I work in a rehab facility. Many of our patients are LTC and many are there for PT/OT and sent home. We also have patients on ventilators and those who have trachs. Our patients are more critical than those in a typical LTC facility and many of them are very needy. We also have RTs who work most days and nights.
Anyway, today I had this one pt who is trached but no longer vented. This pt is very high anxiety and freaks out over the smallest things - such as having to wait for her egg at breakfast. Today, she had a major panic attack. Her pulse was high, her BP was high, she was diaphoretic, and her rr was increased. Her doc recently began tapering down her haldol because the family doesn't want her to be on it. She's also allergic to most other antianxiety meds. I called both her primary care md and her paleontologist and both docs thought her symptoms were related to the anxiety. I received the order to give her a higher dose of another psych med that she already receives because the doc still didn't want to give her the haldol. My nursing judgement was called into question by the other staff nurse, the new ADON, and the RT because I didn't address her bp. Yes, I did, but both docs thought it was related to the anxiety. Giving her a dose of metoprolol or whatever isn't going to treat the underlying problem. After I gave the med and the pt had time to calm down, her vs all returned to normal. No one said anything, of course.
This happens on a daily basis and not just to me. I've never worked at a place where my nursing judgement was questioned in this manner - it seems very rude and impolite. A nurse's judgement should only be questioned if it's believed she's being unsafe. I feel like a glorified med aide - all I'm there for is passing meds and doing the grunt work. Every time I need to make a nursing decision, my judgement is called into question.
I've also been treated rudely by the administrator. I'm still on my 90 day probation period. Instead of waiting the full 90 days to decide if they liked me, they judged me once after only working 2 weeks on the floor and said staff had complained that I was slow and unhelpful. Um, hello, I've only been working 2 weeks and I know hardly anything - so of course, I'm slow and I can't help much because I don't know anything, but I always did my best to try to be helpful. After 2 months, they changed their minds and decided I was "valuable". I was told it was unacceptable for me to have my car repaired on my day off because that made me unavailable to come in to work - even though it was my day off. When I told them I was pregnant, they chastised me for not telling them at my interview and the administrator said that if I was hurt at work, she'd fight my claim for workmans comp because she knew I'd just be filing so I'd get paid while on maternity leave.
I have never been treated this way at a job before. I have never been talked down to like this before. My last day of work is 11/8 and I plan on using my maternity leave to find a new job because I can't stand to be treated this way anymore. What do you guys think? Am I in the right or am I overly emotional from this pregnancy? (Sorry for.any typos -.I'm on my kindle)
