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?
You are wrong(at least in my case) I have been a nurse 20 plus years love my job love coming to work sorry someone has left a bad taste in your mouth older nurses have a lot of wisdom to pass on
Re-read the OP. She said "SOME" nurses need to retire.
Ok, well it seems that the thread is devolving and quickly losing its value. That said, I shall no longer be viewing it. Before I go I would like to thank those of you who contributed a great deal of thought and insight.
I would single out Nursemike. Excellent posts Mike. I learned a lot from you and hope that I am fortunate enough to someday get a preceptor like you. Your criticsms were constructive and your explanations were thorough....
Thank you. I don't know whether to be more flattered by your comment or Viva's, but I do appreciate your understanding that even when I've felt a bit testy, it hasn't been my intention to "tear you a new one." Some of the threads I've found most useful in my own development have also been among the most contentious. Eriksoln's "duck" threads and a couple on male nurses caring for female patients or working in OB have really engaged my interest and informed my practice, including changing my mind about some things.
I has occurred to me, before, that often when posts get heated, the participants are only half responding to each other. A lot of the anger, frustration, impatience, or whatever springs from experiences which actually have nothing to do with the various members participating, but with people or events in our real lives. I think, too, that whether we respond with sympathy or acrimony depends on who in the real world has most recently chapped our flanks. It isn't hard to imagine that the original post may have come after a bad day in clinicals and an unhappy experience with a staff nurse, and/or past experiences as a patient himself. And we all have our buttons. Those who've been members a while can pretty well guess that the novice nurse who posts, "Why is my preceptor such a miserable shrew?" are probably not going to get a lot of "there, there, dear," from Ruby Vee. Some may conclude that Ruby must be a miserable shrew, and they are entitled to that view, although the ToS do discourage us from posting, "What a miserable shrew you are!" (Note: I am speaking hypothetically of how some imaginary nurse might feel). Others of us may have more recent memories of being a hapless newbie, even as our most recent experiences lead us to think perhaps a measured application of physical abuse might indeed have some potential to streamline the orientation process (some newbies really might benefit from being smacked upside the head, just a little). In short, we all come to these forums with baggage having nothing to do with these forums. Post a vent about obese patients and you're going to tick me off, although I may not feel quite as ticked if my back is hurting.
I've just come off a tough weekend. Not nearly as bad as some, but enough that I need to give some serious thought to asking my manager to take me off charge and have indulged in some idle--well, "thought" is too strong a word. Internal whining, perhaps, about making a major career change. I gotta say, coming home from a long night asking myself what the hell was I thinking when I decided to become a nurse, then reading Viva's kind words and my own quoted post was, let's not say bitter...profoundly sad. A good day's sleep has given me a little perspective, but I think I need to find a way to hang onto a little of my...anger?...to motivate myself. I'm a nurse who needs to make some changes. Not sure what changes, yet, but coming back next weekend as bright and hopeful as a battered spouse is clearly not a solution.
Um, I may have wandered a bit off-topic. Not entirely, though, because a major source of my frustration, really for the past couple of weekends, has been customer satisfaction. HIPAA precludes a more details, but I've had a couple of mornings of repeating a conversation that's been had about more than one patient, "What is he/she going to do when he/she runs out of nurses?" I've listened to bigoted comments about a novice nurse who tries hard and means well and is far from incompetent, seen a capable, competent, caring nurse elated about being refused by a patient, and heard a very experienced, sublimely capable, compassionate, and almost infinitely patient nurse berated for waking a patient to give medications. Meds I previously explained in my role as CN listening to a patient complaint are intended to keep the patient from death or life-altering brain damage.
Now, I think most of us understand that patients sometimes revert to an earlier stage of development when hospitalized, and some revert farther than others. I believe we can also agree that sometimes patients try to play games with our heads as part of their (largely ineffective) coping mechanisms. I can't control my disease process, but I can (often subconsciously) control one aspect of my situation by hitting that call button every five minutes. Many times we may recognize that when a patient states, "I asked for a bedpan an HOUR ago!" and is a little tachypnic, it might pay to put him on a bedpan and check his sats. At least three of the four (4/5, counting me) who had to put up with an abusive patient over the past weekend have been in neuro long enough to wish there was an easy way to measure that patient's intracranial pressures. Anxiety can cause irritability. Hypoxia can cause anxiety and irritability. Early in my nursing career, a patient apologized for having been a little snappy, earlier. I told him, a.) you were right and b.) your blood glucose was 30, which can make you irritable. We aren't in retail. Every patient deserves respect, courtesy, and compassion, but schmoozing them isn't always the best answer.
That said, it is equally true that my discouragement is not my patients' problem.
NurseMike--hang in there. Sounds like you could use some well deserved time off...and I hope you get to do just that.
Thanks. I am reminding myself that no nurse should make any big decisions when he/she is tired. I wonder if that's why the only meds we pass at 0600 are Nexium.
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.
Because she targeted the OLD nurses. I'll agree with the fact there are some nurses that are not great to be around, but they are not always the old ones...it's the young ones too. The OP is singling out the "old" nurses to be like this.
I know MANY young nurses that hate having students.
But majority of the time it is the students that make us crabby. I love teaching, i'd take a student with me anyday. But sometimes you get those students that think they own the world (i.e. the OP).
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Because she targeted the OLD nurses. I'll agree with the fact there are some nurses that are not great to be around, but they are not always the old ones...it's the young ones too. The OP is singling out the "old" nurses to be like this.
I know MANY young nurses that hate having students.
But majority of the time it is the students that make us crabby. I love teaching, i'd take a student with me anyday. But sometimes you get those students that think they own the world (i.e. the OP).
I will just have to disagree that "majority" of the time it's the students themselves that make the nurses "crabby". The nasty personalities I have seen were that way with or without a student. Their own fellow nurse co-workers thought so. Also, majority of the students in my class know how to act with nurses, the nurses at the hospital had great things to say about our class. There were a few bad apples in my class just as there are bad apples that are nurses and I would bet those bad apple nursing students with ugly personalities will be those very nurses, they would be that way no matter what their profession is because it's a personality thing.
Usually you can tell when it's just a nurse having a bad day or having their breaking point. I have started clinical off with a couple nurses like this and by mid shift I had them laughing and friendlier. I am pretty good at reading moods in person and how to handle them and I am a student (well guess now Nurse) that would rather try to turn the shift around then complain at the end of it about how rotten my nurse was.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Thanks. I am reminding myself that no nurse should make any big decisions when he/she is tired. I wonder if that's why the only meds we pass at 0600 are Nexium.
ETA: Well, and synthroid. That's a little scary.
No one should make any big decision when full of emotion. This is the thing I really try to work on because I am an instant gratification person. Mostly with financial stuff; so I was told if there is something I really want wait 3 days and see if I still do. This is a piece of cake to do when I am broke and spend 3 days trying to figure out where the money will come from.
Sometimes it works though, I made a spur of the moment decision to go take boards with no time to prepare and it worked out. lol
Ok, well it seems that the thread is devolving and quickly losing its value. That said, I shall no longer be viewing it. Before I go I would like to thank those of you who contributed a great deal of thought and insight.
I would single out Nursemike. Excellent posts Mike. I learned a lot from you and hope that I am fortunate enough to someday get a preceptor like you. Your criticsms were constructive and your explanations were thorough....
A flounce! I love a good flounce. Woot! I'd give it about a 6, though. I'll keep an eye out for better flounces from the likes of you in the future.
Seriously. This thread by a know it all nursing student went 30 pages. Not bad. Not bad, indeed. Flounce was about a 6/10, nah, maybe a 5/10, so anti-climactical, but the thread involvement, the know it all, condescending attitude, the continued stirring of the pot? I'd have to give a 9/10 overall.
Those of us who are successful in the field necessarily learn to be realists. There are, of course, those in every walk of life who mistake cynicism for realism, but I would suggest that inexperience can sometimes lead one to mistake realism for cynicism.
I just needed to quote this line from post #204 (I think) on page 25 of this thread. Like several other people, I think nursemike's post was one of the best ever posted on allnurses -- and this quote says so much and reflects a fundamental truth that bears on a lot of the tension between new and experienced nurses.
We should all be thinking about the distinctions between realism and cynicism -- and the change in perspective that happens as we spend time in the world of health care and get experience.
:yeah:
:w00t::w00t::thankya::thankya:
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NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN
3,959 Posts
Re-read the OP. She said "SOME" nurses need to retire.