Is it like this everywhere???

Todd SPN · May 11, 2002

Please don't take this the wrong way, it is just my observation from working in different fields that were women dominated. This type of behavior is almost exclusive to women. Once they start the picking on someone they can't seem to let it go as men can. As for just doing your job and going home, I have watched women that are backstabbing each other, join forces on another branding her as not being a team player because she does not join in the *****ing sessions. I think it is the lazy ones putting the focus elsewhere so they won't be caught not doing a proper job. Again, not being sexiest here.

minnib · May 12, 2002

Hello all fellow nurses...I have a great idea. Why don't all of nurses who are hard workers, positive people, don't care to gossip and generally are great to work with all go work at the same palce? Let me know.

Let's all forge on changing this field one nurse at a time, we are each others greatest support! Have a wonderful weekend all nurses. Feel free to email me and share ideas of how we can change this stigma of the nursing field.

Melinda

whipping girl in 07, RN · May 12, 2002

It didn't take me long to figure out who the folks who "stir the pot" were so I could avoid them. In our unit, day shift seems to ***** more than night shift (and the people who've worked there forever so they rarely/never work weekends ***** the most!). Those of us slogging along on the crappy (nights, qo wknd) seem to ***** the least. Funny, huh?

If I'm working weekday shifts, you can bet I'm parked right outside one of my patients' rooms to do my charting, instead of at the desk with everyone else. I mean, I help out, but I just can't stand to sit around and listen to all the crap.

We have one nurse on days who always comes in the room and starts cleaning up (even though you've just cleaned up) when she follows you. Very annoying, but I've learned to ignore it.

We have one nurse who checks the charts, figures out who was working each shift for that pt., and makes sure you filled out every piece of paperwork. If you didn't, she hangs it on your locker with a note so you can fill it out (4 or 5 days later, sometimes after the pt has been discharged!) when you come back to work. The last time she did it to me, it was the post op form for a heart cath/PTCA (I had addressed everything in my nurses notes and had not filled out the form because cath lab hadn't filled out the pre op side). I wonder if she sent a copy down to cath lab for them to fill out?! :roll Yeah, right. She was just picking on me because I'm new. So I filled in what I could remember and wrote, "See nurse's notes" for what I couldn't and sent it out to the floor to be put on the chart. Someone told me the next day it had been hanging on my locker for two days for all the world to see. :rolleyes: Maybe someday I'll be sooooo good at my job that I'll have time to take excellent care of my patients AND check the charts to make sure every piece of paper has been filled out!! And when it hasn't, figure out who fell down on the job so I can leave them a note with the offending piece of paper! :chuckle I can only hope...

OUCH! Was that a knife in my back? Kind of smarts.....

Flynurse · May 12, 2002

I have only been an LPN for a few months, but have been in the "nursing field" for a few years. I have noticed the same trend in all of these post in both positions I have posessed in the last year.

Could it be that we are experiencing a side effect of the nursing shortage? That we are all getting fed up with being overworked and frankly, underpaid? We have all been making sacrifices to continue the quality of care consumers expect by working overtime to even out the staffing needs, and in return we are expecting compensation by receiving time off from work. Thus, with all we are expected to do and all that we expect to be rewarded for is colliding like two trains traveling at top speed toward each other.

I believe it would be to our benifit to suck it up and do what we pledged to do when we graduated from school. I also believe it would do us some good to re-evaluate why we became nurses. We should bring our voices to our local high schools, instead of wasting them picketing in front of hospitals. Lend the future adults of this world a better picture of nursing instead of what scares them away, our bickering and complaining!

SanderRN · May 12, 2002

This type of bullcrap also happens at my hospital,and I hate it! As much as we would like to "just keep to ourselves" it is very difficult to not get labled as being hard to get a long with. You have to remain your friendly self but keep your mouth shut! I find it very unfortunate that people thrive on this type of behavior, but it is a way of life, i am convinced of that. Best of Luck.

SP

Todd SPN · May 16, 2002

This post is making me really sad. I was hoping this would be a profession where employees acted professionally and were there for the benefit of others. I guess I am naive.

Flynurse · May 17, 2002

Originally posted by Todd SPN
This post is making me really sad. I was hoping this would be a profession where employees acted professionally and were there for the benefit of others. I guess I am naive.

Please, don't think you are naive. There are lots of nurses who are still very professional in what they do everyday. However, there are people in this career who have been through it all and are fed up with the politics and such. :stone Maybe they just quit trying. Who knows? I do know I don't like the situations I am put in on a daily basis, but I try hard anyway to make the best of it. Where other people find faulter, I put on a happy face. I avoid complaining, but I do verbalize my opinions when necessary in a professional manner.

I worked hard to be where I am in life and career! I earned the right to put on my stark white uniform, where my graduation pin, and the name tag with the LPN tacked on the end of my name. And I am proud of it! I am a professional. Almost everyday I have someone comment to me about my professional appearance and duties. I believe we could all use a reminder of what this career really is and should mean to us. If it weren't a professional career we wouldn't be going to Colleges, and Universities to learn what we do. We wouldn't be earning BSN's, or getting certified in specific areas. If we weren't professionals we would have just another job.