Did I say something wrong?

[Pkin1477]

On a very busy morning where I'm trying to control a patient's surgical pain to discharges and family and patient education I was confronted by a nurse tech. This is how the conversation went:

it was 11:35am. Me: " I know you are having your lunch at 12. Would you make ms. m's bed. She just sat in the chair but she will soon be called to dialysis in her bed so she will go need to go back to her bed soon."

reply from nursing attendant in front of the patient:" I will make her bed when I get to it. I don't appreciate you telling me how to do my job. I don't like the way you talked to me"

she had just created added unnecessary stress that morning.

she complained about me to my nurse manager who didn't agree or disagree but she listened. I had to tell her what transpired between us though brief. now I have a meeting this week with the nursing attendant and the nurse manager to discuss what happened?

to be honest I didn't even know anything bad happened? All I did was delegate a task.

has anyone been in this situation?

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

Always try and add Please and Thank you. For example. Hi, I know you have been busy today, but.. Could you please make up ... bed, she is out of bed right now ... Thank you so much...

Something along these lines can go along way for some people

[Pkin1477]

I understand saying please and thank you. If the N.A. do tasks without my asking we wouldn't have had this encounter. What I dont understand is we all do what we need to for the patient. The N.A. is not doing me any favors. Im barely sitting down.. and if I dont say please make her bed im suddenly the bad nurse and she has to talk back to me in front of the patient?

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

I understand saying please and thank you. If the N.A. do tasks without my asking we wouldn't have had this encounter. What I dont understand is we all do what we need to for the patient. The N.A. is not doing me any favors. Im barely sitting down.. and if I dont say please make her bed im suddenly the bad nurse and she has to talk back to me in front of the patient?

Unfortunately that sometimes is the way it is. Although you are asking the N.As to do their job, I think some of it might be about control or maybe feeling valued.

I hope this gets better for you. Good Luck. I totally agree about everyone doing their job. Best wishes with your meeting. Just be about the facts, try not to insert your feelings or anything, just the basics.

Hopefully it will get better

[Adele_Michal7, ASN, RN]

I don't think you said something wrong, but I agree with a PP who said to add please and thank you. It depends how well you know the people you work with. On our unit, when we're busy, we don't always say it. I don't know how your unit is though.

It depends on your tone you used to. It's possible you inadvertently got a "tone" with her. Who knows.

[vanilla bean]

I understand saying please and thank you. If the N.A. do tasks without my asking we wouldn't have had this encounter. What I dont understand is we all do what we need to for the patient. The N.A. is not doing me any favors. Im barely sitting down.. and if I dont say please make her bed im suddenly the bad nurse and she has to talk back to me in front of the patient?

Definitely go into the meeting with your nurse manager armed with this attitude. It'll go a long way in helping her get to the heart of the problem.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I understand saying please and thank you. If the N.A. do tasks without my asking we wouldn't have had this encounter. What I dont understand is we all do what we need to for the patient. The N.A. is not doing me any favors. Im barely sitting down.. and if I dont say please make her bed im suddenly the bad nurse and she has to talk back to me in front of the patient?

If you had this tone maybe that is the issue.

[Pkin1477]

To be honest I didnt even remember having a tone. I was too busy. The N.A. should see how busy I was and pitch in.

[rearviewmirror, BSN, RN]

not your fault or hers in particular. RNs have high stress, PCTs have high stress as well, did you work as nurse tech or pct before you were a nurse? I can tell you it sucks. I am not going to empathize with her because I don't know the whole story, but I worked as nurse tech before becoming RN for a year, and God it sucked

[lennon33x]

IMO, I think you may have the wrong approach. Instead of "did I do something wrong?" maybe ask, "How could I have made this better?"

We have a tendency to maybe point fingers during stressful times instead of reflecting. This is how I maybe would have approached it:

"Hey, I know you're going to lunch at 12. Room 105 needs to be back in her bed before then. In a minute, if I came and helped you, would you mind changing her linens?"

Offering to assist usually helps the UAP know that you're willing to help. UAPs can build resentment easily because they're asked to do the grungework. Don't let your regularly nursing duties cause oversight in delegating with respect. Delegating a task doesn't mean bossing someone around.

[icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN]

The CNA was rude, disrespectful and refused a reasonable request. She is harassing the nurse, not vice versa.

These types always run to management right away to complain and play the victim.

It really is uncomfortable to work with such miserable people who come to work to lash out and create drama.

Write her up every single time for creating a hostile work environment through your

incident reporting system. Make management do its job which is to put her on notice and teach her some manners.

[Oh'Ello, BSN, RN]

In a word: "Nope"