this past week i stupidly offered to help out with a day shift need in the long term acute care hospital where i work. i normally work nights, but they were extremely short so with the offer of a bonus, i thought i would help out. welll, to say it was the shift from h*%$ is putting it mildly. i wasn't clocked in yet nor had i had time to check out what my assignment was, when two different nurses told me that i had the sucky assignment. i only had 5 patients but all three patients had g-tubes or ng tubes with three of two of them getting tube feedings and two of them getting tpn. all 5 got their meds via g-tube. they all had bucketloads of meds spaced out all day long as well as several iv antibiotic meds spaced throughout the day. on top of that, i had to take a new admit! if one of the nurses that had an easier load had not pitched in to help me with the new admit i wouldn't have gotten out of there until midnight. i was so overwhelmed all day, that more than once i broke down in tears. it didn't help that the nurse sharing the hall with me had plenty of time to take breaks, lunch and just sit at the desk in the nurse's station, never offering to help me, even though she knew i was drowning. i didn't have time for lunch so i was glad i had taken time to eat a good breakfast before i went to work. i did put in a no lunch time sheet so i would get paid for the time i worked instead of eating. i was so behind all day and felt like such a loser. i haven't had a bad shift like that in a long time. i guess i am spoiled on night shift as there aren't as many meds to be given and they aren't spaced out as badly throughout the shift. not that that particular assignment isn't bad on nights as well as days. needless to say i will never work med/surg on day shift again, i don't care how short they are. i felt like i had been"bent over" even though i was helping out. i got the worst assignment for helping day shift. anyone else ever have a day like that? am i a loser or just being a baby?
I am going to comment on this without even reading all the comments because I've never understood this. Why is it when nurses get pulled to other units or floors they always get the crap assignment and nobody helps each other? Nurses are all there together! Everyone's job would be so much easier if we helped each other out! I don't understand why this is so hard to figure out. Sorry, it's my pet peeve..._ Me stepping off my soapbox.... Everyone needs to learn about team work and realize that we all get pulled and everyone needs help. Karma people...Karma. What goes around, comes around....
"it didn't help that the nurse sharing the hall with me had plenty of time to take breaks, lunch and just sit at the desk in the nurse's station, never offering to help me, even though she knew i was drowning."
not bashing you here, but i have to ask: did you ask her for help when you saw her taking breaks? i would have said something along the lines of "well, since you got lunch, can you cover me while i get lunch?"
well, actually i did ask her to do one thing for me, and although she did it, she kind of snickered like "i knew she was going to ask me to do something for her." other than that, no. i guess i am the kind that does ask people if there is anything they need done, and i don't like begging. besides, i was so behind, that i didn't have time to take a lunch. it wasn't just a matter of having time to sit for even a few minutes, i had no time to do anything but try and get the meds passed and keep my med charting kept up. so it wouldn't have helped to ask her to just to cover for me while i went to lunch.
ironically two things happened this past weekend. first, on saturday the nurse that was so willing to take breaks and let me drown had to take that same sucky assignment. when i came in on saturday noc i made the comment "that's a sucky assignment isn't it?" to which she replied, "oh it wasn't so bad." secondly, i was charge sunday noc and made the assignments for monday. well, the day shift was going to have 7 patients each, so i gave this particular nurse two of the patients from the sucky assignment so the other nurse on that hall wouldn't have all the sucky patients. i wasn't trying to be mean to the first nurse, i was trying to make the second nurse's assignment a little easier. well, you should have heard the griping and complaining! she banged on the door of the med room where the oncoming pcc and i were counting and loudly demanded to know why the assignment was the way it was, and the oncoming charge told her it was because the one assignment was so hard. her reply was, "well why wasn't it done that way when i had it?" and then proceeded to rant and rave in the nurse's station (loudly) about it. i don't know what she said, but the scheduling coordinator came into the med room and told us about how loud she was getting. i told the oncoming pcc why i made the assignment the way i did, and she agreed with it, and the nurse that is taking the partially sucky assignment will appreciate it, i know. besides, the first nurse that is doing all the complaining is only getting two different patients than she has had for almost two weeks! she got two of the busy ones, and gave up two of the easy ones to the second nurse, who still has three busy patients as well as four easier patients. so it all came out about even. i left before the don got there, but she was on her way in, and i have a feeling that nurse number one is going to get her backside at least talked to, if not chewed by the pcc and/or the don. i don't know why she thought she could rant and rave like that and get away with it.
:kiss oh well. again, thanks everyone for your responses. it helped to feel the support from all you folks!:kiss
well, actually i did ask her to do one thing for me, and although she did it, she kind of snickered like "i knew she was going to ask me to do something for her." other than that, no. i guess i am the kind that does ask people if there is anything they need done, and i don't like begging. besides, i was so behind, that i didn't have time to take a lunch. it wasn't just a matter of having time to sit for even a few minutes, i had no time to do anything but try and get the meds passed and keep my med charting kept up. so it wouldn't have helped to ask her to just to cover for me while i went to lunch.
ironically two things happened this past weekend. first, on saturday the nurse that was so willing to take breaks and let me drown had to take that same sucky assignment. when i came in on saturday noc i made the comment "that's a sucky assignment isn't it?" to which she replied, "oh it wasn't so bad." secondly, i was charge sunday noc and made the assignments for monday. well, the day shift was going to have 7 patients each, so i gave this particular nurse two of the patients from the sucky assignment so the other nurse on that hall wouldn't have all the sucky patients. i wasn't trying to be mean to the first nurse, i was trying to make the second nurse's assignment a little easier. well, you should have heard the griping and complaining! she banged on the door of the med room where the oncoming pcc and i were counting and loudly demanded to know why the assignment was the way it was, and the oncoming charge told her it was because the one assignment was so hard. her reply was, "well why wasn't it done that way when i had it?" and then proceeded to rant and rave in the nurse's station (loudly) about it. i don't know what she said, but the scheduling coordinator came into the med room and told us about how loud she was getting. i told the oncoming pcc why i made the assignment the way i did, and she agreed with it, and the nurse that is taking the partially sucky assignment will appreciate it, i know. besides, the first nurse that is doing all the complaining is only getting two different patients than she has had for almost two weeks! she got two of the busy ones, and gave up two of the easy ones to the second nurse, who still has three busy patients as well as four easier patients. so it all came out about even. i left before the don got there, but she was on her way in, and i have a feeling that nurse number one is going to get her backside at least talked to, if not chewed by the pcc and/or the don. i don't know why she thought she could rant and rave like that and get away with it.
:kiss oh well. again, thanks everyone for your responses. it helped to feel the support from all you folks!:kiss
pam
i really enjoy it when people like that get their just desserts. it is so true that what goes around comes around. if the assignment "wasn't so bad", why did she rant and rave on monday when she only got part of the sucky assignment?
The "loser" is the one who sat on her rear and didn't help out. I don't get that mentality. If you are from another shift or another unit and you get pooped on when you come to help, you are not very likely to come back are you? I have had it done to me more times than I can count. Live and learn. Don't put yourself in that situation again if you can help it. I see you are counting down to your wedding. I wish you great happiness. Although I wouldn't be a loud complainer, if you are asked again to do days, I might say something like..."sorry I got such an unfair assignment last itme I did it, if it weren't for _____ (the helpful co-worker) I would've never finished."
you are not a loser you were just dumped on, which is probably why that particular unit was working short that day. I don't understand how some nurses can just sit back and watch the new ones or float people bust their
bottoms and not at least offer to help. I feel to guilty sitting down if I know that someone else will not get the chance. On my unit if one person doesn't get to eat lunch then no one else does either.
Specializes in jack of all trades, master of none.
Ughghg.. when I worked a rehab unit, I got a nastygram email from my boss wanting to know why I had given the agency nurse 8 pt's & I only took 7. I was like, ummmm, she has all the EASY ones, I took the HARD ones with the equipment (CPM's, splints, etc, etc.) Plus I did the agency nurses rehab paperwork for all of her patients since she wasn't familiar with it. All agency had to do, was assess, chart & pass out a few pills. I was helping the aide with toileting, dressing, etc... b/c the agency nurse didn't have the physical strength to help with a 2 max transfer. Damn!! That email still irks me. LOL
This makes me so mad. People can just be so sorry sometimes.
We have a part time nurse that just works 20 hrs/week. She usually works some ten hour shifts every other weekend, and some 5 hour shifts during the week somewhere.
Well, this nurse calls in sick alot and is slow as mud on her assignments.
But you know what....I get thru with my assignment, and if she has been sick.....I go help her. I cannot, in good conscience, clock out and go off duty at the end of the shift, knowing she could still be out there struggling to get finished.
We have some difficult assignments, too, and sometimes it's hard to get finished. Especially if you're sick, and feeling bad. I've been there, done THAT, too, and I've had to have help a time or two.
Man you guys are starting to make this soon to be student wonder if he is making the correct choice in careers.
Is not what matters the proper and efficient care of patients? Why would management permit or condone the cherry picking of patients?
As a business degree holder I would suggest that the corporate culture needs to change at that facility (all?)
Grossly mismanaging your HR in such a way increases risk exposure, affects talent retention, and generally will make employee's and patients have a rather $hitty experience at the facility.
You were the victim of poor management, if this is a common experience and no one is open to dialog is there a suggestions box? that you can use to anonymously suggest the need for improved scheduling monitoring not just to make a few nurses (those surfing the INTERNET at the desk) shifts a little tougher, but also as a risk mitigator.
Then again I know nothing and am not even a student yet, but my logic is quantifiable.
I am an RN and work on a med surg unit and am often in charge and therefore make out the assignments for the dayshift. I will tell you, we have the hardest patient load of any floor. If they are confused, combative, have many tubes, or just plain whacky they come to my floor. We do team nursing. Two teams with an RN team leader plus up to 3 caregivers. We hold 32 patients. One charge nurse. Most of us who do charge try to divide up the patients as best we can evenly. Some days everyone has 4 completes, and a couple partials besides. My head nurse has taught us not to give the newbie or floater the hardest patients and I always make sure I don't. No one comes willingly to our floor to help. They come kicking and screaming..... (joking) If they have a bad assignment it is because we all do. But as I say we work as a team to get done with the a.m. care. If the patient is mean or has extensive dressings we give it to one of our staff who is used to the person if at all possible.
Sorry you had such a bad time. Our night shift never stays over to help us no matter how many people have called off. Come to my floor I would have appreciated you.
Specializes in Rural, Midwifery, CCU, Ortho, Telemedicin.
You are neither, just a victim of fellow nurses. File the experience and next time say "NO" or negotiate who you will take in advance. While the day shift is always busier, learn a lesson and know that this happens all the time to the least time on that floor/shift nurse, including travelers and registry.
this past week i stupidly offered to help out with a day shift need in the long term acute care hospital where i work. i normally work nights, but they were extremely short so with the offer of a bonus, i thought i would help out. welll, to say it was the shift from h*%$ is putting it mildly. i wasn't clocked in yet nor had i had time to check out what my assignment was, when two different nurses told me that i had the sucky assignment. i only had 5 patients but all three patients had g-tubes or ng tubes with three of two of them getting tube feedings and two of them getting tpn. all 5 got their meds via g-tube. they all had bucketloads of meds spaced out all day long as well as several iv antibiotic meds spaced throughout the day. on top of that, i had to take a new admit! if one of the nurses that had an easier load had not pitched in to help me with the new admit i wouldn't have gotten out of there until midnight. i was so overwhelmed all day, that more than once i broke down in tears. it didn't help that the nurse sharing the hall with me had plenty of time to take breaks, lunch and just sit at the desk in the nurse's station, never offering to help me, even though she knew i was drowning. i didn't have time for lunch so i was glad i had taken time to eat a good breakfast before i went to work. i did put in a no lunch time sheet so i would get paid for the time i worked instead of eating. i was so behind all day and felt like such a loser. i haven't had a bad shift like that in a long time. i guess i am spoiled on night shift as there aren't as many meds to be given and they aren't spaced out as badly throughout the shift. not that that particular assignment isn't bad on nights as well as days. needless to say i will never work med/surg on day shift again, i don't care how short they are. i felt like i had been"bent over" even though i was helping out. i got the worst assignment for helping day shift. anyone else ever have a day like that? am i a loser or just being a baby?
pam:scrying:
you are not a loser. the loser is the nurse that didn't help. the bottom line is teamwork that yields quality patient care.
Specializes in LTC, SCI/TBI Rehab,RX Research, Psych.
am i a loser or just being a baby?
neither! you were 'out of your element'--we all have a field/zone of expertise--along with our "comfort zone" (which is your shift/department/team)
i applaud you for stepping up to the plate to help day shift out! (any shift, for that matter!):icon_hug:
remember: one hand washes the other. over the years, i've worked days, evenings & nights, so i've seen what each shift does. it's a shame no one pitched in to help you, though. --guess it never occurred to them that, had you not been willing to pitch in, they may have had to take larger assignments, hmmm?
everywhere out there, there's always "one" that feels his/her shift "does it all" & works that hardest. they have no appreciation for the things other shifts do--and simply "don't get it" that they,too, would be kind of "lost" if they were suddenly plopped in the middle of another shift/routine.
shame on them for not being grateful that you were there to help out!
anney1981
39 Posts
I am going to comment on this without even reading all the comments because I've never understood this. Why is it when nurses get pulled to other units or floors they always get the crap assignment and nobody helps each other? Nurses are all there together! Everyone's job would be so much easier if we helped each other out! I don't understand why this is so hard to figure out. Sorry, it's my pet peeve..._ Me stepping off my soapbox.... Everyone needs to learn about team work and realize that we all get pulled and everyone needs help. Karma people...Karma. What goes around, comes around....