Are all floor nurses rude to ER nurses?

indeed · May 29, 2002

Hey there, andylane78. I'm not an ER nurse, but from a floor nurse's persepective, yeah. Sometimes I see coworkers who are downright nasty to the ED nurses. It's some weird bad-blood thing between the floors and ED. I think a lot of times, people get stressed, Admissions wants you to take this patient NOW (or possibly 10 minutes ago), and forever after (in some nurses' minds) the connection is made between undue stress and the ED nurses. Not saying it's right, it's just what I have noticed. Personally, I have no problem whatsoever with the ED nurses. They do a job that I DO NOT want to do and I do a job that they don't cotton to either. It all boils down to realizing that no one's job is easy, and that we all need to be cut some slack. *And that last sentence made no sense WHATSOEVER!!!* Time for me to sleep. Oh yes. :specs:

Indeed.

ruby321 · May 29, 2002

Yes, but we have a worse time w the unit nurses. They seem to have a permanent chip on their shoulder! Oh well, what can you do?

OBNURSEHEATHER · May 29, 2002

Do ya think we're all just rude to whomever brings us the patient? I work post partum. While I try not to, sometimes it's easy to get pi**ed at the person bringing you a new pt. Or when I'm in the nursery and they bring me 3 beta strep babies that THEY haven't started protocols on. I'm sure L&D thinks we're rude to them.

When you think about it, the floor nurses are always getting pt's from someone else. You guys in ER & L&D are the only one's (I think) that have pt's that walk in off the street. You guys don't really have anywhere to steer your frustration of another new patient. But unfortunately, you get the brunt of it.

I'm just rambling, don't even know if it makes sense. Just a thought.

Heather

teeituptom, BSN, RN · May 29, 2002

Howdy yall

from deep in the heart of texas.

Rudeness and lack of help from floor nurses can be a problem. Some of the young nurses have come back to me in Tears from the way they were treated by floor nurse and unit nurses. I have dealt with this on more than one occasion. And 99 percent of the time I do it very nicely also, to back up my nurses. But there was this one nurse who gave one of my nurses a hard time, sent her back to me mad almost to the point of tears. Then that nurse called me up and offered 10 bucks not to bring up my patient untill day shift arrived, only a delay of about 1 1/2 hrs. I just acquiesced quietly over the phone and smile. I did keep the pt untill days shift because that nurses attitude would not have been good for my patient. I brought my patient up at shift change, and then walked up to the offending nurse and asked her in front of the day charge RN for the 10 bucks she promised me to delay the pts admission to the floor. then quickly walked off and left it to the care of the day shift charge RN to deal with. And by the way I did not even want the 10 dollars. I just delayed admission for the sake of the patient. Also I was diecreet with that nurse, The only persons who heard of it were the charge nurses from days and nights.

If a nurse calls me and tells me they are being hammered up on the floor I will respect that and make the patient comfortable down in the ER untill the time is good for the patient to go up. Whats best for the patient is the best you can do. It doesnt help to get into an ego war over admissions. But then I have also been protective of the nurses under my direction also.

keep it in the short grass yall

teeituptom

l.rae · May 29, 2002

I've seen this a lot, some units are worse than others, some nurses worse than others. Floor nurses who havn't worked ER don't realize how hectic it gets. We HAVE to take the patients as they come, we don't have the option of telling squads or walk in's sorry, come back in thirty minutes, or sorry, it's shift change. If the night is slow and the nurse asks for a few minutes , I'm only too happy to oblige...but this happens almost never any more. I know a lot of the floor nurses get angry when some of the orders are not intiated in ER, I only do the stat orders I actually had a NA yell at me once because I didn't weigh her pt prior to placing him in a bed....I had an acut MI waiting in the room I just emptied in the ER.......I've done time in the floors, so I do know how it is, but many floor nurses have never done time in the ER and they simply don't understand.....By the way, I've seen my share of lazy and rude ER nurses too........There is no excuse for either IMHO..LR

kaycee · May 29, 2002

I understand the frustration of nurses constantly receiving new admits from the ER. No one ever likes to see us coming. But we are not having fun either. Yes Heather, we get pt's that walk off the street, or that we pull out of a car, or that are filthy dirty or drunk as skunks or covered with $hit, full of bugs, extremely sick and unstable to name a few. We can't stop them from coming because we are too busy, understaffed, have no room, or are at dinner or on break. By the time the nurses on the floors get them, they are clean, debugged, more sober or restrained, and stable. I think our frustration is then aimed at nurses that won't take report. Most of the nurses on the floors and in the units where I work are not rude just frustrated like everyone else these days. There are exceptions and I ignore those. I just wish we could all work together more to make everyone's job easier and the patients feel more at ease. ER nurses should hold pt's when they can if it helps out the floor nurses for a while. The floor nurses should take pt's quickly with a better attitude when the ER is balls to the walls busy. Nothing worse then taking a pt to their room and have someone say in front of the pt."oh not another admission", and have no one come to help put the pt in bed. Nothing worse then a ER nurse saying with a fairly empty ER, this ones going up now because "this pt and their family is driving me crazy". That's all the floor nurses need when their balls to the walls busy is a demanding pt and family. I work ER and have for many years. I try to see both sides. Cooperation is key and I feel if I can do someone a favor then when I need one I'll get it. Hope this makes sense.

It's been said before "Can't we all just get along!"

OBNURSEHEATHER · May 29, 2002

Originally posted by l.rae
We HAVE to take the patients as they come, we don't have the option of telling squads or walk in's sorry, come back in thirty minutes, or sorry, it's shift change.

With all due respect l.rae, that is not an option that I have either. My admits come when they come, just like yours.

The only time L&D has ever held a pt. for us is when the room is still being cleaned from the pt. that just left. And even then, they've been known to sit outside the room, with the pt in her wheelchair and family in tow.

Heather

MPHkatie · May 29, 2002

Ha ha, Heather, I can just see it now, can you hold my L and D patient who is in labor somewhere else???

Really though, I have had occasionaly problems with floor RN's- usually it is a perception problem. I usually just acknowledge the crazy day they may be having on the floor and we go from there. I also try not to send anyone dirty/needing immediate meds or care (fever, unmedicated, not cultured) or incontinent with no foley. I have noticed that it varies from floor to floor and it may be a "floor culture". If I run across a RN who takes report and is nice, I usually try to mention how much appreciated it is, and the problems seem to be decreasing. One floor though, I dread calling report to, so I guess it isn't changing much.....I also had some problems when I brought a pt to the floor yesterday and wanted to get some gripper slippers for her....Everyone looked at me as if I had asked for a diamond tiara....

LilgirlRN, ADN, RN · May 29, 2002

The worst is when the ER is running over with patients and the floor/unit nurse says "we're really busy can you hold the patient?" I don't get a choice, why should they? Like I can take an incoming patient report from a medic and say "Can ya'll circle the block for about 30 minutes cause I'm really busy now?"

Andy S., BSN, RN · May 29, 2002

Sorry if I caused commotion, I just moved from being a floor nurse and I guess I didn't ever recognize this as being a problem. I guess the only thing you can do is your best, work with everyone for the best of the patient. Thanks for the input everyone!

Andy

noel · May 29, 2002

Hey everyone,

I have been in nursing for 7 years and most of that time being a unit nurse. I have worked med-surg/card. for two years and I can tell you that in my experience, floor nurses are awful to unit nurses. Maybe that is just because I work prn, but I try to be up beat to everyone and I can without a doubt, tell you that floor nurses do not like other units to some degree. But in retrospect, every unit or division has their own personal opinions of other departments so just go with the flow and blow it off. Don't let them get the best of you. Just treat them extra nice and see how they act. Get more bees with honey. Good luck.

Noel