudy as the milky way. Her husband came to the interview with her and was complaining that he had to go to a doctor's appointment! Talk about unprofessional...

Thank goodness I had a chance to interview her first before she came on board. In my job, we cannot afford nurses who act this way.

[LeahJet, ASN, RN]

First and foremost, there are many generalizations flying around here. I have done a few travel assignments and the managers at a couple of the units...which were both critical care.... asked me to sign on as staff. I am assuming they thought I did a good job.

As to then ones doing the generalizing..... when those nurses were 'cool' to me... which they were usually the ones on the opposite shift, the ones on my shift respected me..... I found satisfaction in knowing they could NEVER do what I do. Many had been on a unit since God was a child and they knew that unit inside and out...which they should. But they were in their safe little cocoon and sometimes resentful of us 'outsiders'. I guess they somehow felt vindicated by giving us a hard time. Oh well, whatever coping mechanism works for them.

For anyone thinking of doing agency/travel assignments..... don't let them get you down. For the most part, the staff nurses are wonderful to work with and truly appreciate the help.

And for those currently in a travel/agency position..... you guys rock. :balloons: Not many people can just get thrown into new units and be expected to function independently after a couple of shifts.

[unknown99, BSN, RN]

Good agency nurses/bad agency nurses. There are also good staff nurses/bad staff nurses.

[Mulan]

Plus some areas (not when I've been in charge) give the agency nurses the worst assignments (because they make more money), and then complain about them when they can't manage the unfair assignment.

That happened to me, I haven't been back since.

Sometimes when I read your posts I wonder if we are in the same place, or if the same type of things just happen everywhere.