Don't bring your misery to work!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

THIS IS BOTH A VENT AND A RANT SO PLEASE TAKE IT IN THE SPIRIT IN WHICH IT IS INTENDED.

Please can we all just leave our misery at the door before we come to work. We all know that person who has a angry miserable affect who comes and complains non-stop about the assignment and the job in general. If it's that bad just quit! Life is far to short to be so miserable all the time. It's even worse when you try to take others into your misery. And if you don't think your patients feel it your fooling yourself

I have a number of issues related to PTSD and depression and I'll admit there are days that I'd just as soon stay under the covers, But when I go to work I put my game face on and I put forth a positive attitude. I work adolescent psych which is an extremely difficult specialty. I often have 15 or more patients under my care and let's not forget that with kids the family is a patient too. We do patient centered trauma informed care and believe me we are not just sitting all shift. Every shift works hard and deserves consideration from the following and preceding shift. Please be on time, be ready to work and put a smile on your face.

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Deep cleansing breath - time for a nice hot cup of Trader Joe's Herbal calming infusion tea that my son bought me for Christmas. I feel much better now.

Hppy

I agree with you

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Specializes in Cardiac, Transplant, Intermediate Care.

I resemble that remark. I am one of the ones who complains while I am at work. I try to keep things fun, cooperative and light- but since changing careers and becoming a nurse about 12 years ago, I find that this profession has changed me! I think I was pretty naive before I became a nurse, and just expected that all people behaved themselves and followed the golden rule, for the most part. Thanks for reminding me to keep things positive. : )

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Specializes in Cardiac, Transplant, Intermediate Care.

Yes!! this, SpankedInPittsburgh!! the long, going on and on about personal life/problems/cats/kids- also the bodily functions; belching, etc-- to even taking bites from my meal or demanding that I share my food with you!!! I don't really make eye contact when they start talking about their lives!!! Many is the time I have had to wait for people to stop talking about their vacation in order to get someone's attention to help with a boost or a code brown!! DON'T CARE is right!!!

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Specializes in Med Surg Tele.

my challenge is not taking work home, not the other way around. Work is for work. Why are you letting people bother you so much? Unless they are actually affecting the ability to do your job, just let them *****. They're not your friends or family so who cares.

But vent away...it don't bother me :)

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I respectfully disagree for several reasons. When somebody comes to work in an unprofessional manner it affects the workplace and our ability to help patients as a nursing team. For example, Nurse A comes to work mad at the universe because she / he hates their spouse, job, kids, life... Not only does this set the unit up for putting up with Nurse A's puss all day but it creates a cascade effect, Nurses are codependent and nosey as hell by nature. So Nurse A comes in whining like a child about whatever then Nurses B - F all think they have to go offer a kind ear and "support" for nurse A. Of course they are doing no such thing they are being entertained by nurse a's misery and he / she is enjoying all the attention they are getting about whatever the crisis of the day is. What is not happening when this putrid exchange takes place is patient care. I've seen this many, many times which is how I got to my stock response of "I don't care" when whined at about somebodies life's circumstances at work. Work is not a place for professional victims to seek help from emotional parasites. Furthermore, if tolerated at all this scenario is self-replicating as the drama queen and misery pimps are both getting what they want from this exchange. Often these nurses will exchange roles and the result is an odious place to call work without any vestige of professionalism and patient's needs are looked at only after the nursey-poo "crisis" of the day is dealt with

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Wow! This is a tough crowd! I understand wanting nurses or staff who are unhappy with their jobs to keep their negativity to themselves - especially the chronic complainers. It's a drain on everyone who comes in contact.

But geez, we are human beings, not machines. (For those who don't like "whining", it's about to get personal, so you might want to scroll to the next topic) I've had the most soul crushing 5 years of my life - including the loss of a parent and a grandchild - and those aren't even the worst things, they are just the things I can say without possibly exposing myself. Most of my co-workers didn't even know anything was going on, but for those who did, their "how are you doing?" meant everything to me. I don't talk endlessly about my personal life or get into the specifics of my problems or expect people to pick up the slack if I'm having a bad day, but I guess I'm lucky to have co-workers who don't consider me a burden and aren't afraid to reach out and ask how it's going. And I wouldn't hesitate to do the same for them.

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There is a difference between this, and people who are just constantly on their very last nerve, and functioning poorly in a high stress job. Trying to bring others down with them.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
my challenge is not taking work home, not the other way around. Work is for work. Why are you letting people bother you so much? Unless they are actually affecting the ability to do your job, just let them *****. They're not your friends or family so who cares.

But vent away...it don't bother me :)

The people I work with on my shift are a pretty cohesive group. What I am mostly talking about is attitude at change of shift. When a float nurse is utilized the bickering behavior starts. It appears that very few nurses enjoy working with adolescents and they make it known in report. For example a nurse comes on to take report which should take 30 minutes give or take. They begin by B&Ming about how they hate the kids unit and I better not have left any work for the oncoming shift to do. I reply nicely. I processed three holds, two voluntary's, 4 direct admissions and 9 out of 12 narratives. I did leave 1 direct for you to finish. To this I get a dramatic eye roll and "Are you staying to finish it?" No I say the supervisor said to endorse it to the next shift.

After a bit of wrangling (we are 10 minutes into report) we begin. She is continuing how awful this assignment is. Why don't they (management) give her a permanent position etc.... I trudge on and report goes into a full hour overtime by the time we do room checks.

So afterwards I spoke to this nurse and asked that she please refrain from editorial comments as they hold up report and I will answer all her questions before I am finished. I might add I was the preceptor when this nurse was hired and I mentioned to the Supervisor that I had concerns about her negative attitude a year ago.

It just never ends with some people. I might add that on the PM shift in question "My girl's who behaved well on my shift had a rumble that caused three of them to get emergency meds and a staff got hurt as well. This what I mean about patients reading your attitude.

Anyway just ranting - I have the day off and plan to not think about work until I have to.

Hppy

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
Wow! This is a tough crowd! I understand wanting nurses or staff who are unhappy with their jobs to keep their negativity to themselves - especially the chronic complainers. It's a drain on everyone who comes in contact.

But geez, we are human beings, not machines. (For those who don't like "whining", it's about to get personal, so you might want to scroll to the next topic) I've had the most soul crushing 5 years of my life - including the loss of a parent and a grandchild - and those aren't even the worst things, they are just the things I can say without possibly exposing myself. Most of my co-workers didn't even know anything was going on, but for those who did, their "how are you doing?" meant everything to me. I don't talk endlessly about my personal life or get into the specifics of my problems or expect people to pick up the slack if I'm having a bad day, but I guess I'm lucky to have co-workers who don't consider me a burden and aren't afraid to reach out and ask how it's going. And I wouldn't hesitate to do the same for them.

In general I have a very happy workplace with an awesome team of folks from unlicensed mental health works to LPT, LVN, RN etc.... But we do adolescent psych and quite frankly some people should not work with kids. We have one or two float nurses who come in angry, don't listen to report then complain when they don't know something. and complain, complain , complain out loud where the patients can hear them saying they can't stand working with the population. I had one who actually said out loud with in earshot of a suicidal teen that if they might as well just shoot themselves in the head.

Not appropriate on any level and no excuse for it.

Hppy

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