Angry Nurses - Why?

Specialties Emergency

Published

I started Volunteering at a hospital doing some research for the Emergency Medicine Department. I was posted at the Pediatrics Emergency Room and from there I got to see the Nurses that worked for both the Peds and Regular ER Triage (since they were next to each other).

For some reason these nurses were just not happy with their jobs. All the nurses I've seen there had attitudes up to their chin. Even if a patient was totally nice they still provided an attitude. They spoke as if the patients were stupid and treated them without respect.

Yes the ER is a tough spot to be for a nurse, but why take it out on patients? Has anyone else seen this? Are you one of those nurses that get ***** at patients? It sickens me really that these people would choose a profession that stems itself from the genuine desire to help people and take it for granted. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who want to become nurses but couldn't make it. Why do these people deserve it?

and yes I am seriously rethinking my choice to work at county but if im not there how can I hope that people will be treated any better ever.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, Heme/Onc.
and yes I am seriously rethinking my choice to work at county but if im not there how can I hope that people will be treated any better ever.

You are going to burn yourself out quickly with that way of thinking. One person alone can't save all the poor, mistreated folks out there from all the old, tired, crabby, veterans of the hospital system. By all means, bring fresh ideas and a spirit that has not yet been trampled upon by management, patients, media and other "observers". OP - please don't call yourself a volunteer when you were there to observe and report back to your "director". That's an unfair representation of yourself and your motives.

For the record, I enjoy working with new grads and students. I learn just as much from them as I'm teaching because everyone brings something new to the team.

Going into a situation where you feel that you are the only person out there to do any good and the whole staff is aligned against you and the patients is not going to get you far. You'll burn out quickly - and I'd really hate for that to happen.

Blee

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that's not the case in my unit we have a few great nurses to work with. its just that the job is tough enough without the nasty ones going out of their way to make it worse. and ps I finished my cna and am finishing phlebotomy, this may all before school to be the best rn I can by being prepared for whatever I can ahead of time and come at this position from the ground up. none of this was required for my nursing school program.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
OP - please don't call yourself a volunteer when you were there to observe and report back to your "director". That's an unfair representation of yourself and your motives.

Excellent point.

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Specializes in Medicine.
You are going to burn yourself out quickly with that way of thinking. One person alone can't save all the poor, mistreated folks out there from all the old, tired, crabby, veterans of the hospital system. By all means, bring fresh ideas and a spirit that has not yet been trampled upon by management, patients, media and other "observers". OP - please don't call yourself a volunteer when you were there to observe and report back to your "director". That's an unfair representation of yourself and your motives.

For the record, I enjoy working with new grads and students. I learn just as much from them as I'm teaching because everyone brings something new to the team.

Going into a situation where you feel that you are the only person out there to do any good and the whole staff is aligned against you and the patients is not going to get you far. You'll burn out quickly - and I'd really hate for that to happen.

Blee

If you actually read what I wrote, I was there to do research. I was not there for the purpose to observe nurses. I just so happened to be stationed there and I got to see how the nurses work. It was my own observation.

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Specializes in Emergency, outpatient.
I was there to do research. I was not there for the purpose to observe nurses. I just so happened to be stationed there and I got to see how the nurses work.

Sorry, you were still not volunteering. You were doing a job. Research is a job.

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Specializes in Medicine.
Sorry, you were still not volunteering. You were doing a job. Research is a job.

So you're saying even though I was admitted to the hospital as a volunteer, filling out volunteer papers, getting a volunteer ID. I'm not a volunteer? I don't get paid. Even then I think Blee's point was that I shouldn't call myself a volunteer if I was there to observe nurses just to report back to my "Director".

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

O.k., let's stop the back and forth bantering on a personal level. It's not getting anyone anywhere.

Let's just debate the topic only.

O.k.??

Thanks.

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Specializes in Medicine.

Alright for those people taking offense to my post and are attacking me for things that aren't even relative to the post, I'm not here to generalize the whole nursing faculty. This is why I asked the question in the first place.

I've seen, experienced and heard about rude nurses. It wasn't just this one incident. Now I'm not naive, there are rude people everywhere but I just don't think there is any room for this behavior in the health care field.

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Specializes in ER.

I forget what the original question was...

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Specializes in Emergency, outpatient.

It is important for you to see more than 6 hours of triage a week before you make general decisions about emergency nursing (or about any type of nursing, for that matter.) Busy triage nurses are embattled from 4 or more fronts at a time, and are lucky to have any help at all. They must stay focused; they continually monitor whole waiting areas full of sick (or not so sick) patients, and as the hours progress, statuses must be reevaluated, new patients received and assessed, and worsening patients forced into an already full and overflowing main ED.

You may have mistaken curt answers for rudeness; these nurses really have no time for "is it going to be much longer?" from the pt who falls into the "not-so-sick" category, or from those who feel that being the squeaky wheel will get them into the ED faster.

I, too, have witnessed triage nurses who are rude and even mean, but they usually weed out d/t complaints from pts and/or staff; some are not cut out for that job.

:twocents:

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Specializes in Medicine.

Lol, its ok I got my answer. Lets just end the topic here before I get any more people mad.

Bottom line: Everyone here agree's no one should be rude to patients for no good reason. And stress is not a good reason.

Maybe I'm wrong but what do I know. I'm just a student =P.

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