Do We Really Understand Each Other?

As a young medic who joined the Army and entered the nursing world I was assigned to my first medical surgical floor at Madigan Army medical Center in Tacoma, Wa. Needless to say, I learned a lot, met a ton of different people from different cultures and races and learned a great deal from the RN's who worked this particluar floor. We had a nurse who was in her late fifty's to early sixties and she always worked the evening shift. My first impression of this nurse was she was not to be messed with, she took her job seriously, she was always immaculately dressed in her whites, her shoes were hightly polished and she always wore her nursing hat. She was strictly professional and I admired her.

This shift was my preferred shift because it allowed me time to hang out and sleep in the following mornings. While working on the shift I started to develope spite for this above mentioned nurse. When making the assignement she would always choose the heavest patients for herself and I would always be the medic she had working with her. I did my job diligently, reported off like I was supposed to but this would just grate on my nerves. She would never acknowledge me or others for that matter, this is my interpretation at the time. As time went by, I grew more and more resentful against her, I would catch myself just speaking whien I came on shift and limiting my interaction with her. I finally when to the HN to tell her what I was going through and mabye get some insight. The HN told me she would look into this for me and get back to me.

A week went by and she called me into her office when I was coming on shift. She told me she spoke with this nurse and that she had nothing but good things to say about me. She wanted me to know she was not giving me the hard pts. or signaling me out because she didn't like me, it was the reverse! She did like me and she liked the work that I did. I was happy to hear this from the HN. This gave me a different perspective of this nurse. After report, I approach said nurse and cleared the air with the two of us. I could honestly say I felt better working with and for her from that day forward. I noticed she opened up a little to me and we were able to establish a more cohesive working relatioship.

I always return to this story when I think of communictaion problems. Yes there is a major difference between the way we all communicate. I write this because I feel it is important to establish as well as understand those coming into the nursing field and those who have been here for years and years. It is easy to misunderstand like I did above, but if we can learn from it, listen more to what others are saying and make changes in our own prejudices we can all be successful in our nursing careers.


S Rodgers, RN