Attitude Problem

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Hi,

Yea, I'm writing mostly because I'm POed right now. I have been working in a dialysis clinic for the past year while I completed my fourth and final year of nursing school. I just graduated, passed the boards and got a great job in an ICU :) But the job doesn't start until Sept. so I've been perdiem at the dialysis clinic as a tech and will be until Sept. (By the time I would be done with training to work at the clinic as a nurse, it would be time for me to leave). It's been hard to work as a tech even though I'm an RN!

So to get to the point.. over the past year I have very much been turned off by the nurses I work with. Our standard assignments are 3 patients per tech/nurse. However, the night nurse likes to forgoe any assignments and just "take them as they come." This often means that I'll put on/take off 4 or 5 while the nurse does other nursely duties (and chats and eats, etc.) Am I wrong to feel that I should not have to take care of more than 3 patients or is it really the tech's job to do as much patient care as they can so the nurse is free to do.. um... paperwork?

And it really bugs me when all the blood pressures are going off and the nurses completely ignore them and I and the other techs have to run around the room like crazy while they sit there and print up a medication report. Or when as soon as i walk in the door the nurse says "oh good you can have my assignment, bye."

we have this new nurse that is a new RN (associates) training. she hasn't been an RN for more than 2 months and already she has caught this disease. I just feel like these nurses are avoiding the essence of what they do: patient care. They would rather sit around and do paperwork that touch a patient. I had a BP going off for 15 minutes the other day before I got to it.. found the patients BP to be 70/40. The nurse stood by and let it beep for 15 minutes. If this patient had coded it would have been because of the nurse's irresponsibility.

Has anyone else seen this trend in dialysis? It really makes me feel like crap and these nurses.. if anything.. have taught me how NOT to treat techs/cna's/etc.

sorry for the rant!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Dialysis.

You should be angry. While there are many nurses that have this I am better than that syndrome, there are those of us who do believe in wholistic care. I have been a charge nurse and have never felt like I could not answer and alarm or put patients on unless I am truly swamped. Now I will sat that there is a ton of paper work in the dialysis setting that the nurse is responsible for. But I never want to wait for my patient to code, but at the same time I will not let PCT's take advantage of a situation There are times when I observed PCT's not watching there patients, not charting in a timely manner, and disappering off the floor for extended periods of time. In saying that you get bad apples in every position. Have you tried talking with the nurses or clincal manager? By the way welcome to the Wonderful world of nursing. There are going to be more times that you are upset because you will have other nurses you work with that does not share your philiospy. So it is perfectly normal to vent. Good luck in ICU.:welcome:

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Specializes in Dialysis.

As a tech, I sometimes feel that my nurses are only concerned with doing their "more important things" and not helping us work together to cmplete the ultimate task: getting through the day! This is only occasionally, though. Do not get me wrong. I love my nurses. Soon I will be one (yay LVN school!) I couldn't do lots of things or know what i know today because of my nurses. It just seems to me that sometimes there will be a nurse who thinks she is above helping us set up machines or get through change over. Our Facility Administrator was, up unti l2 weeks ago, on the floor charging every MWF and she worked her butt off stripping our machines, cleaning them and the chairs, calling in the next patients. Dialysis is all about teamwork, at least in the chronic setting.

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Do you think that new nurse is acting sloppy because she is an associate degree nurse?

At any rate, when I read about nurses saying oh good take my patient and drop everything and leave I felt my BP go up a little.

Who let them in???

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As a tech, I sometimes feel that my nurses are only concerned with doing their "more important things" and not helping us work together to cmplete the ultimate task: getting through the day! This is only occasionally, though. Do not get me wrong. I love my nurses. Soon I will be one (yay LVN school!) I couldn't do lots of things or know what i know today because of my nurses. It just seems to me that sometimes there will be a nurse who thinks she is above helping us set up machines or get through change over. Our Facility Administrator was, up unti l2 weeks ago, on the floor charging every MWF and she worked her butt off stripping our machines, cleaning them and the chairs, calling in the next patients. Dialysis is all about teamwork, at least in the chronic setting.

My nurses...lol.

I always hate it when nurses call them my tech's...give them a dose of their own medicine.

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Specializes in Dialysis.

Motorcycle, I just used that term "my" as a qualifier for the nurses I work with and love!

Also, "because she is an associate degree nurse?" what is that supposed to mean? I would assume this nurse is just like you, an RN. that's kind of elitist, don't you think?

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Specializes in Dialysis.
Motorcycle, I just used that term "my" as a qualifier for the nurses I work with and love!

Also, "because she is an associate degree nurse?" what is that supposed to mean? I would assume this nurse is just like you, an RN. that's kind of elitist, don't you think?

I am an ASSOCIATE DEGREE NURSE!!!!! I am proud of that too!! :nono:

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Specializes in Dialysis.
Do you think that new nurse is acting sloppy because she is an associate degree nurse?

At any rate, when I read about nurses saying oh good take my patient and drop everything and leave I felt my BP go up a little.

Who let them in???

SLOPPY!!! I don't think that is a nice comment. :nono:I am an Associate Degree Nurse!! I have over 10 years experience in Dialysis. And because of my clinical and organizational skills, I have advanced in this profession far more than some nurses who possess a BSN!! It does not matter whether you are BSN or ADN- if you are LAZY you just plain LAZY!!

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Specializes in Dialysis.

Motorcycle, sorry, maybe I just didn't understand your tone.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Okay - back to the subject at hand: nurses in dialysis units.

I think I can speak to this as I'm an APN in two HDUs. The techs are very good with their task-oriented jobs. I go to them when I have access questions on patients. However, the nursing assessment is just that: "nursing" assessment. Done by the RNs.

One of the units I work at is 32 chairs - so busy, big, and noisy. However, I have been very pleased with both staffs - they do a good job.

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Specializes in ICU of all kinds, CVICU, Cath Lab, ER..

I don't want to add gasoline to the fire (ADN versus BSN)....my experience and continued education speak for me.

I love having a tech's help but I never, ever feel they are MY TECH....my friend is one of those RN's who keeps the tech (her tech) literally at HER side. This particular tech professes that in her country she was a pediatric doctor (I see nothing to enforce this claim).... what I do see is her following her RN around like a puppy - she will definitely help you, if you ask. She also has the most critical air about her....pisses me off that she walks in new to the unit and judges (and very harshly) my peers.

I think Techs should have a clear cut line of duties but by no stretch of the imagination should they have exclusive right to answering alarms, call bells, telephones, etc.

I very much appreciate their help.

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i really don't see this problem in my unit being degree-related, as i see this behavior from both the associate degree RNs as well as the BSNs. i have come to the conclusion that it is pure laziness and unwillingness to deal with patients.. unfortunately.

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