Am I harrassed???

[neeke816]

It was a night shift with one Chinese senior nurse, me, and a casual nurse from another unit. The Chinese seinor nurse has been working for our unit about 5 yrs and famous for her dominant personality.

She was picking up every thing I've done during the night shift.

For example,

1) she was calling me why I didn't organized pt 28's chart,and I'm not doing my job,so I told her because she is not my pt, and I've never had that pt. She never apologized at all.

2) she picked up my handwriting and telling me that my "mg" doesn't look like "mg", and it could be a big deal. I agree with her that it could be a big deal, but "mg" was the only measuring unit on that chart, so you can't be confused with "mcg" or "g" , and I don't think my "mg" wasn't too bad comparing to some other nurses' or doctors' writing.

3) A casual nurse's pt's antibiotic was done, I heared the IV was beeping, but it needed to be flushed with NS, so I put 100 ml of NS, but didn't take the medcine lable off from the burette. I just told the casual nurse that pt's antibiotic was done, and I put 100ml of NS to flush, so she could take off the label after the flush, and she said thank you. However later on, the senior nurse was shouting at me why I didn't take the label off, and it made her confused. I told her that I already talked to the pt's nurse about it, but she looked quite angry at me that I didn't tell the charge nurse about it.

4) It was napping time, and I asked the senior nurse whether she will take her break and use blanket, and she said no. So I told her that I will dump everything in the linen bag after I use it, and I did. Later on, she was shouting at me that I dumped the only blanket that we had our unit, and because of that she can't take her break. She looked really angry, so I just went to another ward and get her blanket, and she said she is too busy to take her break.

5) After I took my break, I came back to our unit, and I just sat about 3 mins, then the senior nurse was talking to me why I don't check my pts immediately when I got back to the unit. She was telling me that about one yr ago, a nurse didn't check the pt for 5hrs, and the pt got a cardiac arrest and died. I checked everyone's vital sign before I took my break, and I do check my pt at least every 1-2 hrs, so I told her so, but she was telling me that that's not good enough for her.

6) I put my feet on the chair. It was just me and her, and my legs were killing me, and she told me not to do it infront of her because it's unprofessional. I even saw other nurses taking a nap, cutting their nails, and watching movies.

7) I asked her whether she needs any help. I just tried to be nice to her, but she was "Stop asking me!! If I need help then I will tell you!!!"

Besides she never answered other pt's call but hers only, and the other nurse was new and unexperienced plus hard of hearing with her hearing aid, and she couldn't give meds by herself. So, I was running everytime whenever pts call or IV beeps. I didn't say anything, and did my best to be polite, but I couldn't hold it anymore when this happened.

8) The other casual nurse's pt was confused lady and I tried to give her scheduled aspirin but she spitted it out several times. It was 0600 and my other pts were calling me, so I asked the nurse about the pt's temp, and it was fine. So I meant to put "pt refused" on the chart, but I got busy, and she wasn't my pt, so I forgot.

About 30 mins later, pt got 38.0 fever, and the casual nurse told the senior nurse, and she was shouting at me why I don't do my job. And that was it, I couldn't hold anymore.

I gave pt's aspirin and went to a bathroom and cried, but AM staff and my manager saw me and asked me what happened.

I was emotionally and physically wiped out, so I rambled little bit, but couldn't explain it quite logically. I just told my manager that I don't mind working with that nurse and I don't have any problem with her.

I feel like I should go to my manager and explain it better. I talked to the casual nurse and she told me that she will back up me, just in case my senior nurse talk something against the truth.

Am I harrassed at work??? I just feel so terrible and incompetent, since she was shouting at me that I'm not doing my job right whenever she had a chance.

[vanburbian]

yada yada yada...

............................................................

Real Nurses don't cry.....

Did my "wink" not show up??

Not a LITERAL statement here folks. Hence the wink.

[wwwyzzy]

oh ok... lol then

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Going point by point with your original post, OP:

1. No big deal. Not exactly polite on the part of the senior nurse, but no big deal. Some people are just naturally brusque.

2. Now this IS a big deal--the fact that "mg" is the only symbol/unit used on the chart doesn't mean that won't change in the future. Your handwriting has to always be legible, not just "better than some of the others." If the charge nurse thinks it's unclear, you can bet others may find it unclear too.

3. You should have followed whatever the unit procedure is.

4. You can LEGALLY sleep at work? Wow!

Seriously...this was the senior nurse being a grump-monster and not called for, IMO.

5. Again, follow whatever your unit procedure is, based on your patients' acuity.

6. It IS unprofessional to do that: the fact that other nurses do unprofessional things is no excuse for you to do so.

7. Take the hint. Only ask her once if she wants help; after that, if she wants help she will ask you. The fact that you did ask her once will protect you if she complains "but OP never offers to help me."

8. This was an error on your part: you should have charted that the PT refused the medication. And you were the one who gave the medication (or tried to) so it was on you to chart it even though it wasn't your patient.

Overall, I don't think you are being harassed, and the charge nurse does have valid points that you SHOULD heed. But it also sounds like she may have been having a bad day or is just a grumpy person. Or she could have been agitated with you over those bad points most of us pointed out to you.

See how things go with her and if necessary ask a supervisor how to deal with her if relations don't improve.

I hope things get better for you there.

[Miller86]

So wait...Her being Chinese had what relevance ?How come the race/nationalities of the other nurses were not mentioned? Biased much? Did you expect people to say, "it's because she's Chinese?!!" Most of what your "Chinese" charge nurse did was relevant and expected. You get to sleep with a blanky at work and not check on your patients upon return. That's unheard of in most hospitals. She gave you the best advice, take it and learn from them. It's not because she's Chinese, it's because she's a nurse in charge.

[PeepnBiscuitsRN]

Mg could look like a lot of things to a lot of people:

NG

Mcg

Ounce or Dram in the apothecary system (which I haven't ever seen in my 11.5 months of nursing, and my mom the pharmacy tech hasn't seen in use since 1974)

ng (like nanogram?)

So yes, I would make certain your penmanship is impeccable- come on! This is another human life in YOUR HANDS!! Don't leave room for any possible mistakes- if someone else (crotchety as she may have been) points out that it's not legible, then take it as a favor she's doing to you.

I would check my patients on return from my break (during which there is no sleeping). I can't count on the nurse covering for me to be able to take my patients and hers as well. I assume you worked real hard for that little license that lets you have the letters RN behind your name- I know I did. I guard it with my life!

Same goes for the Aspirin- nothing drives me more bonky than when I get to work and I see a 2200 or 2300 med not charted- it leaves me scratching my head wondering if the evening nurse gave it. Sure I can look on Pyxis, or ask the patient if they got their Vanco, but if they're confused, then the heck with it. Plus, it creates the risk of a double dose.

Taking the label off the burett? Well to be honest, I haven't used a burett since nursing school (yeah I'm a young little whelp). But I would have taken the label off, if it's what the other nurse would do, then I would have done it or re-labeled it the saline flush (we usually just use a 500ml bag of saline and set it as the primary bag and the antibiotic or whatever as the piggy).

That all said: I'm sorry your charge (whatever nationality she was, not that it really matters unless she made it an issue as well) I'm sorry she was a crabby butt. Maybe she was already on edge, and she was picking up these errors and little things she was trying to help you with and she felt like you were blowing her off and poo-pooing it like it was no biggie, and she could clearly see it was and it was frustrating her. Hopefully you'll have a better shift next time.

...naptime...wow...that's just...

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

From looking at a previous post of the OP, he/she is Korean. Maybe that's the reason for pointing out the senior nurse is Chinese? Although I don't see why the OP felt the need to include that...

[giveface]

Real nurses don't cry eh?

Hmmm, somehow I must have really pulled one over on both my university graduating at the top of my class and passing the CRNE. I cry all the time. But mostly because I hate working with nasty judgmental people.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I don't think you are practicing in the US because we don't have nap time for workers here. I do however think you need to take a good look at your habits at work and make the proper adjustments.

You are a new grad and a new grad with a habit of making careless mistakes and not owing up to the seriousness of the situation(https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/i-feel-like-569007.html#post5156407). You also have this thing about feeling harassed (https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/i-feel-so-662345.html) and I am not sure that you understand fully about the definition harassment. I am not sure what your charge nurses ethnicity has to do with the whole scenario other than it may be a cultural thing for you and what country you are working in, but the charge nurse is the charge nurse and you need to be respectful of their education and training. I don't think she was unreasonable according to what you have in your post.

You say you were trained in the US and our culture is very informal for some things but, putting your feet on the furniture may be ok at home but even here in the US as a supervisor if I saw you kicked back in a chair with your feet propped up I would find that disrespectful, unprofessional and rude and have you remove your feet from the furniture. I also feel that if you are writing on the patient medication record the meticulous attention to clear, legible, concise writing is imperative to the proper administration of medicines and therefore IS a big deal.

Patients should be checked hourly and even then you may find a patient has suffered a fatal event that will require intervention hourly rounds has been proven to lessen the odds against a bad outcome. I am unclear what the other nurses hearing issues are that would make it difficult to see to pass meds. But if you administer a med, whether it is your patient or not, has have just assumed the responsibility for that patient and the documentation/administration for that med to that patient, the failure of documentation is you responsibility and yours alone.....besides scheduled aspirin is given for heart preventative, blood thinning properties and has nothing what so ever to do with a fever or lack thereof.

You are a new grad, possibly in a new country, and new on the job. I think you need to be more respectful of more senior nurses regardless of their nationality. I think you need to take a good look at your practice and be more diligent in the care of your patients and examine if nursing really is for you. You have wondered this in the recent past.

The first year after licensure is hard. Harder if you decided without experience to due that year outside of the country of licensure. I think you need to recognize that you are a new grad and have a lot to learn. I think you need to look inside to see how you are representing yourself in the best light possible and practice a little humility.

I wish you the best of luck!

[mazy]

Was the patient scheduled to receive aspirin for a fever? I'm not sure what country you're in, but here aspirin is used as an anti-platelet/prophylaxis for heart patients. So, that's an important thing to know.

But looking back at your profile, it seems that you also felt harassed when a male patient experienced an erection while taking a shower and then became horribly embarrassed, covering himself up, which prompted you to run out of the room and find a man to take care of him because you felt he was coming on to you.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

I would not put up with her behavior... can you could define it as harassment?.. on a personal level .. of course..... within your facilities guidelines .. who knows?, it will not be addressed until you report it.

Document ..document,, document and take it to the next level.

Sorry about those comments about getting a little sleep time..I feel another thread commin' on.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

hmmm. do you want to be harassed for some reason? i say this in all kindness, seriously, but i don't think you want to go through your career looking for ways to be labeled a victim. it feels like that from here.

maybe it's a language barrier, because i sense that english may be your second language.

maybe it's cultural; did somebody tell you to expect to be treated badly if you were a nurse in this country?

maybe it's something else. can you explain this?

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

undoubtedly, i still can't get over the napping @ work interestingly enough, i never had the chance during my day time shift to do so, needless to say, and the time to accomplish all of my assignments if i take a nap.