Am I stepping on senior nurses toes?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Hi. Have a question for you. I work in an ER which is staffed with one nurse and one doc for each shift. Small hospital. Anyway, I have noticed that when I am with a critical patient and cannot leave them, I have had to have nurses fromt he floor come back to help with getting transport papers ready for transfers, either by ambulance or helicopter, call other facilities for the doc, and/or find admission orders for the doc. well, because they were having problems finding all the correct papers, I took it upon myself to make transfer packets for ambulance and helicopter, and admission packets for med surg and ICU. I also tok it upon myself to clean out the file cabinet as there were forms in there which were 12 years old and never used. Well, the problem came when one of the nurses came on and I asked her what she thought of what I had done and she completely tore me apart. :angryfire

She said that She is tired of conforming to people that walk in here. She said that if people do not know where things are, they are not oriented, and that she does not like it. she said there is no reason to make packets. all the forms are in the drawers. And she is right, but they were not put together. Now they are all safety clipped together in seperate packets. Then she replied with don't ask me my opinion I obviously don't have any say back here. Ask the other nurses who have been here longer than me. Mind you, she has been there 15 years and the others have been there longer. I have been in the ER 1 year. I am trying to help our ER run smoother for everybody. Do you think that I am stepping on toes by doing this without asking them what they thought first? :deadhorse

b eyes

Oh gosh b eyes! lol! ya some people just cannot deviate out of their routine ....sad!!! I have a nurse who is an old state institution nurse.....that is the only place she ever worked...and she's been doing home care nursing for about 2 years now at my home...and here's a prime example.....my child has a bath and I bring her into her room....soaking wet with towel on her....the nurse watches me do this..........and still breaks out the stuff to give a bed bath.........and even after me saying she just had a bath she's all set......:deadhorse ...so trust me ..I know how you feel right now.

Kill her with kindness at your job...that's all.

As for gossip.......it's probably because she has no life whatsoever and that's all she can do to occupy her time other than work.

I think your packets are a fantastic idea........searching for papers for a while vs. grabbing a packet with everything you need inside.........gee...sounds like a no brainer to me...lol....

I agree with another poster too....she is probably mad because after many years she never thought of it herself....so she has to make you look like the bad new nurse.......

I don't understand why people can't just get along and work together.....after all we do call it healthcare:rolleyes: ......

Don't let her ruin your workplace...........just grin & leave ' em wondering..........don't feed into the gossip at all....and the next thing that comes up that irritates her she'll talk about that & you'll be yesterday's news & no longer gossiped about.

I would bring her in stuff to over kill the niceness.....like cookies & stuff like that.........the old analogy...kill 'em with kindness....lol...

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Then she replied with don't ask me my opinion I obviously don't have any say back here. Ask the other nurses who have been here longer than me. Mind you, she has been there 15 years and the others have been there longer. I have been in the ER 1 year. I am trying to help our ER run smoother for everybody. Do you think that I am stepping on toes by doing this without asking them what they thought first? :deadhorse

b eyes

Let me get this straight, she said "don't ask me, ask the ones who've been here longer?" snort! Did any of them object? I'd bet dollars to donuts someone "senior" to her liked them alot, thought it was a good idea, and she was burned about them not siding with her when she complained. Why else would she say "i don't have any say here".

In my ER, there are those of us with a lot of years, and some with not so many. Our contract states that we have to have at least 3 core, or senior staff on the night shift so that it isn't just one charge nurse and all the rest travelers (has happened to me in the past). The one year mark makes you core!

You did a good thing. Don't sweat it. If your boss takes them apart, then you'll know it wasn't acceptable, but they are all still there, aren't they?;)

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Specializes in ER, Med-surg, ICU.

Yes, they are all still there!!:loveya: I did go ahead and make seperate file folders with individual orders and transfers papers in them so that she would be able to pull them seperately seeing as that was her complaint.

I haven't been back to work yet to see if that made her happy, but I have heard that it hasen't dropped yet!! My Goodness!! But I will do as many suggest, kill her with kindness and continue to try thngs to improve the efficiency of our ER, only this time I will ask others opinion first. Thank you, Thank you everyone!!!!

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Specializes in LTC Rehab.

You did a good thing, a lot of times we are too lazy to make changes, we get so used to doing something just because "thats how we have always done it" change is good

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I think her issues are not with the packets themselves, but a larger issue that is "her stuff", not yours. No need for you to own it.

Is there a separate place that you can store the packets for your use only so she can do things the old way until she comes around? Share with your coworkers the packets, they probably love them. Eventually she might she that they are a good idea.

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As long as I live and work I'll never understand the mentality! Seems Nurses spend so much time personally lording and huffing over every little thing that we remain unorganized, chaotic, slow to improve, and ultimately unable to advance and benefit.

Of course, there are things that need a committee of consenses. But, come on! Organizing paperwork for speed of assessability and ease of use isn't one of them. Yea, you should have shared your idea before hand, but, other than that all I have to say is....

Hurray for you! I like a Nurse that uses her head! I like a Nurse with initiative! I would have said, "Thank-you."

It's the Silver Back mentality that spons the jokes; "So, how many______ does it take to......? And, we all laugh.

No joke, I believe it's past time to adopt the great philosophy of Larry the Cable Guy, "Get 'er done!" Okay, okay, tongue in cheek. However, there are lessons here.

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Specializes in ER, Med-surg, ICU.

I LOVE IT!!! :kiss thank you and I agree. You know for something more serious, such as if I was going to renovate the ER, I could understand asking others opinions, OF COURSE!! However, they are simple packets and am STILL totally floored at her response. Wish you culd have seen the steam rolling out of her ears!!

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I would tell her, sorry if you're unhappy with what I did, and you're welcome to use your own system, but this is what works for me when I'm here. Anyone that works as the sole nurse in an ER is more than entitled to use a system that works for them when they are there. I have been in my ER for 3 years and am just now learning that not everything will please everyone & you need to do what works for YOU. As long as you know you're a great nurse & caring for your patients to the best of your abilities, don't sweat things like this...chances are by next week she'll be annoyed with you for something else! :)

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It's a shame that instead of being greatful for your helpful gesture you get grief for it instead. I just don't understand it. I would've been extremely happy if someone did take the initiative to make things easier for everyone. Unfortunately I work with someone very similar to the one you describe and basically everyone just lets her do her own thing. She wants no part of being a team and working together for the good of the unit. Just stay true to yourself and continue to work well with those who appreciate your efforts.

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We have transfer packets in our ER, just like you described. Each packet has a consent form for the pt/family to sign, three forms the doc has to fill out and sign, and two forms for the transport team. They are paper-clipped together so that one has to reach into one folder for the whole thing.

This was done years ago because we used to have one nurse, one tech, and one doc on and would have to call the floor for a nurse to help with critical pts.

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I LOVE what gardendove said!!!!!!! I think what u did was nice, thoughful, and helpful. you just wanted to m,ake it easier for people that get pulled to the ER. I think that was an excellent idea. Good for you for wanting to help out and make it easier for everyone!!! Goes to show u really are a team player....u work in the er, you weren't the one who needed them to be in packets....u did that to help others! you should be commeneded!:yeah:

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You took initiative to improve the flow of things. That's a good thing. Anyone using the packets you made up should rightly be appreciative of the ease of knowing everything is together in one place. Any reasonable person would be all too happy to see things improve. It seems that co-workers like this prefer to keep other people in the dark to bolster their own underlying incompetency. If I were that patient I would want things to move as efficiently as possible. What effective nurse would want things to remain disorganized? One that wants to feed their own ego?

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