Anyone else share this pet peeve?

[LibraSunCNM]

Ok, I never come to this site to vent, but this morning I just needed to.

Does anyone else but me find the following two qualities in a lazy nurse particularly INFURIATING?

1.) Getting out of doing work by playing "dumb," i.e., pretending you forgot until it's the moment before you go home and you ask someone else to do a task, telling me something I'm fairly confident you just made up on the spot but I have no way of proving, hemming and hawing during report, "Oh, wait, did I do that? Let me see..." We both know you didn't do it, my friend. No need to play games and take 10 minutes to break the news to me. I'm smarter than a 5th grader and I can read you pretty easily.

2.) (and this is the most annoying for me) Trying so hard to get out of doing work that they actually CREATE MORE WORK FOR THEMSELVES (and by themselves, I really mean others) than they had in the first place.

Example: when you came in at 12 a.m. and you picked up one of my patients, I told you she likes her pain meds on schedule, as soon as she can get them. Yes, the meds are PRN, but when she's ASKED REPEATEDLY for the meds just to be brought in as soon as they can be given, please just do it without making her wait, and then call when she's REALLY hurting. She had a c-section and she hasn't had great pain control, among many other problems, so maybe you could do her a solid and just try to stay on top of the pain issue. But no, you refuse to do this and have her call each time for meds. Additionally, when she last got 2 Percs at 3:15, she could have gotten them at 7:15, but you didn't offer them to her then, or at any time before you left at 8 a.m. Guess how this scenario plays out? Yup, you guessed it! In the middle of report, patient's husband comes to nurses' station and angrily requests 2 Percocets for his wife, who's "way overdue." Instead of stopping a problem before it starts, you created more work and hassle for all involved EXCEPT FOR: oh right, you! You get to waltz out the door at 8 a.m. because that's what you do.

Thanks for putting up with my vent. Anyone else have to deal with this nonsense?

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

I think we've all encounterd these people. I wish I had the nerve to just say "oh..do you mind doing that before you leave?" or..."I'll count with you after you finish xyz"

Yeah I definitely say "Do you mind doing that before you leave," it's just sometimes things happen during the night that I know if I don't keep my eye on, she definitely won't, such as breastfeeding help. But I can tell her to give pain meds at scheduled intervals, and I don't know if just the idea of that "work" makes her resentful/stubborn, even though it's not that much work, but she just won't do it and will wait for the person to call. Basically we're talking about someone who seems to have no interest in being around the kind of patients we have? Don't know. Annoying to say the least.

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

well, you can't make a nurse give prn meds until they're scheduled (get dr to change order?).

still, keep a 'diary' of tasks this nurse "forgets", until you feel there's enough to show nm.

next time she's giving report and starts her bs, interrupt her and politely tell her to "save it" and ask her to continue with report (again, only if this is habitual vs here and there).

yes, it's annoying because she's passing the buck, shirking her duties, and most annoying, is disregarding pt needs.

just keep on taking the high road.

in the end, it shows your integrity and her lack.

leslie

Thanks for your kind words. Yes, the annoying habits are pretty habitual. I'm just fairly new on this floor, and this woman has worked here for almost 40 years. Most people agree with me, but the party line seems to be that she's not going to change, and she'll probably retire soon. I think things are just so different than when she started that she has no interest in adapting/learning to meet new needs of the unit, which I can't relate to at all. I'm going to try to be more firm and on top of the nonsense when I'm working with her.

:)

[AOx1]

Had one like this in the ICU that would complain of being "slammed" all night, but I always found her reading a book. A few too many times of me fixing the messes she left behind and I refused to accept report until the patients were checked over physically first. I made her stay and clean up the poo river, restart the IV, and handle the old orders she had yet to complete, including a call to a doc to explain why a stat order hadn't yet been completed. All the while, she whined about how she would be late to pick up her child. I told her she should have thought of that while reading her book instead of caring for the patients. Each time, I would also report her. We all have "those nights" when it all blows up, and are very understanding of that. However, every night was one of "those nights" for her, yet she still had time to shop on ebay and read her book. We were all thrilled when she was finally fired.

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

The problem is further complicated by the fact that she is an LPN, one of only 3 left in our medical center, and part of the union that the PCTs, unit clerks, and some other staff are a part of. We RNs are not in the union. We work 12 hours, they work 8. Long story short, the way it is set up, she comes in at midnight, picks up a couple of patients from a couple of RNs, generally gets an admission, and then gives report BACK to one of us night RNs who has been assigned as her "resource." We are responsible for checking/changing the epidural PCAs of her c-section patients, hanging any antibiotics that need to be given, etc., in addition to giving report to day shift FOR HER on the patients she picked up, because her union has no setup for paying nurses to stay the extra time to give report, because there are only 3 nurses (LPNs) in their entire union, the rest of us are RNs and not in the union. It's a bizarre and annoying setup, one I've never had to deal with. The bottom line of this long-winded explanation is that I just hate feeling responsible when I'm giving report to days for her because I don't like to just repeat the excuses/B.S. she gave to me about patients. I have to deal with her shirking during the shift, and then make sure all her ducks are in a row when she gives me report so as not to have to scramble before giving days report. I just dislike the way our unit works in this respect, thanks for listening to me whine!