Title says it all . Second semester baby nurse in clinicals at a major hospital.
Patients = Awesome
Most Nurses = Very sweet and helpful
Some nurses are rude, terse, horrible with patients, horrible with students and horrible with each other.
To those nurses I say this, please retire.
Its only a matter of time before management figures out they can live without you and hire some very hungry and very competent new grads that want to be there to fill your dusty shoes....
word...
sadly the vast majority of the time these happen to also be charge nurses....in charge of what? Misery?
when i was a student, i remember getting upset with a nurse during clinicals because she didn't have time for me. granted this wasn't a "bitter dried up nurse" but will prove my point just as well. at the time, i had no idea how time-constrained nurses can be. i mean, the expectations are downright ridiculous more frequently than not! now that i have been a nurse, i would have viewed that nurse very differently and cut her some serious slack.
here's a day i had recently and i hate to say it's not that unusual: i had a patient, mr. x, screaming at me like a drill sergeant because he had been inadequately medicated for pain the entire weekend. i had just met him and at that point he was ready to go ama. pointlessly, i tried to calm him down, mainly by just listening as he was too angry to hear anything i said. i was getting his rage in full force r/t inadequate pain control. at nearly the same time, i had admissions drop two charts full of unorganized paperwork. "here you go, two admits." ring ring ring. oh, and there is the nurse from hospital y, ready to give me report. "i'll have to call you back." but wait, mr. x is ready to walk out the door and i haven't pulled out his iv yet. did i mention that i had been trying to get a hold of the doctor to call pharmacy for pain meds for mr. x for the past hour? but the doc doesn't care to call me back. (i'm pretty sure he would care more if he were the one in pain.) i have to call him repeatedly even though i don't have time. not much later i had a patient c/o cp that i had to send to the er. so, i finally get a hold of that doctor. wow, you are still working, doc, good for you. oh, and i have two full med passes to complete still. oh, and here comes management with a big smile: "and how are you today?" i would be fine if you hired an admissions nurse! just when i thought i had things under control and returned to normal, i had a patient code. i cannot describe adequately how much it sucks to be in a continual state of having more to do than time and safety allow. nurses want to keep a positive outlook, but some environments are toxic and i am not shocked whatsoever that some nurses get bitter. you see management walzing around, "oh, customer service...keep up the good work," while you watch them stuff their fat pockets full of money. i entered nursing to care for people, but i have already worked in environments where everyone (except managment) is exploited and the actual concept of caring is a joke based on the staffing ratios and lack of resources. the nurses and the patients are exploited...but i'll keep . i remember when i first started i used to spend more time with my patients until i realized i didn't have any.
sorry, this is a long post. i just meant to sympathize with those "bitter dried up nurses." albeit there are nasty people everywhere, more often than not, people get dried up and bitter for a reason.
I thoses with the manangement degrees that need to get out of nursing. Those are the ones who HAVE forgotten the ones in the bed- their hospitals NOT hotels. It's that kind of thinking that patient' have risked dealth and have died because of. Let the patient do what they WANT/ RE-ADMISSION!!
'Dried up and bitter' aka to much of doing more with less-- a managment rule not the bedside nurses.
My advise to the original poster- get about 10 yrs of bedside experience before you go waltzing into a managment position you are not experienced enough to take on!! Have some concept of what the job involves first.
Echoing the previous post - "Wow, the end of the thread!" I'm another one who reads a thread to the end before posting a response, because it's on the cards that someone, or many someones, has already said it. And that is the case here; so, this is more in the form of a summary than a unique opinion.
Yes, mindlor, there are many bitter old bags out there; catch me when I'm standing alone in that PACU with no-one to help or relieve me to go to the loo, when on top of it I have a pounding sinus headache, or my back is acting up, and I have to bite my tongue not to become one of them. Then again, I've encountered young nurses who appear to have been raised from birth on a solid diet of unsweetened grapefruit and lemon salad, with vinegar dressing. I've come across toxic cliques, and I have also met crusty old nurses with treasure troves of experience and hearts of solid gold.
Some of these old nurses just carry on - I know one who went on "official" retirement ten years ago, couldn't survive on her meager pension and still works at a local LTC. I know this much, it's getting more and more difficult for anyone to retire these days. Speaking for myself, I think it would make me very bitter if I were to reach retirement age, only to find I have to carry on working if I want to eat - especially after society has already stripped my body of most of its flesh. I think if you want to bring about the kind of changes you envision, you have to tackle the attitude towards retirement benefits and what constitutes sufficient to live on. The aged should not have to carry on working; society, the government and the corporates should respect their contribution and make it possible for them to enjoy their senior years in comfort.
Sure, there are nurses out there who should never have entered in the profession in the first place; those who are uncaring, arrogant and rude towards their patients and who make absolutely no effort to improve themselves. Eventually you will come to recognize these zeroes, and be able to distinguish between them and those others who are.....well, crusty on the surface.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Title says it all . Second semester baby nurse in clinicals at a major hospital.
Patients = Awesome
Most Nurses = Very sweet and helpful
Some nurses are rude, terse, horrible with patients, horrible with students and horrible with each other.
To those nurses I say this, please retire.
Its only a matter of time before management figures out they can live without you and hire some very hungry and very competent new grads that want to be there to fill your dusty shoes....
word...
sadly the vast majority of the time these happen to also be charge nurses....in charge of what? Misery?
Sounds like you had a really close encounter with the wicked witch in a nursing cap.... I'm glad you vented.
Wow!! You really have a nasty little attitude! I am a young nurse and I would not want to work around a student like you. You may be mistaking the nurses bitterness....maybe they are just expressing that they are less than impressed with you. Get your qualification, get some expirience and maybe then you will understand how utterly unprofessional and insensitive your comments are.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Wow!! You really have a nasty little attitude! I am a young nurse and I would not want to work around a student like you. You may be mistaking the nurses bitterness....maybe they are just expressing that they are less than impressed with you. Get your qualification, get some expirience and maybe then you will understand how utterly unprofessional and insensitive your comments are.
There are some pretty sour grapes out there......and horizontal violence that goes on.......I'm glad you've never seen it or been near it.......but sadly no matter how rare it may be.....they exist.
Ahhh, that was a very interesting thread. I don't have anything to add to the discussion, but I want to say to Moogie that I love reading your posts (and a Trekkie to boot). Man, I haven't seen such angry backpedaling since 8th grade gym class.
Wow, hmm well, here is the deal, you folks trying to deny that customer service is important in nursing are in for a rude awakening if you can please pardon my pun.....
You will have to learn from your own experiences......
Good luck in your journey
Anyway, bed time, please know that I realize that all of you have your unique perspectives and opinions and that I have great respect for each of you...
Peace
The student with no actual experience as a nurse tells others that they will have to learn from their own experience ...
... and then intones that she does indeed have great respect for all.
That just takes the cake.
I can't read any more. But I will contribute to the education of the nursing student:
If your clinical experiences so far have not yet demonstrated to you the inherent conflict which is often present between medical/nursing care and what is commonly termed "customer service" ... then you have a long way to go.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Wait, aren't you the guy that started all the crap a few months ago about how it's immoral for women to seek employment when they know they are pregnant? :icon_roll
Know what gets under my skin? People that like to stir up crap just to create drama, and then try to justify it as 'discussion'.
Yes, that bugs me, too. Characteristic of a person who doesn't consider putting others into a state of upset to prompt the reaction he or she is seeking.
Mindlor, I can only comment on how I perceive the tone of your posts. It has nothing to do with the title for me. It was more the typed repitition "Leslie Leslie,Leslie" and " be advised" and" yes, yes I agree, let us all be careful when we judge" and "wow, hm, well, here's the deal". It just has a very negative flavor to it. If this is the way you are accustomed to speaking, you may not even know you do it but I do think if a nurse had to deal with even perceived condescending behavior or perceived arrogance (even if it's just a quirk in your way of speaking) it would put them off....especially since you are a student.
Pax...
I agree yes? I mean yes. I can't fathom how someone can claim they're they are the the "go to" person in Customer Service and yet come on the board and do the opposite to the membership here. To me "customer service" is a natural outgrowth of my personality not dropped for one group and picked up for another.
surprised this thread isn't closed yet! lol
So is the OP!
now regarding the battle-axes . . .it took me quite a while to scratch the surface of what some of them were all about - it is just so easy to stick to my own self-righteous me vs them thinking. In every single case below the surface was a person with a completely unique perspective in ways I never could have guessed.
You just have no idea what you're missing when you write these people off - crap! I feel verklempt all of a sudden. All are gone now.
Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.
Very interesting. I know in every career you have a small percentage of bitter people who as you say should just get out. I agree that overt displays of this should not be tolerated. And zero tolerance if they are "taking it out" on patients.
However, until you have walked a mile in those shoes I do not think you really can possibly know what you are talking about.
Once you have a little experience, have carried your own load, dealt with management providing too little staffing and patients and families with unrealistic expectations, then I think it would be very interesting to have this discussion again.
I don't really disagree with you at all, but I also think you need to have walked the walk a little before it can be a productive discussion.
I'm glad you vented.
Art_Vandelay
351 Posts
wow, the end of this thread!
when i was a student, i remember getting upset with a nurse during clinicals because she didn't have time for me. granted this wasn't a "bitter dried up nurse" but will prove my point just as well. at the time, i had no idea how time-constrained nurses can be. i mean, the expectations are downright ridiculous more frequently than not! now that i have been a nurse, i would have viewed that nurse very differently and cut her some serious slack.
here's a day i had recently and i hate to say it's not that unusual: i had a patient, mr. x, screaming at me like a drill sergeant because he had been inadequately medicated for pain the entire weekend. i had just met him and at that point he was ready to go ama. pointlessly, i tried to calm him down, mainly by just listening as he was too angry to hear anything i said. i was getting his rage in full force r/t inadequate pain control. at nearly the same time, i had admissions drop two charts full of unorganized paperwork. "here you go, two admits." ring ring ring. oh, and there is the nurse from hospital y, ready to give me report. "i'll have to call you back." but wait, mr. x is ready to walk out the door and i haven't pulled out his iv yet. did i mention that i had been trying to get a hold of the doctor to call pharmacy for pain meds for mr. x for the past hour? but the doc doesn't care to call me back. (i'm pretty sure he would care more if he were the one in pain.) i have to call him repeatedly even though i don't have time. not much later i had a patient c/o cp that i had to send to the er. so, i finally get a hold of that doctor. wow, you are still working, doc, good for you. oh, and i have two full med passes to complete still. oh, and here comes management with a big smile: "and how are you today?" i would be fine if you hired an admissions nurse! just when i thought i had things under control and returned to normal, i had a patient code. i cannot describe adequately how much it sucks to be in a continual state of having more to do than time and safety allow. nurses want to keep a positive outlook, but some environments are toxic and i am not shocked whatsoever that some nurses get bitter. you see management walzing around, "oh, customer service...keep up the good work," while you watch them stuff their fat pockets full of money. i entered nursing to care for people, but i have already worked in environments where everyone (except managment) is exploited and the actual concept of caring is a joke based on the staffing ratios and lack of resources. the nurses and the patients are exploited...but i'll keep
. i remember when i first started i used to spend more time with my patients until i realized i didn't have any.
sorry, this is a long post. i just meant to sympathize with those "bitter dried up nurses." albeit there are nasty people everywhere, more often than not, people get dried up and bitter for a reason.