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 fairness, I do think there's a gray area between appalling and reportable, and it's undoubtedly bigger and grayer to a student than to an experienced nurse. I feel lucky that I've never witnessed a reportable event, but I've been appalled a few times. Once, when my father was on step-down overflow in an ICU bed, I was a bit disgruntled by his nurse's lack of bedside manner. It was one of those "I'll never be like that," moments. But I was already a nurse with some experience, so I did appreciate that she was technically excellent, and wrote the rest off as "that ICU type." Apologies in advance to any ICU nurses who read this, but I'll bet if you're honest, you've seen what I mean, even if you aren't like that. Thing is, what I disliked wasn't remotely reportable, and in my opinion not even reportable to her charge nurse. But, really, I thought she ought to call herself by some other title than "nurse." We don't really know what the OP meant by "horrible," so it's hard to judge what should have been done about it. Maybe ranting on allnurses.com was enough. Or even too much.
And now you got me thinking... was what this "old dried up" nurse did really that bad or are was that just the OP's naive opinion?
So, you're right. We don't know what was meant by "horrible".
We have two call lights in each room. One is a "patient" light: I need help/I'm dying.
Two is a "customer" Light: I need coffee, attention, pillows.
We get some minimum wage workers to help with the number 2 lights... freeing nursing staff up for the "patient" lights.
We get a possible third light: I need more of that candy you call Vicodin.
I'm pretty positive this will revolutionize health care as we know it.
I love this idea, let's just make it like the PCA's and the pt. can hit the button as many times as they want, then when it's time....automatic Vicoden with a complimentary beverage! I feel better already.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
i'm a nursing student and there might be some nasty veteran nurses out there but i think there are WAY more awesome supportive veteran nurses out there. do i expect the veterans to hold my hand and tell me "oh honey it's okay" when i make a mistake? ummm NO. i expect and deserve to get fussed at. the very first thing i ever messed up in clinicals (CNA clinicals) was that i didn't line the sink with a wash cloth before beginning to clean a pts dentures. supervising nurse chewed me out. and you know what? i never once since then have made that mistake. i think in general, aside from getting fussed at when i make a mistake, i get respect and support from the veterans because i afford them the same courtesy.
maybe tweak your attitude a little bit? while there will always be a*#holes out there in every field, i find that people generally treat me the way i treat them. hope this helps. good luck!
Which is exactly what this poster said. They said MAJORITY of the nurses they have been with have been great and it was only a small amount that were mean, nasty, what have you.
I expect and welcome constructive criticism. I will not tolerate being berated, chewed out, yelled at and whatever else by ANYONE. I can understand someone might be a little snippy SOMETIMES, lord knows I have been. But when I am, I always apologize after.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
And now you got me thinking... was what this "old dried up" nurse did really that bad or are was that just the OP's naive opinion?
So, you're right. We don't know what was meant by "horrible".
Excellent point.
Or was it something definitely reportable. Which brings up another aspect, had the student said they witnessed x behavior and reported it; I guarantee they would have been jumped on about that as well and scolded they had no business reporting this or that and it was probably a bad day and whatever.
Sometimes students just can't "win" here. They get reamed for posting their opinions when experienced nurses vent. Yet when they vent in their own thread people come in reaming them for that too. (usually the same ones that don't want them ruining their vents) A lot of this stuff being vented about is not even isolated to nursing. Yet unless they have been a nurse for 10 years they can't have an opinion about people being mean and nasty. They have to empathize why that person is mean and nasty.
There is no excuse for mean and nasty behavior to other people period. I watched a student go out to the parking lot and cry her first day of her practicum because of how deplorable her preceptor was. This student in the 2 years of clinicals never had ONE problem. They were humble, nice, respectful. They did everything right. She was even hesitant to tell us what had happened because she was worried to get anyone in trouble. This nurse had yelled and screamed at his patients, was extremely rude to her, slammed the top to the laptop down, punched the air in a temper tantrum and was cussing.
The funny thing is when she was telling me my preceptor was nearby with 2 other nurses. They were float nurses and they asked what floor she was on. She said and immediately they new the name of the nurse that was like this. He had acted like this numerous times but nothing was being done about it, he was a veteran there and so his behavior was excused.
I saw stuff like this happen a few times in 3 different hospitals and always the veteran nurses knew exactly who the "nurse in question" was without having to be told. That right there verifies that it's a problem with the particular nurse, not the student, not the patient or the aide.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
nurses are also there to therapeutically communicate with patients and their familes, to treat their patients as holistic beings by attending to body, mind and spirit....
there is much more to nurses than pushing drugs and performing cpr......ya know...the art part yes?
i thought you didn't mean to come off all superior . . . .
you have a serious case of "know-it-all-itis" and i sincerely hope you come back and apologize and mean it when you get it.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
also, could you please quote the statements that you felt were condescending and overbearing?
i am sorry if anything i said came across that way and or offended you.....
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?
most of the statements you've made on this thread have been condescending, rude, overbearing, self-aggrandizing, ageist, mean-spirited and just pain clueless. starting with this one.
Be very careful that in your quest to provide good customer service you don't provide bad patient care. That can and does happen. The customer isn't always right when they are the patient and you need to be mindful of that. Something that could make the patient very happy could also have dire health consequences. Be open to learning from those with more experience. Good luck in your new endeavors.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
and it sounds like you are refusing to believe that it might not be the students "fault" that the nurse is mean or ugly to them. that it just might be the nurses personality. the op said that majority of the staff she met was wonderful and caring. so it's not like they have this "all older nurses" are mean and ugly mentality. people are upset that assumptions are made about the nurse in the scenario, and let's face it, how many seasoned nurses here have never had a co-worker they thought was negative or nasty and treated the co-workers crappy. you see on this very board people vent about these people. so why is it so hard to fathom that this same bitter nasty co-worker might be the same way to students, other staff or patients? but if it's a student or non nurse venting about this same type or person they are automatically reamed and belittled and told it's probably their fault.
having read the entire thread, i think the original poster's original post -- and title -- said exactly what she meant. "bitter dried up old nurse that need to retire" has a resounding ring of "all older nurses are mean and ugly" mentality. she's paid some lip service to the idea that many of the staff members she's encountered have been mean and caring, but continues to to try to tell the experienced nurses what it's all about. it's a rude, nasty attitude. if she behaves in person the way she behaved in this thread, i can well understand why many of the experienced nurses she encounters would have a problem with her.
i especially enjoyed the post where she insists that everyone really likes her. honest.
if the op hadn't gone on and on to insist that she was right and everyone should learn all about customer service from her, and everyone really likes her, and etc., etc. i might be able to cut her some slack as being "misunderstood." as it is, however, i think she has a lot to learn. none of her posts have struck me as particularly respectful -- even though she now insists she has respect for experienced nurses.
I haven't read all the posts on this but I'm just itching to say something. I'm in my last term of nursing school. I have just had the worst two days of clinical's. I'm beating myself up because of what I could have done or done better. I have seen all kinds of nurses as a student, patient and daughter of the patient/s. I have to say, if a nurse is bitter...well after today I can understand why. I'm not bitter after today but I am upset about all that went on and all that continues to go on. Nurses sometimes get too large of a pt load. I shared 6 pts with my nurse today. I was to document on two. There was one pt that I experienced the minute I got on the floor, 30mins before I was due. This pt cried the whole day and was in constant pain. Every time I would go to pass meds to a pt, this pt would start in, I went to the pt instead of my nurse because I can't pass meds by myself and it only made sense. When I'd go to document, she'd start in (let me tell you she was very loud and bothered all of the pts), I couldn't document because of her. When I finally got her calmed down, my instructor told us she needed to leave early. I couldn't document and had to explain it to my nurse. I know she's giving a bad report to my instructor and I feel like total crap and I'm wondering how I'm ever going to make it because I had no time to document. I wouldn't change the care I gave to the pt today because it was what she needed but I will be figuring out another way to document and talk to the pt at the same time. I think you have to truly walk in the shoes of the nurse in order to pass judgement. I didn't walk in my nurses shoes, I wasn't even halfway in them but after these two days I sure understand why a nurse may be a little bitter. There are days when they are given a vary large pt load.
My dad received a 5cm x 8cm skin tear during an IV removal in the anticubital area from a nurse that had been on the job for 3 years. She tried to blame him, and then tried to say he had the wound when he got in there and that it was from his skin cancer. Never mind the cancer was removed 2months prior and that site was healed, or that it was an obvious fresh wound. The charge nurse handled it after that point. Then a 5yr nurse tore his skin as he rubbed the mess out of it before inserting the iv. We told him he was doing it too much but he said it has to be clean. I brought the tear to his attention, he denied it and was saying "let me see" next thing I know he slaps tape on top of the tear. I was in complete shock. He also tour his skin with tourniquet, started to do wound care and left up. He did come back 20mins later and bandage him up but in recovery (he had a procedure done) as I walked in the nurses were arguing with my dad about the bandage. The told him it was his skin cancer. I took the bandage off and showed them how clear it was where it came from. They then treated him nicely but it shouldn't have taken that. They were new nurses who felt a nurse could do no wrong. There is a lot of attitude from nurses but what I have noticed is, it's from those who aren't as experienced and feel their position is being threatened.
I have been in management and you can't treat nursing with the same type of customer service. What about the customer is always right? You're doing something to a pt that may save their life, they say they don't want it...are they right? With that said, you do need to provide customer care. There are some pts that act like the hospital is a hotel. No matter how much ice water you give them or how many snacks, it's never going to be enough. One of my pts told my nurse "I left ____hospital because they wouldn't give me any ice water. It was always I left _____hospital because of ____, I hope it wasn't a mistake coming here.
I love those seasoned nurses, I have learned a lot from them. You bring up a good subject but I really don't believe you have been able to see all that goes on. Nurses that treat pts like crap does happen, it has happened to both of my parents lately and myself in the past. However, society this day and age treat each other with so much disrespect it's awful.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
having read the entire thread, i think the original poster's original post -- and title -- said exactly what she meant. "bitter dried up old nurse that need to retire" has a resounding ring of "all older nurses are mean and ugly" mentality. she's paid some lip service to the idea that many of the staff members she's encountered have been mean and caring, but continues to to try to tell the experienced nurses what it's all about. it's a rude, nasty attitude. if she behaves in person the way she behaved in this thread, i can well understand why many of the experienced nurses she encounters would have a problem with her.
i especially enjoyed the post where she insists that everyone really likes her. honest.
if the op hadn't gone on and on to insist that she was right and everyone should learn all about customer service from her, and everyone really likes her, and etc., etc. i might be able to cut her some slack as being "misunderstood." as it is, however, i think she has a lot to learn. none of her posts have struck me as particularly respectful -- even though she now insists she has respect for experienced nurses.
the main point i was expressing in most of my posts is a recurring theme i see on the forums all the time. i suppose this post and thread was finally my breaking point to say something but it had more to do with a lot of the replies that i see in majority of posts where someone speaks up against these types of personalities. excuses are constantly made for these type of people, people get hyper-defensive about it as if they know they are guilty of the same thing or behavior. i don't disagree at all that the op did not go about things in a favoring manner at all. i am not going to presume to know what her motives are and if she is genuine or not or just wanted to start drama or anything of the sort.
the conversation following though was an opportunity for me to speak up on something i keep seeing. i have every "excuse" to be bitter and nasty and mean and ugly to people with what i have always had to put up with. i have had people like this be the same way to me for 31 years. mostly people that shouldn't and it's pretty much been consistent my entire life. if i were to be one of these bitter people i would bet a lot of people that know me would understand. but i'm not. i am a positive enthusiastic person that is respectful and kind and caring and treats people the way i hope to be treated. so i don't put up with all the bologna excuses why it's ok or understandable.
so anyway, my posts were more geared towards the overall topic at hand.
For every 10-15 nasty patients I see one "bitter dried up" nurse. I'd rather take the nasty nurse then the patients.
Catch, I agree too! For every crazy or nasty patient, u know they come with more than one crazy family member. That just adds insult to injury! I'd much rather be on the shift with the nasty nurse any day. Just my .02
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Frozen08
23 Posts
Tangential Idea.
We have two call lights in each room. One is a "patient" light: I need help/I'm dying.
Two is a "customer" Light: I need coffee, attention, pillows.
We get some minimum wage workers to help with the number 2 lights... freeing nursing staff up for the "patient" lights.
We get a possible third light: I need more of that candy you call Vicodin.
I'm pretty positive this will revolutionize health care as we know it.