Leaving and switching jobs because of all these nursing related issues has left me an old nurse who will always be new.
There are times when you really need to move on for the sake of your mental health but I have been in this path many times and
I am frankly not sure if what I did is right. I have over 10 yrs experience as RN, 2 of them in the critical care and all sort of
issues comes out where I felt as though I am being treated as new all the time and of course it is a pain in the neck because I have over 10 yrs nursing experience and I look young but I am new on that particular unit. It is tough to work and have fellow nurses eat you.
Like the other night, my a-line is constantly alarming because the pt is moving his hand as he is dominant on that hand despite the arm board. I have tried all sorts of action from changing the whole dressing, taping and retaping the arm board, angling the hand and taping it, ensuring no bubbles , length of tubing, etc but the wave will dampened as soon as I come out of room after fixing it and the bp drops which is inaccurate . Then this travel RN talks about how my patient has been alarming all night and I am not doing anything about it. She doesn't know a thing about what I did and yet she has the nerve to talk like that. I asked her to see if she can work her magic into it and of course she was boasting and teaching things I already know at the bedside ( I used to work in CCU where we handled multiple swans and a- lines) and boasted she fixed it bec. the wave is excellent so I said ok as soon as you sit down it will dampened, lets see...and lo! and behold it did dampened after she came out of room. This pt needs his a line for a q1 hr blood draw and she is talking about discontinuing it . If this is not enough she is not done making my otherwise nice night a living hell, by complaining about my 2nd pt who is alarming because of sats of 89-91% on a 70% fio2. This pt has bad lungs and the doctor accepts a low 02 sats of >88% and to think she has had this pt the previous night, she boasts "not on my watch". She was a military RN and I do not know how they do it there but she sure is upsetting. Now, how best do you handle this kind of person who thinks she is the only high and mighty RN on the unit???? In my younger days I would leave and find a different job as these kind of upsetting things piles up but I do not think this is an option to my best interest at this point in my career. My hospital is unionized , values seniority, and for profit.
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