Charge nurse has it out for me...kind of a rant

[Jenni811]

i swear, this is this ONE charge nurse in particular that has it out for me. Really bad. I'll have been on this floor as an RN for a year on July 1st. And every time i work a night shift with her, she gives me hell. She is only a night shifter...im a 12 hour day/night rotation. On day shift we have the max of 4 patients per nurse. on night shift we usually have about 5-6 patients per nurse, depending on acuity.

So last night she decided it would be really fun to give me EIGHT PATIENTS!!! yes...8! And why?? because "Nurse ____ has a sore back and needs to be able to sit down" So instead of giving Nurse _______ 6 patients, she gives her 3 patients. Oh, and all three were super super quiet.

What do i get?????? Two elderly men with dementia who are obsessed with their bowels, a detox who has bugs crawling in his "lady parts", a fresh open heart, a palliative care patient, two COPD, and patient who had out of hospital cardiac arrest who had hypothermic treatment AND LIVED! (He was freaking me out all night with his telemetry strips. kept having runs of VTach that would subside)

What does nurse______ get? A patient going for a cardiac cauterization the next day,A heart failure who would be going home in the morning and the other one i'm not sure.

So charge nurse decides to chew my a$$ a new one because i was late entering my telemetry strips. She gave me a crazy hectic load of patients, she knew i was busy and instead of asking if i need help all she can do is yell at me about things i didnt get done or things i am behind on.

Not to mention last time i worked with her (couple nights ago) she said it loud enough so i could hear "I think it's a mistake to hire new grads on this floor. they just don't fit in. we are all so close here, why add a new grad to the mix?"

I am so annoyed and sick of working with her. I feel like she is purposely trying to get me to screw up so i get fired or something.

Any suggestions on what to do with a charge nurse like this?? I'm afraid to go to manager because my manager loves this nurse and i'm the "newbie"

[kool-aide, RN]

Good grief! What kind of unit do you work on?!!?!?!?!? This seems like some sort of Hellish PCU! acuity of ICU but staffing of med/surg.... gotta love it...

If the problem nurse and your nurse manager are big buddies, it may not be wise to talk to the manager... I've been burned by that before...

Stay strong and just try to avoid her as much as possible. If you can, make copies of assignment sheets and report sheets so later down the road you will have proof of what she's doing to you. You can prove what your assignment was and what the pts were like.

Don't give her the satisfaction of seeing you sweat.

KILL HER WITH KINDNESS!!!!!! :loveya:

[Mulan]

Document objectively exactly what happened, maybe even on an incident report form, and make sure that a copy goes to risk management along with one to your manager.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

Good grief! What kind of unit do you work on?!!?!?!?!? This seems like some sort of Hellish PCU! acuity of ICU but staffing of med/surg…. gotta love it…

If the problem nurse and your nurse manager are big buddies, it may not be wise to talk to the manager… I've been burned by that before…

Stay strong and just try to avoid her as much as possible. If you can, make copies of assignment sheets and report sheets so later down the road you will have proof of what she's doing to you. You can prove what your assignment was and what the pts were like.

Don't give her the satisfaction of seeing you sweat.

KILL HER WITH KINDNESS!!!!!! :loveya:

of course, I would imagine that the OP would scope out or know if the charge was friends w/ the manager, which is why I would also go to HR - that way if there's retaliation from either party (charge or manager), you're covered.

Sometimes a person doesn't deserve the "kill 'em with kindness" approach. Sometimes it just looks like you're kissing the orifice of the bully.

Don't ever feel bad for sticking up for yourself. Certainly don't worry about the repercussions.

Have some self-esteem and self value - love who you are and what you bring to your patients and your unit. Think of it this way: would YOU ever treat anyone the way she's treating you?

[MollNick]

I have been there many times. Please take my word on this:

Expect to be reprimanded from the manager for something which you failed to do in a timely manner or failed to do at all as reported by this charge nurse. The manager will take her word over yours.

Check the hospital policy on the stages on Corrective Action which could possibly be verbal reprimand, then written reprimand, then suspension or termination. This process is per labor laws.

Transfer to another unit ASAP or find another job and quit

This charge nurse wants you out of there in any way she can get you out of there and there is nothing you can do about it. If you go to HR, the charge nurse will be reprimanded and possibly the manager too. They WILL in time find a way to terminate you-anyone can be reprimanded for the most stupid things which will still go in your file and count against you.

If you choose to go to the manager and/or HR, it would be best to have your facts straight. You need to be documenting objectively everything that happens. Keep your feelings out of it.

The situation you described to the board is very serious as this assignment was not safe for the patients you were caring for. And, your license was also in jeapardy.

Many times our gut feelings are right too. Good Luck

[Jenni811, RN]

Its not necessarily they are "buddies" she just loves this nurse because she is involved in everything!!!!

I work at a very very large facility. It's cardio/pulomary. Being cardiac we can take all the cardiac patients, unless they are hemodynamically unstable then they go to CCU (my post cardiac was getting transferred). Depending how hard a detox is detoxing, they might go to CCU (i.e. DT's).

Also being a pulomnary floor we are able to take ventilators (although rare), and of course trachs. We are the largest unit in the hospital, a very busy floor almost always full.

NORMALLY they staff very well, our vent's are 1:1. Like i had a trach patient during the day and was given only 1 other patient. Normally we do NOT staff like that night i had, those were our toughest patients that night, and it should have not been divided like that.

I had a fresh heart patient, and on a normal day they will give you maybe 2 other STABLE patients when you have a fresh heart. so the fact i had a fresh heart, and all those others ones just goes to show you that this was the charge nurses fault.

[Eiano]

Yeah, find a new job fast. This nurses is established in her position. You, as a new nurse, should go back to school, like they expect us to do and earn more $$. Come back and smile all big in her face

[GM2RN]

please do NOT think you are *over reacting*.

You are not.

You HAVE been there a year, so you can take that and move on to any other place having that year of experience. So go ahead, keep you chin up and knock 'em dead!

True, but if you ever decide to go this route, keep it to yourself and MAKE SURE you have another job lined up with an actual offer and acceptance in place before you quit your current job. As many who frequent this BB have learned, it can take awhile for even those with experience to land that next job, and it looks worse to a potential employer if you aren't currently working.

Good luck with your current situation!

[JBudd, MSN]

NORMALLY they staff very well, our vent's are 1:1. Like i had a trach patient during the day and was given only 1 other patient. Normally we do NOT staff like that night i had, those were our toughest patients that night, and it should have not been divided like that.

I had a fresh heart patient, and on a normal day they will give you maybe 2 other STABLE patients when you have a fresh heart. so the fact i had a fresh heart, and all those others ones just goes to show you that this was the charge nurses fault.

In other words, this was out of the norm. Let your manager know how far out of line this charge is, and how she's been treating you. If your hospital assignments are so out of line with what she did, you really do have a case to give to your manager. Like all the others have said, OUT OF LINE! The first hint your manager gives you of not taking it seriously, go to HR. And in the future, refuse to take report on that many patients, they aren't your responsibility until and unless you take report.

Good luck;)

[Jenni811, RN]

Agreed with everyone. I think i'm going to take it to my manager. I'm trying not to make a huge deal of it right now.

My manager likes me as well, so i know she won't play "favorites."

I don't really want to go off running quite yet. I like my job so i don't want to quite or move units because of her. I feel like that is running from my problems.

[MMARN, BSN, RN]

Screw who your manager likes! Definitely talk to her! This is about patient safety, and that load is ridiculously UNSAFE! If she/he refuses to help you, then you need to go to the higher ups. Explain exactly what you told us here, and come with facts. Do NOT keep quiet about this.

[Florence NightinFAIL, BSN, RN]

This is crazy. Please keep us updated. That nurse's sore back is not YOUR responsibility.

[Dalzac, LPN, LVN, RN]

I hate hearing that stuff!!!! When I was a tech the charge nurse on 3-11 hated me and I mean hated me. She never missed an opportunity to nail me for any thing. She gave me excess patients. extra chores and all kinds of side jobs to do. I worked in ICU. I begged to be put on 11-7 to get away from that witch and my boss said okay. I never told her why. And Witchiepoo wanted to be put on nights and they did it. again life is hell again. That woman went way beyond her capacity. One night I came in street clothes after a date. She ran over before I could change and checked my arm to see if I had been injectiong drugs. The straw that broke the camels back was we had a full unit. We did team nursing RN charge LPN meds and techs did pt.care with VS and reported any change. We had 3 techs that night RN's did all the assessments initially.(This was very long ago) 10 pt on the unit. Out of 10, I got 6 and 3 were q 15 min VS and I had to do all ER and house ekgs and preop ekgs. The other techs tried to help me with this load by taking 2 of the q 15 min VS and one tried to share doing some of the EKG's. She told them to stop and do their own work and none of mine. It was the first and last time I have ever walked off a job. The director called me the next day and asked me to come in and tell her what happened. I did. She gave me an excellent refferal and references to an even better job. I still loved nursing and went to school to be a nurse. I found out later she pulled it on another tech and was fired over it. The sad karma? She came into my CCU much later in life. She had no family they had all moved away and none of them would come to see her She had Alzheimers to the point of just laying there and crying for hours. I was in charge and I gave her to one of the best nurses on the unit. Some witches just can't help it but you have the power to do a good job anyway. Talk to your manageranyway. If that doesn't work go to HR and always do your write ups in triplicate.