Blame the weekend staff! It's fun!

Nurses Relations

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  1. Everyone today should just bite my butt?

    • 12
      Absolutely.
    • 30
      Hell Yeah.

42 members have participated

At work, the weekend staff get the brunt of the abuse, accusations, etc... We are not there during the week to defend ourselves so it is open season on us mon-fri as far as management and just about every other department is concerned. I was nearing the end of my shift today when a staff member from another dept decided to interrupt the shift change report to be abusive and nasty toward the nurses. She backed down once I stood my ground.

They don't staff correctly during the weekend and they want the world... Those of us who do show up for shifts that noone else wants anyway are unduly punished. They keep adding extra tasks for us to do while decreasing staffing. It's getting ridiculous. It's been many months since I have had time for a lunch break. I am always charting or passing medication or preventing residents with behavioral issues from falling. Sure, I could take a lunch break...then I get to fill out an incident report when our low staffing causes someone to fall...

Maybe mgmt should show up during the weekend and experience the love. It will be fun for everyone! LOL

Specializes in LTC.

AMEN! *Clapclapclap*

I got the RUDEST, most OFFENSIVE text from admin over the weekend that said something along the lines of, "We always get complaints that the weekend smell BAD! This is NEVER an issue on the weekdays!"

I was livid- first of all, you aren't here, fancypants. Second- not only do I, the lowly weekend nurse, spend my own money to buy air freshener for those not-so-fresh moments, my aides and I also have invested in a bag of perfumes, colognes, body sprays and lotions to offer to the residents. Most of them ADORE going through my bag to pick out something to wear that day.

Third... third it's a nursing home, and 95% of these people are incontient, and yeah, it's going to smell a little rough at times. Can't change a 600 lb person and have it smell like roses throughout the process.

I came in on Monday, and the morning nurse was smug as could be, and made some comments about- #1-"Heard the weekend's are smelly, you need to watch your hallway" and then some other little snark about my shirt... which happened to be a shirt my unit and I made when I was a combat medic. (Happy Memorial day!)

I told her she had thirty seconds to either count with me, or trot on down the hall.

Also, I'd like to add when I came in at 3pm today (Monday) the hall wasn't so fresh. La-de-Damn-da.

Nursing homes often smell like barnyards! LOL When I worked in LTC I would put perfumed lotion under my nose at times. Haha. I still remember the 104 year old patient who stood up from her wheelchair during church service and exclaimed loudly (with alot of expletives) that she had to go take a crap. Muahahahahahahaha! That poor chaplain...

Yeah. Everything, "only happens on the weekends..."...until one reads the charting and realizes that it happens every single day all day long. LOL Maybe the patients save their huge sh*ts for saturdays and sundays! Time to invest in some Renuzit!

Specializes in Rehab, critical care.

Sounds like you need a new job. Have you been there at least a year? Regardless of how bad something is, I'm of the mindset to stick it out for a year or close to a year for resume purposes, but that's just me. It's in no way wrong to leave earlier than that if that's what you need, etc. I am just overly explaining myself because there are some sensitive types on here, and people who misread who will say, "OP needs to do what is best for her. I disagree with you" lol.

Anyway, best of luck to you! I have worked in similar conditions in the past (not going to say where, and not even implying that it was a nursing job), but it's rough. I will say that it did make me a stronger person, and I appreciate that I work in good working conditions now, am valued, and am surrounded by a great group of people.

Best of luck on your job hunt! I say this, because even if you don't start looking now, it's only a matter of time before you're tired of it. I promise you....there are greener pastures out there :).

Dayum! This weekend sucked! I don't know where to even begin... The entire schedule was an epic trainwreck! LOL I'll explain...

Very few of my coworkers want to work weekends so several of them call off ALOT. I only work a few days a week and I am getting call offs from the same people! They want the full time benefits but they don't want to work the schedule. They accept weekends as part of their schedule because the long term staff have the good schedules. Makes sense to me! From what I hear, management has begun writing people up for all of these call offs. This weekend 2 of 3 of the sunday AM shift nursing assistants called off so they had to be replaced. Then someone who always calls off for eve shift tried to call off when she wasn't even on the schedule! LOL I have received countless call offs from her even though I only work a few days a week...

My honest assessment is that the staff is tired, fried, and burned out! The residents there have pretty severe behavioral issues and it a notoriously difficult unit to work on! On the weekends, we have so few staff. Then we have a staff member from another department who comes in to "help". She is very helpful in some aspects but she is also an incessant complainer who thinks that her words are golden if she speaks in a loud and forceful tone. It adds yet one more thing for myself, the charge nurse, to deal with... Not only am I dealing with agency staff in the absence of the routine staff, but I am having to put her in her place while I deal with the demands of residents, their family members, giving medications to 21 often difficult residents who are resistant to care, answering the phone, charting, trying to prevent people from falling, etc... I constantly have to direct the agency and non routine staff to do their job and then I have the kitchen staff complaining about random crap...

I don't like my job anymore. I adore the patients but the weekend shift is stuck in a negative feedback loop and I feel as if I need to move on. I don't think that my employer has any concerns about retaining staff... They are drowning my boss. He never seems to have a day off. Those of us who actually show up for weekends feel unduly punished. The staff complains incessantly that things are not done as they are done on the weekdays. I am sorry that I am not up to their unrealistic standards. I am looking for a new job. I am in no hurry because this job pays well... But I would like to do something that I feel passionate about. This is far too much useless drama for me! This feels like a neverending and thankless task.

I am willing to take a 20% pay cut for the right job... I am open to the possibilities! I would rather be happy and have mediocre pay. I NEVER want to work extra hours at this job. The two days I work burn me out already. This wasn't an issue with my other jobs... I used to work alot more. I lost my job of 3.5 years to budget cuts and things have sucked ever since then... I am willing to wait for the right job to come along. I will wait a year or more if I need to. I would rather have a good job fit than another quick fix...

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