was i unprofessional? (quick story)

[raindrop]

I several years experience as charge nurse and I think I always handle people and situations quite well. However, at my current place of my employment, the first person who shows up for the shift is the charge nurse. Quite fine by me, but I've noticed a couple women who love the power trip of being charge and the other day it finally got to me. I show up for work and noticed that me and another nurse only had 8 patients assigned to us, whereas, the charge nurse assigned herself 11. I also noticed that we had 5 open beds. I voiced my concerns because it was clear to me (as always) that the other nurse and I were going to get the 5 admissions and the charge nurse won't have any, because she was already at her max. She disregarded my concerns and the shift began. Yep. right away, the other nurse and I each got 2 admissions. And then ED called to give us the 5th patient. This is where I put my foot down. I told, yes, TOLD the CN that she would be taking the 5th admission. She said NO, because that would give her 12 patients. I told her she can give me report on one of her current patients as I will take over their care. She huffed and puffed and pouted, but ended up taking it.

So by the end of the shift, I ended up with 11 patient (2 admissions and her spillover patient); the other nurse got 2 admissions = 10 patients....and the charge nurse had to give up a patient to take an admission, for a total of 1 admit and 11 patients.

Was this professional of me to grab the bull by the horns like this? I was very matter-of-fact, yet, professional......if that makes any sense. I wasn't ****** about it. I told my boyfriend about it and he thinks I was unprofessional....

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Of course not. However, the OP wasn't asking about nurse/patient ratios, s/he was asking about the professionalism of their actions.

Exactly. And when OP posted her question about the professionalism of demanding a change in her assignment, no doubt she was hoping for opinions from carpenters, attorneys, engineers and rocket scientists. Cause they all would no doubt understand shift work, charge nurses, rapid admissions, patient acuity and hospital politics. Thereby leading to their ability to understand, evaluate and pass judgment on professional nursing behavior. Just as they were taught in law/engineering/carpentry school.

Whatever:uhoh3:

As for me, I will stick to Allnurses.com, kind of pining for the day when only nurses and nursing students were interested in posting here.

[seizetheday]

The majority of the nurses who post here are looking to communicate with other nurses, not lay-people. If I start a thread here about some sort of difficulty I am having with my job, I want input from other experienced nurses, not bar tenders, carpenters, waitresses, etc. I have no actual proof, but my gut feeling tells me that most other nurses here feel the same way.

Yes that may be true and I would agree that most want to hear from nurses. That however is a separate issue form saying that an individual can't understand professionalism in the workplace unless they are a nurse.

[kalevra, BSN, RN]

But she doesn't have additional responsibilities. I've said it 3 or 4 times already.....she is only responsible for making assignments for our shift. I know this for a fact. I know this for a fact because more often than not, I am charge. I am not assuming she doesn't have additional duties....I KNOW she doesn't. And the other nurse knows she didn't either. The charge nurse does not need to know anything that is going on with any of our patients. At the end of her shift, she simply reports off about her patients to the oncoming nurse and LEAVES. Just like the rest of us.

Since they have no other responsibilities other than the one you just mentioned then NO, I do not think you were unprofessional. It does not sound like the CN at your facility has any management level responsibilities other than assigning your patients. I mean she is not your manager, in fact you are on equal footing with her since you work the position as well. Look when something does not make sense and you are within limits to correct nonsense then go for it. I mean realistically I think most people have had coworkers that will stack the workload in their favor, rather than an equal dispersal of workload. Yes you could have done it privately, but busting them out in front of other nurses on shift kinda counts as points towards your leadership when you are in charge.

It shows people around you that when in charge you are willing to share the workload in as equal manner as possible. It gets you brownie points and come in very useful when you need a hand on something. It also shows you are willing to put up a fight for things you believe in.

I also want to point out that if the CN felt that she was in the right for how the assignments were organized then she should not change her position on the matter. If her rationale was sound, at least to her, then why change it for a request from another RN. She should have used her leadership abilities to either say no, or get you on to her side. Obviously some one had a better idea on how to do things and it was set into motion.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

"I also want to point out that if the CN felt that she was in the right for how the assignments were organized then she should not change her position on the matter. If her rationale was sound, at least to her, then why change it for a request from another RN."

Good point!

[rn/writer, RN]

Staff request: Please, focus on the OP's original question about whether or not she was unprofessional. Posts that continue to address other members' grammar and spelling or that complain about members who are not nurses are subject to removal.

Thank you.

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

Exactly. And when OP posted her question about the professionalism of demanding a change in her assignment, no doubt she was hoping for opinions from carpenters, attorneys, engineers and rocket scientists. Cause they all would no doubt understand shift work, charge nurses, rapid admissions, patient acuity and hospital politics. Thereby leading to their ability to understand, evaluate and pass judgment on professional nursing behavior. Just as they were taught in law/engineering/carpentry school.

Whatever:uhoh3:

As for me, I will stick to Allnurses.com, kind of pining for the day when only nurses and nursing students were interested in posting here.

Don't put words in my mouth. I didn't say that the OP expected/hoped for answers from people that weren't nurses. ALL I said was that the OP was not a question about nurse/patient ratios. Nothing more, nothing less.

*whatever *

[kalevra, BSN, RN]

Back to the original post please people.

[rn/writer, RN]

With a rotating charge position that only involves filling staffing holes and a few other minor tasks, you were absolutely right to do what you did. You stuck up for your patients and the potential new admits and for yourself and your other co-worker, as well. The kind of limit-setting you did was both necessary and appropriate. The fact that you didn't have a hissy fit and speak in anger supports this.

But I echo the sentiments of the others who say that the end total of 32 med/surg/tele patients is way out of line for three nurses to be handling. You should have had a minimum of four and five would have been even better.

How about you nurses all band together and insist that this is a serious lapse in safe staffing and a disaster waiting to happen.

I suggest you all get professional Liability Insurance if you don't have it now.

Best wishes.

[JBudd, MSN]

I also want to point out that if the CN felt that she was in the right for how the assignments were organized then she should not change her position on the matter. If her rationale was sound, at least to her, then why change it for a request from another RN. She should have used her leadership abilities to either say no, or get you on to her side. QUOTE]

Because she was in the wrong, and there was no way "to get you on to her side". Her inexperience and/or blind self interest led her to make those decisions, not a good leadership rationale.

[Simply Complicated]

You said this was telemetry. Just curious, are you responsible for reading your strips, or do you have a monitor tech? My first M/S/Tele job we hd 8 patients a piece, and that was really hard. We did have a monitor tech though, and were not really responsible for the monitor or strips. Unless of course they notified us there was a problem of some sort.

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

Not only were you unprofessional, you were insubordinate. You refuse an assignment you can be fired. "Charge nurse" means "in charge", and you should expect no more respect than you give.

haha. the charge where i work rarely has any more authority than me. if it is an unsafe assignemnt YOU SHOULD REFUSE IT. respect means NOTHING to me from someone like that.

[jesskidding, LPN]

You said this was telemetry. Just curious, are you responsible for reading your strips, or do you have a monitor tech? My first M/S/Tele job we hd 8 patients a piece, and that was really hard. We did have a monitor tech though, and were not really responsible for the monitor or strips. Unless of course they notified us there was a problem of some sort.

Surely they at least have a monitor tech. There is no way each RN could monitor their (11!) patients, take care of them, pass meds, put strips in charts, read strips, and document all at the same time.

I think I would get out of this facility.