Why do some people think they are God's gift to nursing?

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Guest343211

880 Posts

It is golden to give a complete report, however i have been on the resieving end of a nursing tring to make me look stupid. I told one male nurse to shut f$% up one morning. I was frustrated at him by the second report because he kept interruping, peppering me with questions as i was giving report. this patient was not in good shape and he had many issues that i fix that night. the point was if he would have listen to the information would have been given. ( on a off note he did this a lot to other nurses) I did not want to leave out important information because he got me off track. My after though was thou the languge was not the best, but it got his attention; he never did that again. communication is golden between nurses, If there is a nurse who spends more time making one look or feel stupid, then he or she is covering for his or her own inadequacies. the big picture is that patients can be harmed by nurses egos, so it is important to keep it in check. one thing I leaned over the years is to to be a better listener and any unanswered questions can come at the end of the report.

You are totally right, however, in many specialty units, you may be weeded out in a heart beat if you take this approach. It doesn't matter how justified you are in wanting to say shut the F____ up; b/c those that have favor or the ear of the manager will make you look like a non-team player. It's a lot of BS you often have to put up with in the specialty units. Sometimes it's really nauseating, and you understand clearly why there can be such a turnover in some of them. But they will try and put it down to "fit," when it's really someone else that doesn't have the decency to shut the _____ up so you can get to the heart of things, and then they can do their Q&A. It really is a VERY poor communication approach for someone to continually interrupt the person reporting or signing off on said pts. It should be a required course. . .Report Etiquette 101. But you know, some self-focused, obnoxious, or problematically hyper people would just blow off unless it is made a standard of practice within the particular unit culture.

God there are times you so want to tell them to shut the ______ up for a second; but even if they do, they will run to the manager, or the manager may be in ear shot and he or she may twist the event based on whoever has the greater likeability. So you often have to suck it up and take it in these units, even though it is total BS, and even though you grant them the courtesy that they just can't manage for you or someone else. I hate places that just don't play by fairness or decency rules. But there are a lot of them in nursing, and the more specialized the unit, the more potential for Diva attitudes and such.

squatmunkie_RN

175 Posts

Sometimes there are questions that HAVE to be asked... like "this patient is ordered for q 6hr Vanco but his last dose was given at 5pm yesterday- he got his q 6hr Benadryl as a pre-med but did not receive any Vanco. Do you know why?" Though that question may make the nurse on the receiving end feel stupid, it's an error that needs to be addressed and an important one in an immunocompromised patient with a significant infection.

Barring things like that, I just want to know anything outrageous that happened that perhaps wasn't listed on the report sheet because you don't want it noted in the chart that the mother is the worst person you've ever met in your life.

I couldn't stand giving report to a few select people who asked questions about EVERYTHING. "What IV fluid is he getting?" "Where is his IV?" "What size is it?" Look at the Car-Dex, this information is all right there for you!

EXACTLY! I have nurse I give report to who ask all those IV questions then get offended when I say it's on the paper. It's the norm on my floor for a pt to have several MDs: PCP, Cardio, Renal, Surgeon. As I'm going through the MDs and why they are seeing the pt, I get nurses who want me to slow down so they can write each dr's name on their "cheat sheet" paper--even ask me spell the MD name. They get angry when I tell them it's on the sheet.

squatmunkie_RN

175 Posts

They are such a huge pain in the orifice. It is the epitome of disrespect when they continue asking questions, when you have indicated that you want to give sign out, and will come back to individual questions. This is only logical. I mean you end up tolerating their BS interruptions, but at some point you just want to stop and say, "Read my ******* note you disrespectful orifice." Of course you can't do that. I think it's especially important to let those people that have been up all night get out report, and then get back to any questions. They come in all refreshed, and their bodies and brains haven't been jarred around by working God-awful nights.

Seriously squatmonky, what you describe hits the nail on the head.

They should teach both in school and nursing orientation to respect the person signing out such that they have delivered the bulk of the report, and then ask all you freaking questions after they are done. If you have a question, make a note, but then address it when the person signing off is done. Any person that has every had to teach a class or give a press conference knows that it's logical to let the person get through the bulk of their bit, and then Q&A follows. It's the same damn principle.

Whatever. People can just be damned ignorant and disrespectful. I just love working with insecure types that always have to try to make other people feel like shite so that they can make themselves feel special or worthwhile. Shut the duck up and stop quacking until the person gets through report already. At the end of the day, it reflects poorly on them, even if they are trying to make the other person look like crap. Thing is this. It's tough to with people in a team that are selfish. It's all about them--what they deem is this or that. They have to get all the glory. They have to have all the fresh post-ops or kids on ECMO or somehow in some role where they are seen as the supershite. And then some people are just a freaking bundle of nerves, it's like they just can't help but interrupt you, b/c they are so fearful with their OCD or whatever they have. You are doing internal eyerolls in your brain. God it's enough the whole system and the needs of patients and families keep you stressed. Needlessly stressing nurses make the job suck. Insecure, self-centered nurses that kill true teamwork, they make the job suck. I wish there were a hospital where we could lump all these folks together and get them the heck out of our hair. Sadly, there wouldn't be one big enough to contain them all. You try to lead by example, but some days your patience get tried. And then one day something happens.

One day, you just don't give a crap anymore. I mean you care about what you are doing and the quality of what you are doing. You care about people; but you just let the d-bags be d-bags, b/c they just seem to like being d-bags. It sucks for them and whoever has to live with them, but I just tell myself, "Hey. I don't have to sleep with them." Thank you Lord! I mean I feel for them, but if a person wants to be a devilish jackorifice, well, since I believe in freedom, I have to leave them to their devilish, jackorificedness. If it gets bad enough, I always have a backup job, and well, even if you hate to leave, if there are too many of them, or one that just has seemed to take over, I just leave them to their false-sense of power. Eventually other people get tired of it too. It's usually just a matter of time. If I have to jump ship, well, it may be for my own life and what I am doing at the time.

I have been picking up more home care lately, b/c I'm back in school again, and I don't need to be so stressed it adversely affects my GPA. I'll take the pay cut at times in order to have some peace.

OP, do your best to give report, answer their questions, do your job well, and then FORGET THEM when you are done. Seriously. All their toxic, ignorant, disrespectful stuff, just pretend you are flushing it down the toilet before you go home--and leave there--in the sewage system where it belongs. Think about all the other great and important things you have to do that day or morning, and do NOT allow them to live in your brain. It will wear on you, and you can't allow it to do that to you. Let their toxicity go right back to them. Be impervious to it.

Sometimes I've stopped report and looked at the other person and said, "OK. I can continue to try and give you report first, or you can ask all your questions first, and then I will give you report. Either way, I want to get through report without being inundated with questions. I don't mind the questions, but I do mind them constantly interfering with my train of thought as I give you report. Does that make sense? How would you like to proceed? Q&A first, or report, then Q&A?" Some people don't like it; but I feel like if they don't have enough tolerance to show proper respect, and that seems to be the way things roll in that particular unit, then I don't need to work there. After over 20 years, I just don't feel the need to subject myself to needless disrespect and toxicity. If that is the tone there on a regular basis, that's a hint for me to look elsewhere. I just really don't care about that crap anymore.

You don't know how good your post made me feel. :) I read every word and plan on taking the advice. For some reason that is exactly what I needed to hear. It's like you hit the nail on the head with everything I was thinking. THANK YOU!!!

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
You are totally right, however, in many specialty units, you may be weeded out in a heart beat if you take this approach. It doesn't matter how justified you are in wanting to say shut the F____ up; b/c those that have favor or the ear of the manager will make you look like a non-team player. It's a lot of BS you often have to put up with in the specialty units. Sometimes it's really nauseating, and you understand clearly why there can be such a turnover in some of them. But they will try and put it down to "fit," when it's really someone else that doesn't have the decency to shut the _____ up so you can get to the heart of things, and then they can do their Q&A. It really is a VERY poor communication approach for someone to continually interrupt the person reporting or signing off on said pts. It should be a required course. . .Report Etiquette 101. But you know, some self-focused, obnoxious, or problematically hyper people would just blow off unless it is made a standard of practice within the particular unit culture.

God there are times you so want to tell them to shut the ______ up for a second; but even if they do, they will run to the manager, or the manager may be in ear shot and he or she may twist the event based on whoever has the greater likeability. So you often have to suck it up and take it in these units, even though it is total BS, and even though you grant them the courtesy that they just can't manage for you or someone else. I hate places that just don't play by fairness or decency rules. But there are a lot of them in nursing, and the more specialized the unit, the more potential for Diva attitudes and such.

Yeah I'm kinda thinking this is against our hospital's behavioral policy to tell another nurse to shut the f up...people have been written up for much less of an "attitude" than that. Understand the sentiment though, hooooo boy do I understand.

PunkBenRN

92 Posts

Specializes in LTC, Medical, Telemetry.
that the brother in laws cousin's wife's daughter is a nurse (well, not a nurse, a MA in a pediatrician's office) and says she's not ready to go home......

You mean you don't take the brother in law's cousin's wife's daughter's opinion seriously? ;)

Guest343211

880 Posts

Hey, this has been a good rant for me too. I feel a little bit "vented" myself, after going on so. LOL

You know, though it's been said before, there really is no getting around this:

[All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

  • Share everything.
  • Play fair.
  • Don't hit people.
  • Put things back where you found them.
  • Clean up your own mess.
  • Don't take things that aren't yours.
  • Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
  • Wash your hands before you eat.
  • Flush.
  • Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
  • Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
  • Take a nap every afternoon.
  • When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
  • Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
  • Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
  • And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.]

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

[source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum. See his web site at Robert Fulghum, OFFICIAL Website, see NEW stories! ]

Add one more to that. . .Don't interrupt people when they are talking, unless it's REALLY important and just can't wait.

:)

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B

9 Articles; 4,800 Posts

And last but not least, don't sweat the petty stuff, and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

RNdynamic

528 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, Float Pool Nursing.

Generally, the people the OP are describing are just insecure idiots. I ignore idiots.

Do not waste my time telling me a joke the pt said or how cute they are . I do not care . give me useful information so i can go get them assessed and meds given before there is another fire to put out. some get defensive if like kelrn215 said , you ask a question and it was an error etc. I do not care. if i have a question i will ask and probably stilk page the on call md. like ngt not to suction but not addressed in report. still have it ordered. for the insecure, defensive types , i always word it like this , " so the ngt is ordered to low continous suction, i know some drs just clamp it on their own, do you know if they came up to do that, because it is clamped,? sometimes that does happen , the drs round, change things but do not change the order. other timea the nurse never hooked them back up after giving meds and hrs have passed or pt refusing suction or something like that. i go in early. look at labs. read as much of the chart as i can and ask questions of stuff i dont see charted. if anything, rarely is report enough. many pts are admitted for a long time and their hospital course hx is severely lacking. if something happens, and it does, neither you or the night float resident got a good sign out, pt can be comprimised and you will look like an"stupid nurse". i give report and state what brought pt in, what has happened to date and any complicTions. even if that means report is 1 min longer. pt was intubated 1 month ago and now on ra. etc if someone says, " i dont care, just tell me this or that ". guess what? I do not care and am not offended at all. if they dont think they need that information well okay ..... i try not to take anything personally

Specializes in Cardiac.
Do you work with people that think they are just hot ****? People that you give/get report to/from and they ask a million condescending questions, acting like you don't know anything? I consider myself a laid back person, I try to stay quiet and let the person give report before I stop and ask a question (especially a stupid one: like you say "the pt hasn't had any pain medicine since the AM" and they ask "well what EXACT time?"---CHECK THE EMAR!)

Or that you give report to a person who is completely clueless and you're nice and polite, and then when the rolls are reversed and they ask you a million questions trying to seem smart. I'm trying not to get specific here I think people on the job read this site. Sorry for rant, I'm just kind of ticked off.

Aren't you doing the same thing, being patronizing by the statement you made in your second paragraph? I find that offensive. You sound just like one of the nurses that you described in your first paragraph. Anyone who has survived nursing school and passed the NCLEX is far from "stupid." I'm offended you would describe anyone in our profession that way. I do understand that some nurses need to learn how to ask appropriate questions. I for one will call the nurse giving me report on her "crap," such as, why hasn't my CABG been given pain meds for your entire shift? Why was the PTT drawn and is not therapeutic yet the heparin has not been held? Basically, what I want to know in report is similar to what another poster posted, can they take their pills, how do they ambulate, why are they here and any procedure that have been done or need to be done. Another thing that tics me off is, why hasn't a consent been signed for a procedure that is getting done soon after I come on, such as a heart cath? Personally, if my report is sufficient from the sign out report, I need nothing else from you. However, there have been times I've come in and there is no sign out report, so YES, I need some type of report. We do bedside reporting as well. It also tics me off when fluids are hanging and almost empty. I just arrived on the floor and I shouldn't have to come and clean up all the messes created overnight.

I've worked nights, I understand that some nights are crazy, trust me I get that. When it becomes a pattern that is another problem. I also can tell when someone giving me report has had about enough and is on the verge of crying d/t such a bad night. I have often said, you go, I can read and figure stuff out for myself. Clearly, nobody can make someone else feel inferior. I love being a nurse, we nurses need to stick together, not berate each other. If you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem. I don't mean to sound mean, that is not what my post is about, just makes me angry when we nurses berate each other.

royhanosn

233 Posts

Specializes in psych, general, emerg, mash.

Did you not know that they are? God's gift! lol

Its the ego thing, and they have never been told NO! REmember in this day and age, the media tells you, everything is fine & wonderful and if you concentrate you can become God's gift, and your dreams will come true, until you get out into the real world.

The reality is...NOT!

I work with all kinds, and when the right ones work together..the patients know it, sense it, and we mean business. They love it.

crynyce

14 Posts

Do you work with people that think they are just hot ****? People that you give/get report to/from and they ask a million condescending questions, acting like you don't know anything? I consider myself a laid back person, I try to stay quiet and let the person give report before I stop and ask a question (especially a stupid one: like you say "the pt hasn't had any pain medicine since the AM" and they ask "well what EXACT time?"---CHECK THE EMAR!)

Or that you give report to a person who is completely clueless and you're nice and polite, and then when the rolls are reversed and they ask you a million questions trying to seem smart. I'm trying not to get specific here I think people on the job read this site. Sorry for rant, I'm just kind of ticked off.

Omg I totally Understand. I am an agency nurse at a nursing home. I am on a different floor everytime I work. I get so annoyed when the on-coming nurse asks me a million questions about residents that I obviously don't know the answer to. I mean Come on, How am I supposed to know if their skin is intact if i'm working night shift and they are sleeping? If you need to know all of these specific questions, can't you take a look in the chart. Or do I have to do that for you too. I'm Just Sayin!!! ; )

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