There are a couple of nurses I work with who seem to despise patients. One gal is exhausting to be around. They often put her in triage, she will literally give you an eye rolling negative assessment of how obnoxious the patient is, what a pathetic drug seeker, how fat, smelly, whiney, stupid, it goes on and on.
The other gal is the same. She too does triage, and will walk out of the room loudly indignant at what an appalling person she just interacted with.
Frankly, if you have such disdain for humanity, nursing is a poor choice of a career. Yes, people with poor coping skills end up in the ER more often. So what else is new? Yes, there are social ills in the world. People smoke, drink too much, eat too much, take meth, then end up in the ER.
Try to have a little emotional detachment and at least feign compassion. And, can you shut up about how awful these people are, it's tiring to hear!
Some of you must be very young, as this sort thing is *NOT* new in nursing.
Pick your group and there have (and still are) nurses that cannot be bothered and will make it known to God and the world. If pressed to provide care it can and often is in a very passive-aggressive manner.
This list is varied and exhaustive.
African-Americans
Latino/Hispanics,
Asians,
Gays
Lesbians
Transgender
The "poor", "unwashed"
The homeless
Drug addicts
Alcoholics
And so it goes....
Best anyone can hope for is that in these modern times such persons can be isolated and frozen out by other staff. This and or being sat down and spoken to; however often that does not happen and even then the damage has often been done.
Even with the supposed tight labor market for nurses here in NYC there are plenty that won't apply nor work in the municipal hospital system. If they do it would only be Bellevue (it looks good on a resume) and only for a short amount of time.
When AIDS/HIV was in full crisis there were nurses who pretty much felt that those men were getting what they "deserved", worse they said so either within ear shot or even while caring for such patients. You had grown men literally crying as those witches (cannot use the other word here that is a better fit and rhymes), provided "care" with a strong dose of morality. It is worth noting that federal anti-dumping laws for patients came into being during the AIDs crisis. It was an attempt to put an end to the long standing practice of hospitals "dumping" the poor, minorities, or anyone else they didn't want to be bothered with at the steps of the nearest charity hospital.
And for some nurses, it probably is not a joyful experience to care for Caucasians. Why do we always assume that no one dislikes Whites? There's plenty of racism, genderism, agism, religion-ism, political-ism, etc. to go around.
Some of those people are not terrible people. Some are good people who entered the profession of nursing with the best of intentions. But they got burned out. It can happen to the best of us.
I'm not sure I agree with that. They may not have been terrible people when they entered the profession, but when they've progressed to the point where they are jaded and callus, they've become terrible.
It's a very fine distinction between dark humor and just downright being nasty about our patients.
I can feel some empathy with nurses who joined back in yesteryear, it would be tough to be 60 something and the only living wage skill set that they possess is in nursing. They entered as such a different time. So did I actually, it will be 30 years come June.
However anyone who joined
Either do you due diligence prior to joining this field with its transparent working conditions and patient demographics, or GTFO.
There are no secrets to nurses' working conditions or the job market. You'd have to be living under a rock, or in extreme denial, to not realize the patient population we deal with. Nurses like anyone else need to own their choices, do something productive about it or recognize they are about to compromise their decent selves and leave their particlar job and/or the trade in general.
Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
People that are constantly negative can be so draining for those around them, but the fake, always peppy-positive people drive me bonkers too. I like my coworkers to be somewhere in the middle; able to use dark humor at times, but not be total downers. One of my biggest pet peeves is trying to connect with a person that isn't honest and real. The always happy cheerleader nurse with the 'everything is wonderful', and 'oh the patient's are just so adorable' attitudes make me want to pull my hair out sometimes. Honestly, I think I can deal with the negative coworkers better, but that might be due to my upbringing :)
Feign compassion? I'd rather have someone give me an ugly, decisive assessment than pretend to be what they're not, or be a sanctimonious jerk. Some patients are great. Some aren't.
Well, honestly saying, nursing as a profession offers quite a level of exposure to some of the worst samples of humankind. And, also honestly, some of these samples tend to get concentrated in certain areas such as Emergency departments.
Maybe sometimes it would be worthy to just admit lack of all possibility of compassion and respect for a particular patient from a particular nurse, and do it openly, so that assignments could be changed if there is any possibility of it. For me, it sounds better for both sides than playing fake feelings or singing endlessly about "the patient is sooo vulnerable and helpless, he made some wrong decisions in the past but now he deserves HELP!!!" when in reality the patient is a relative healthy experienced drug abuser who would happily sell his own mother for a syringe of Dilaudid.
Since I got to deal with the same patients in acure and post hospital outpatient care I found, among other things, that too many of them came out from acute being overcoddled and, that is to say, overcared for by nursing staff. People really wonder if they can get home care RN to come every morning to wipe their butts because in hospital "they always did it for me", and can't understand why they can only get that many of "good pills" and no "good shots" at all if "nurses always asked docs for giving me more till they gave up and just did it". I wonder if some of them would benefit from a dose or two of compassion in form of tough love.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I always caution against people who want to go into nursing for a higher calling or because they love caring for people cause I've seen how that mindset gets completely crushed by the system that is healthcare.
Yep...healthcare is a business first and foremost. Caring for people comes secondary to the numbers below the bottom line.
Also, nurses are exposed to the darker shades of human nature. It is what it is...
I'm not sure I agree with that. They may not have been terrible people when they entered the profession, but when they've progressed to the point where they are jaded and callus, they've become terrible.
It's a very fine distinction between dark humor and just downright being nasty about our patients.
I realize that some people really need to leave nursing. That's why I said "some" and not "all" such negative people are victims of burnout. I believe it is important to assess the individual and their circumstances before passing judgment and turning them out into the streets.
We should assess ... and have some compassion for those who are nasty because they are burned out. We should try to help them recover from whatever has caused their problems if we can and be compassionate about removing them from their jobs if that is necessary.
I am not suggesting that we ignore, support or condone bad behavior.
For the record, I'm not a Pollyanna, by any means. I find the ER an entertaining department because of the colorful and, sometimes dysfunctional people, it draws through its hallowed doors. I'm certainly not above a few eye rolls here and there.
It's the constant irritation and disgust with even the most mundane weakness or lack of knowledge of the patients. Just last week one of these gals went on and on about a college student with a rash from a chemical exposure in a laboratory who had the UTTER AUDACITY to not have taken a Benadryl at home. She didn't even know about it! What's wrong with people, coming and bothering us like that?
Yes, OP I get what you are saying. The triage nurses act this way because they are just plain sick of the usual "walking wounded" run of the mill, self abusers, who bring all this misery for one reason or another on themselves--"or not." These nurses need a break, STAT!
As a caregiver, nurse and human you can't lose sight of the "or not" segment of the wounded.Those are the patients at least on the ED level you are really there for.
So by logical extention in order to be a good Triage/ED nurse you must give all patients the benefit of the doubt. (oh, please!) This concept, and you must agree, has a self-serving, self preserving element to it as it treats the nurse as a sort of equal opportunity, vigilant clinician no matter what the issue is. This is your mission if you choose to ... blah,blah, blah,... and so very tiring, I know.
But God forbid you might miss something real, BOY! As sister used to say.
So the next time you triage a young lady drinking a coke in front of you with a bag of chips, complaining of "severe abdominal pain" think more along the lines of an ectopic pregnancy and it might begin to dissuade your thoughts that indeed a hangnail is not ED material unless of course it's a painful, suppurative paronychia.
Saying nasty things about every patient that comes in the door isn't an acceptable behavior. However, ER nursing does have a high burnout rate and I know personally that you deal with some very nasty people. That being said, most people who come through the ER don't deserve that behavior. These nurses really need to find another part of nursing to work in.
Kooky Korky, BSN, RN
5,216 Posts
And for some nurses, it probably is not a joyful experience to care for Caucasians. Why do we always assume that no one dislikes Whites? There's plenty of racism, genderism, agism, religion-ism, political-ism, etc. to go around.