Technically, I am am ICU nurse...that is my title. Right now, we are very short on ICU nurses, so we rarely have an ICU patient...most of them are shipped to a larger hospital. So...when there is an ICU nurse on duty, but no ICU patient, the ICU nurses float to Med-Surg. I like Med-Surg...there is a lot of variety. However, I am having major problems with one of the charge nurses. I am very organized...I plan my shift well and do my best to stay a little ahead of the game...I cannot stand being behind, running late, etc. This charge nurse sees that as an asset and takes advantage of the fact. I've kept track for the past three months and whenever this nurse is charge, if there is an odd number of patients (for example if there are ten patients and three nurses) I always get the 4th patient. When we all start with the same amount of patients, I am always assigned first admit. There has not been one shift in the past three months that I have has an equal or less amount of patients. I always have more "acuity points" than any other nurse on the floor. Last night, we started with 6 patients total and ended the night with 9 total. I started with three, one nurse had two, the other nurse had one. I ended the night with six patients. The charge nurses logic...I was caught up all night and one of the other nurses was just coming off a three week vacation, so it didn't seem fair to load her up too much. The nurse that only had two patients pointed out to her that I already had more patients than everyone else and the charge nurse told her that I am annoying when I get bored, so she likes to keep me really busy. I am also assigned to do crash cart checks, check doors to make sure they are locked after 2300, and glucometer controls whenever this nurse is on. If I am not on, there is another nurse who is treated the same as far as assignments, etc.
It isn't that I can't handle six patients or that I mind a challenge or being busy all night, but it gets old to see other nurses sitting while I am running my rear end off. I can do it and I think I do it pretty well, but I am frustrated to the point that I am about to resign. The other nurse whom she assigns int he same manner feels the same way. We've both talked to her about how we feel about her assignments and she either tells us we are being silly, just laughs, or tells us that we are the only ones she can trust to do the job. Our DON tells us we have to handle the situation on our own.
So...the other nurse and I kept track of assignments for three months. She is a computer guru and made a chart showing the assignments for each night and how the patient load was divided up. The charge nurse has now decided that since we have time for such nonsense, that we can spend our downtime stocking linen, cleaning wheelchairs, organizing the stockroom, etc.
Several other nurses have pointed out to the charge nurse and the DON that two of us are "picked on," but nothing has changed.
