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?
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
alright, the OP already stated poor choice of words. But as a nursing student, I have seen the same exacty behaviors that she describes. I was assigned a very nasty nurse. As a matter of fact each week someone in my clinical group was assigned to this nurse. She was nasty to EACH AND EVERYONE US..!!! I know Im always polite to the nurse, I am interested in learning from them and value their input immensely. Some nurses are
Well I am sure it was still something you all did. Nursing is a profession of only caring individuals that love to teach. There are no exceptions
there are some nurses that are far from nice to one another....get se to it!...this is how it is. i have run into many nasty nurses...cut throat heffas that think they run the place...that's how they are...but you area student nurse...so all you need to do is maintain your professional stature...because you may end up working at any of these facilities....keep in mind that these are seasoned nurses and there are prob. a lot of things that she can teach you. now as for them "bitter dried up nurses that need to retire".....no one wants to be admitted into a facility that has just all new nurses...that would be a disaster...lol....there's nothing worse than a brand new nurse that thinks she knows everything also....you need the old as well as the new...i hope they have good bed side manners
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?
In my previous post on this thread, I tried to address the idea that some times there just isn't time for the small kindnesses many of us expected to be doing when we entered nursing. Others have responded pretty well to the OP, but having given the matter some thought, I'd like to add my two cents.
There's no escaping the fact that some nurses aren't real good with people. Which is kind of a problem, because our stock in trade is people. I'm glad the OP has backed off some of the age-ist tone, because it has been my observation that ogres are as apt to be young as old. Some of those very hungry and very competent new grads aren't nearly as competent as they think, or nearly as ready to put up with the day-to-day grind of being a nurse. My facility has made a serious goal of reducing our first year turnover, and I endorse that, but there will always be some who last a year or two and decide bedside nursing isn't for them. Most of the nurses with decades of experience have "been there, done that," and have found a way to adjust to the problems we all face. Most of them are also very nice people. Patients should not, and generally do not, have to choose between a bitter old crone who knows her stuff and a compassionate, but clueless newbie. My floor has a nice mix of compassionate old crones and competent newbies, along with a handful like me who are somewhere in the middle. I will say that most of the most experienced nurses I've known have pretty reliable BS detectors and a better sense than I sometimes have of when to cut their losses and move on. They can be a bit terse (not rude and certainly not horrible) when it's called for. It's something I've been trying to learn from. I'm still more inclined to try and salvage a situation, particularly when it's a "customer service" problem. Which would be fine, except that I strongly suspect I'm more likely to snap and resort to pillow therapy than those with a better sense of when to just walk away. Well, I exaggerate (I hope) but when the patient I spoke of before mentioned leaving AMA, it took a lot not to just bring him the papers and bid him adieu. And, while again there is no excuse for being rude or abusive to students and co-workers, even nice nurses have less patience for those who are supposed to be part of the solution and make themselves part of the problem.
My weekend to be in charge is coming up, and a lot of times misery seems to be exactly what I'm in charge of, and all I can do is try to apportion it as evenly as I can while taking into account what each can bear. I tend to feel very appreciative of those who can take a tough team and handle it. I try real hard to be one of them when I'm not in charge. I tend to be understanding of those who aren't ready to manage such a heavy load, but will do the best they can with the team they get. And I am apt to get a bit impatient with the few, here and there, who complain if they don't get the easy assignments that are entirely within their comfort zone, because they want to be comfortable. Our floor staffs for a free charge--I don't usually have my own assignment--so when I'm involved with direct patient care while in charge, it's in an acuity role. If a less experienced nurse runs into a problem, I'm her back up. If a more experienced nurse needs an extra pair of hands or someone to bounce ideas off, I can do that. If a malcontent nurse wants to create problems, that's on me, too--and I might just get a little terse.
I don't have much experience with students. On nights, we occasionally get a single student on "leadership," paired with a single nurse, and since I'm an ASN, I don't get them. Most of the BSNs who do seem to enjoy the process--but then, it is voluntary. I've had a little experience orienting new hires, but generally on an ad hoc basis. (Readers familiar with my full opus on allnurses.com may be able to guess why I'm not the first choice when looking for mentors to warp young minds...although, really, seriousness is highly overrated.) But when I was a student, I had really good experiences with all of the staff nurses I met, and, coincidentally, a strong sense of when to shut up and stay out of the way. (Not saying the OP doesn't. Just throwing that out for others who are concerned about the "hazing" process.)
Like other readers, I cringed when I read of the OP's plan to get into management ASAP and the comments about customer service. I think it's worth reiterating: I don't see myself as someone who would sweat blood over selling a shirt to a customer, but as a nurse, I'm ready to do whatever it takes for a patient. Even if it means a certain amount of butt-kissing (not, so far, literally, although I've kissed a couple on the cheek--unusual circumstances). I am right there with those who don't think all the management experience or degrees in the world are likely to suffice if you haven't put in the time at the bedside. Some aspects are universal in any business, but I've worked in other fields, and healthcare has a lot of problems that are truly unique. When I had a remodeling business, for example, I never, ever had occasion to tie my customers down in bed. Not even once. Now I feel like a rodeo cowboy.
That said, my NM did her time at the bedside. I didn't know her, then, but I've heard others who didn't know her, either, repeating rumors that she wasn't very good at it. I have a lot of life experience reading people, and I'll bet my next pay that she was one of those really irritating nurses who was pretty good at everything almost from day one and pretty much nice to everybody. I've heard her tell others that in all her years as a nurse, no one ever asked how her grades were. I made three B's, and, again, I'd bet my pay she made no more than two. She has been a good boss as long as I've worked for her, in part because we both understand that she isn't my friend, she's my boss. But, being my boss, she does have a sort of dementia about things like Press-Gainey. Part of this, no doubt, is that Press-Gaineys are a huge part of her evaluation. This work-related dementia appears to increase in severity the farther up the chain of command one goes. So we get these insane edicts to improve patient satisfaction and reduce falls, wash our hands and get our charting done on time. And, since even doing occasional charge is enough to breed this dementia, I'll audit your darned charts to see if you did your darned education, for the good and sufficient reason that my boss says I have to. And, yes, I will try my best to improve our freakin' patient satisfaction, but at least I do have the small satisfaction of knowing that my boss knows that some patients are only satisfied when they are falling out of bed, because she has been where I am.
I don't really subscribe to the view that you can't have an opinion until you've worked x years as a nurse. I had opinions before I ever started nursing school. But I will say, when I was a UAP, there were nurses on my floor I wouldn't let watch my cats, but by the time I graduated, there wasn't one I couldn't learn from. And it wasn't them who changed.
Marianne, I dont give a rats patootie how they treat me, Its not about me. I have very thick skin. But to see this creeps yell at vulnerable patients is inexcusable....you would have had to have been there, it was brutal....
please, stay on topic. speculating about whether or not the op is a troll or when/if this thread will be closed serves only to distract. further posts along those lines are subject to removal.
as always, if you see anything--in this or any other thread--that you think is inappropriate or otherwise problematic, please, use the report button (lower left corner) of the post and alert staff. we appreciate the vigilance of the membership.
I've been a nurse 4 years now and thank goodness I know how to deal with so called bitter dried up nurses. No matter what you are going through or what you have been through as a nurse that is NOOOOOOOOO excuse to act unprofessional and nasty. I never have that problem because as soon as those types of nurses start with that crazy attitude I check them really quick and put them right back in their places, those types of nurses know who they can talk to sideways. But thank goodness I have a backbone. I feel sorry for the nurses that actually let them get away with being disrespectful.
I have a degree in management and tons of management experience, as soon as possible it is my goal to become a nurse manager and guess what, It is going to my mission in life to bring customer service back to nursing care. Remember the customer? Yes, the one in the bed, yes, thats right, the patient.
So I guess you are the competent new grad that will be replacing the dried up nurses? Its always nice to hear about new graduates that are almost ready for management.
Maybe this is one of the reasons for the big problems in management: too many that are put into or attain these roles really have no business being there due to the fact they really haven't spent enough time in the trenches, living daily as a bedside nurse. Maybe 5-10 yrs as a staff nurse should be a strictly adhered to pre-req to being hired as a NM...?
But they have their masters degree!! I don't understand...you mean just coming out of school with a few extra letters after their name doesn't equal knowing everything and being ready to tell experienced nurses how to run the unit?
And how did you come to this decision?
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Hygiene Queen
2,232 Posts
The OP strikes me as manipulative.
The OP starts by winding everybody up... and then tries to come across as misunderstood... then very apologetic.
It's like playing "rollercoaster" with people's emotions.
I think the OP is enjoying watching people switch from one track to the other... as the OP dictates.
I trust no one so swings so far from one end of the spectrum to the other... and so quickly.