rude nurse

[melcolbstorm]

I would LOVE feedback! I have been on the floor of my hospital for 13 days now on my own, so yup I am brand new. I have been a CNA for 5 years, but this is my first hospital experience. 99% of the staff are WONERFUL!! and then there's "Nurse Ratched" as she is lovingly known. Safe to say I avoid her like the plague. But last week I was about to change her patient (who is a MAX assist and 300lbs) and asked her to help. She snarled "FIVE MINUTES". Well after her sitting 15 minutes in her chair, the student that was with her (but by this time standing by her side also confused as to why she is not helping) gowned up (yup this was an iso. patient) and came in, so did a Dr. THEN in she strolls. Well it was horrible. the patient was changed and I went to my next patient. then the student came up to me and said "I told the charge the nurse was not helping" I also was going to say something, but with a patient load to the max of max I was distracted. So now I need to work with this horrible nurse today and tomorrow and every week for 2 8 hour shifts in a row!!How do you deal with someone like that?????? The charge came up to me and said the bad nurse "doesn't like new people" I was like WHAT???? Why keep her. but I know this floor is sooo hard to staff because it is way heavy so I said OK. Any advice, or have you guys been in the same situation??

[funtimes]

Actually when it comes to press gainey the techs probably get hit a lot worse than the RNs. The techs where I work typically have 5 times the number of patients the RNs do, and the patients usually don't understand that. They just think were lazy when were not the one answering their call light most of the time. They also think were idiots if we don't know everything about their situation and condition and what meds theyre getting. Some shifts I'm lucky if I even know what the patient was admitted for when I first step into their room, and I'm getting deluged with questions and demands.

The techs are also expected to kiss the patients butts a lot more than the RNs. You run into RNs that have no bedside manner at all, but its tolerated because competence is more important, but if a tech is perpetually disliked by patients its going to be a problem for them regardless of how competent they are. (although its not nearly as bad as in a nursing home, where I found CNAs on orientation or their probationary period are sometimes fired for no other reason than the residents simply didn't like them).

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

No, I mean one of three other aides who each have 9 patients- most of whom are walkie talkies- who spend their time hiding in patient bathrooms texting. I mean one of three other aides who refuse to do Q4 VS, who only deign to do one set of VS on each patient per shift, who are not responsible for CBGs because Lab does them, and who insist that the RNs also help pass out meal trays even though the RNs have insulin and other meds to give at meal times. I mean one of the three other aides who go on coffee break without informing the RNs they're working with, and who always get their lunch breaks and get off shift on time every single night while the RNs miss breaks, skip meals, have to fight just to take a bathroom break, and stay late to finish charting almost every single night. I mean one of three other aides who will sit at the computer ignoring call lights while the RNs are tied up, who will not go into contact rooms so that by the time the RN gets in there, the BSC is overflowing, the patient has not been given any fresh water, they've been sitting on wrinkled linens for six hours and are starting to get skin breakdown, and the family is seriously (and understandably) ****** off at the poor care their loved one is receiving. I mean one of the three other aides who will plop down the meal tray just inside the doorway of a patient on contact iso because the "RN is in there anyway" and not come in and assist the RN to move the patient up in bed so they can eat. I mean one of the three other aides who will decline the freely offered assistance of another CNA "because I make the nurse help me since it's her patient too", while allowing the patient to sit in their own stool until the RN is free to help, when they have a CNA right there willing to help right now. I mean one of the three other aides who seem to think that the reason the RN just does everything his or her self is because the RN doesn't need help, when in reality it's because it's just a lot easier to do it all yourself than to have to micromanage someone else to get them to do the job they were hired to do.

Lucky for me, I was a CNA in LTC prior to becoming a nurse and had an average of 20 residents to care for *on my own* and so I learned how to change the briefs on the 300lb. immobile resident by myself, how to dress the hemiplegic resident by myself, how to slide someone up in bed by myself, and how I could possibly change 15 incontinent residents every 2 hours *by myself* in addition to everything else I had to do *by myself*. So yeah, when I became a CNA on a busy tele unit, it was a piece of cake in comparison.

Clearly, there are differences in culture and levels of teamwork from unit to unit, and we do not have a context for the original post. My point was only that perhaps, this "lazy nurse" is really somebody that holds the line and insists on holding others accountable to do their job. The OP is new to the unit, and may be unaware of issues that predate their employment there.

If I didn't know better, I'd think you were one of my former co-workers. You just described every aide I ever worked with, other than the nursing students working as aides who wanted to get hired as a nurse after graduation.