Does anyone else ever get tired of "stupid" nurses?

[twinmom2k]

I swear I am so tired of nurses that can't think for themselves and don't think for themselves. I am the weekend house supervisor for my LTC facility. This means I am in charge of pretty much everything. I love my job don't get me wrong. I just don't understand some nurses thinking process. Such as: Last Saturday we had a patient that began doing poorly. There was confusion as to whether this patient was supposed to be comfort measures only or not. Basically the family was arguing amongst themselves about what they wanted. But this really has nothing to do with my point. I was called to the unit to assess the patient. When I get there the CNA for that patient tells me she can't get a blood pressure or a good pulse ( the patient did have both she just couldn't get it) I ask the nurse what she got, and she tells me she didn't try. She just sent the CNA down to get it. With an electronic BP to boot. Now I know CNA's are trained to get vitals in our state, but come on. If you have a critical patient is that really who you want to depend on to get your vitals? And I would never use an electronic BP cuff to assess a critical patient. They are fine for routine purposes but we all know they sometimes are not reliable especially in a difficult case. The nurse was completely oblivious to the fact that she should have gotten the vitals herself.

I ended up getting the vitals myself and sending her out to the hospital. This kind of stuff just drives me crazy. It happens all the time where I work. The last weekend I worked a similar situation happened where the nurse did the exact same thing and called me to the room. I get there and there are THREE other nurses standing there all looking at me to do something. They hand me a sheet of paper that has the vitals written on it. It says b/p 78/41, Pulse of 97. So I ask who got the vitals. The CNA in the room says I did. I asked her with what and she gives me the electronic bp cuff. So I get the manual bp cuff and stethescope and take them myself. I get 108/64 and a AHR of 54. Now does this not sound ridiculous to anyone else? That not one of the other three nurses in the room doubted the accuracy of the electronic bp cuff? Not only this but once I get the vitals I go to call the doctor on this patient who is lethargic and very pale, and her nurse goes to lunch leaving me to send her out to the hospital by myself without even offering to do anything.

Okay I am done ranting. I just get so frustrated that some nurses cannot think for themselves. Sometimes they call me to a residents room and haven't even gotten vitals yet. They just want me to do everything. I don't mind helping them and usually I do it all for them. But it would be nice if they would at least offer to help and stay around to see what is going to happen.

Well thanks for letting me vent and I apologize if this is not the forum to voice my concerns.

[angel589]

There are not stupid nurses,they just need help from a frienly and nice supervisor.

[softstorms]

LOL, been there done this. I have found that some new nurses will call the shift super for help or an assessment. I was always glad to go. But then I have found experienced nurses, who knew the policy and procedure, call just to let some one else take care of it. Most of the time I find it is nurses who work in long term care and only want to go to work, pass meds, do a couple Tx's and leave. They don't want to accept any responsibility for anything above or beyond that. I have seen units without a super do just great. Then when they hire one, every one dummies down. "I have a pt. with a critical lab...you need to call the M.D." When before, they would have called themselves. It is usually the ones who continue to do thier jobs as expected that get moved up to shift supers. But I do have to comment of the use of automatic cuffs. I HATE THEM!!!! They are very easily broken, batteries are not recharged in a timely manner, and some staff do not realize the readings may not be appropriate.

But, now we have a new thing where I work. A list of what the shift super is responsible for and what you must have on hand prior to calling her to you unit. Did this cause them to complain? Yes. But she now has a check list that is passed on to the D.O.N. as to what happened on the shift and who took care of what. Am I shift super? Oh NO! been there, done that LOL. But I have the greatest resect for mine.

[sharona97, BSN, RN]

There are not stupid nurses,they just need help from a frienly and nice supervisor.

Just not thinking nurses..............? Hope I always get one that can think about what they are doing and doing it properly.:trout:

[hospiceprn]

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy... Start writing them up, oh, thats right, nobody will do anything about it. In My 4 years as a LTC nurse, I learned that Nursing homes are "Wear houses" for the elderly and infirmed and some of them are under the guise of being very ritzy places (ALFs) I am liking more and more the Group home thing, 10 patients max. decent hard working staff with little turn over rate is very low. Usually owned by disgruntle LTC nurses. Patients are treated like family members and well cared for. Things aren't completely perfect all the time, don't get me wrong, but, I have to say that they are much better that the "nursing homes". I am hoping that this trend takes off successfully and runs corporate nursing homes out of business.

Nancy:Reindeer:

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

I'm in the role of a government nurse in the field of public health. I'm being asked to dumb it down. Dumb it down??? Are they serious?

Client: "What are you testing for?"

Me: "hemoglobin."

Client: "What is hemoglobin"?

Me: "You have a nutritionist appointment next week (or month). She can explain it to you then."

Client goes home with a low hgb, may not return and there is no intervention or education. But hey, I got the blood sample. Oh and my title is "Public Health Nurse."

Whhhaaaattt?????

[aero56]

I am very tired of "stupid" and rude nurses. This is a serious threat to all of us. I took my daughter to an ER yesterday and had to call today for some advice. The nurse was all over the place except the question I asked her. My husband is in a mental health facility awaiting NH placement. He is on Plavix and aspirin. Yesterday I discovered huge bruises on his legs and thighs. Not one staff nurse had a clue what caused the bruises!!! Not one! I strongly suggested they contact the doctor about the medication causing the bleeding. I was furious. I see and hear this kind of stupidity all the time anymore. And these young nurses have no bedside manner at all. What is the reasoning behind all of this???

[Leelee2]

I gotta say, this is the craziest thread I have ever read...No one goes to recheck the B/P and Pulse prior to calling you...Scary.

[mtam_01]

hi i am a new grad and working in LTC for about 2 months. i had a similar case of unresponsive resident. this resident is usually alert and able to verbalize needs (more than able to hand). all i got as report from night nure was" everthing's fine on your side" during the breakfast CNA comes to me saying Mr. X is deep asleep and not responding. i go to the room and try to wake him up. he was not responding to any verbal stimuli. i gave him a little shake. he opened his eyes for few secs and closed them again. i gave him a little pinch on his finger and he opened his eyes for me. i was able to wake him up and give him his meds. i asked him if he would like to go to the dining room and he said he was too tired and wanted to stay in bed. so i asked the CNA to feed him on bed. few minutes later, the CNA told me he didn't drink or eat anything. ohh i forgot to mention . he had multiple loose stool during the previous dayshift that i worked and sample o his feces were sent to lab to rule out lab. and then i received a call from lab saying he has a positive c-diff. with multiple loose stools, i was concerned about his hydration level. so i go to his room and woke him up without much effort and have him drink like 360 cc of fluid and asked what kinda drink he prefers and the answer was "OJ". This is actually something i had known long ago before joining nursing school that pushing fluids is very vital for anyone having loose stool. i come from 3rd world country and had lost a friend in a matter of 2 days to multiple episodes of loose stools and lack of rehydration. so i was determined to push more fluids to this resident. and i had been monitoring the VS. then aroud 3 pm, a skin specialist comes in to check his dressing and starts acting as if the sky has fallen down. she tries to wake the pt up and uses sternal rub. she then goes to me like" when the pt needs painful stimuli to wake up, that means he's critical". i told her his VS were normal and without giving me any chance to explain further just walks out of room saying" i don't care" and goes to DON and the pt ends up being shipped out. BTW this lady doesn't even work there. and there i am almost ready to breakdown.. she made it look like i wasn't doing anything for the pt. i was the one taking care of him from 7 am and i was constantly watching him. I had even reported that to my unit manager.i understand i shouldn't have waited too long o send him out but the way the whole thing was presented was just heartbreaking to me.

i called the workplace to check on that pt. i heard he has been admitted to the hospital

[nanciepaul]

oh good see the post now, I am back from 3-11 busy shift and tired of some lazy stupid nurse who works 11-7

[nanciepaul]

In my hospital they are getting rid of the LPN's.. which means in two months, I am out.. after 19 years. My frustration comes in when (and this is a true story) a new RN came up to me last weekend and told me she had only put foley's in female pt's, and needed to put one in a male, and she asked me should she just go until she saw urine, or should she advance it further after that... I sat there dumbfounded.. this was a RN. They want to get rid of us LPN's and keep those kind of nurses??? I just don't get it

Well you said she is new nurse so she needs to clarify that, which is natural. when you were a novice, you also had gone through the same.

[luv4nurses]

The only thing I can say is that "stupid" nurses are everywhere. But it just seems that a great deal of them are uncovered in LTACs. I worked in an LTAC and upon arriving for my shift, made my rounds as usual. The CNA who normally took care of a particular patient said that she was having difficulty turning and changing the patient. The patient could normally assist a bit but was moaning and guarding her left hip. Now mind you, I was working the 11-7pm shift. I immediately called for a stat xray, noted that the patient was getting pain medication that she normally did not receive and apparently was not getting relief. Well upon receiving the xray results, it was found she had a fractured hip. Now comes more "stupidity". The DON asked me why did I order a stat xray?! I was like well, umm, her clinical signs. I shook my head and then said, did you ask the other 2 shifts why they did absolutely nothing? Unbelievable...

[tainted1972, ASN, RN]

The other day I went for an interview for a Nursing job. Which the Nurse interviewing me stated that she didn't think LPNs are allowed to do assessments.

In my state (ohio) LPN's are not supposed to actually do "assessments" We are to collect data and the RN does the assessing.