Yes Virginia, there is a nursing shortage

Nurses General Nursing

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There is a huge nursing shortage for good nurses. I have seen so many nurses who should not be in nursing. They are short with their patients, they are rude to their patients and families, they think they are always right, when they will not reason with anyone. Who am I to judge? I am kind and caring, my patient always comes first, before my breakfast lunch and dinner, If they turn the call light on to ask me to take their socks off because they can not reach them, I do not belittle them. I hear other nurses say that a certain patient grosses them out, WTH? How would they like to be in that patients shoes? Maybe they didn't have the opportunities that the nasty nurse has had in her or his lifetime. I wish i could fix the world, and put everyone where they should be to make everyone happy. Thanks for the Vent

RN1982

3,362 Posts

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
There is a huge nursing shortage for good nurses. I have seen so many nurses who should not be in nursing. They are short with their patients, they are rude to their patients and families, they think they are always right, when they will not reason with anyone. Who am I to judge? I am kind and caring, my patient always comes first, before my breakfast lunch and dinner, If they turn the call light on to ask me to take their socks off because they can not reach them, I do not belittle them. I hear other nurses say that a certain patient grosses them out, WTH? How would they like to be in that patients shoes? Maybe they didn't have the opportunities that the nasty nurse has had in her or his lifetime. I wish i could fix the world, and put everyone where they should be to make everyone happy. Thanks for the Vent

I've met some nurses who make me wonder why they became a nurse. Some are just so rude to families, patients, their co-workers. My managers let a nurse go. She was rude and abrasive and she would always complain that people were rude to her when she spoke to them but it was them responding to how rude she was to them. She called a patient inappropriate names and was physically abusive to him. My managers do not want a tense working environment so she was let go.

Specializes in Family Practice/Primary Care.

There is not a shortage of nurses. There is a shortage of nurses willing to work under the current conditions at this pay.

The fact that we have bad apples will stand regardless. There are bad people in every profession.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I'll never forget a nurse I had in my second med-surg rotation. My patient was 90, post-surgical, in a lot of pain, and needy. She was also hard-of hearing, and didn't always wear he hearing aids.

I was helping my RN boost my patient up in the bed. She was in pain. When we finally slid her, she shouted "You're killing me!" the nurse marched over to the door, closed it, and screamed (literally) at the patient. I was horrified, If that had been my grandmother, that RN would have been on the floor.

Babs0512

846 Posts

Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.
I'll never forget a nurse I had in my second med-surg rotation. My patient was 90, post-surgical, in a lot of pain, and needy. She was also hard-of hearing, and didn't always wear he hearing aids.

I was helping my RN boost my patient up in the bed. She was in pain. When we finally slid her, she shouted "You're killing me!" the nurse marched over to the door, closed it, and screamed (literally) at the patient. I was horrified, If that had been my grandmother, that RN would have been on the floor.

It's a shame you witnessed that nurses behavior, however, sometimes it's good to see such things, as it will help you to remember never to behave like that nurse.

By the way, you can write a nurse up or at least report them for this kind of behavior.

Blessings

yousoldtheworld

1,196 Posts

I have worked under a couple of nurses who were TERRIBLE.

One clearly hated her job. You could tell she hated everything about it. She complained from the moment she walked in the door until the moment she left. She was snippy and even downright rude to patients AND staff. Patients who were normally completely oriented, polite, and pleasant were always getting charted on for behaviors and refusals when she was working. She always commented that she couldn't believe that no one had charted those behaviors on those patients before - guess what, lady. EVERYONE is going to refuse care if you go in there looking at and talking to those patients like they're mere inconveniences to you. If a patient was yelling out in pain or confusion, she would often just close their door.

I dreaded coming to work when I knew she'd be working. She was known for refusing to do ANY "aide tasks", regardless of how busy she was or how busy we were. For example, I was once in the middle of a bedbath. She came into the room, said "the lady in room whatever needs some kleenex" and closed the door. The omnicell holding the Kleenex is RIGHT NEXT TO THE NURSES STATION, where when I came out, she was leaning and looking at a magazine. Another time I was cleaning up after a patient who had vomited all over herself and her room. She was weak and shaky and I had been in there perhaps five minutes getting her taken care of. The nurse storms in and says, very brusquely, "You need to hurry up, you have call lights going off." I finished as quickly as I could and went into the hall...there was one light going off and it was a lady who wanted a cup of ice. ugh. Almost daily, patients would comment to me, "GOSH, she's hateful".

I can't understand why you would go through the trouble of nursing school and the stress of the job if you HATE it, and apparently, other people. You are absolutely right - there is a shortage of GOOD nurses.

VU RN BSN

105 Posts

rhonda,

You're absolutely right. So true.

You know what has been my experience? Those "bad nurses" or "mean nurses" who should never have gone into nursing are often rewarded by upper management because they do everything fast. Sure, ofcourse they are fast, they do not care. Those nurses who don't care about their patients spend as little time in their patient rooms as possible, so therefore their charting and paperwork and documentation is always done on time. Upper management thinks that makes them a good nurse.

The good nurses, the true nurses who were called into nursing, are the caring ones who are kind to their patients, who listen to their patients, who do everything they can to help their patients. They are at the bedside as much as possible. And ya know what? Upper management, nurse managers, charge nurses, etc just want to yell at them and discipline them all the time, because they see them as "slow". They're told "you spend too much time with your patients". How sad.

I know this from personal experience, and not just from being an RN for 4 years. My Dad has been hospitalised 4 times in the past 2 years. My Dad's second hospitalization was for 7 weeks. So yes, I have observed good nursing and bad nursing from both the inside and the outside.

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