I've been working with a lot of new nurses lately, and it seems they all share a common bond: that of being eaten alive by more-experienced staff, MDs, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, even housekeeping! It's almost as if we go sniffing out the weak, and attack them from every possible angle until they either collapse under the emotional burden or quit in frustration.
Yesterday I spent what seemed to be the greater part of my shift coaching two "newbies", one an LPN, another an RN, both of whom have been treated with varying degrees of contempt and outright disdain, and I learned some interesting things from both of them. In particular, the LPN had a patient who had been vomiting dark brown fluid on & off all day; the RN she was working with had basically said not to bother her unless someone crashed, because the RN had enough of her own problems. Now, this LPN is 22 years old, less than a year out of school.......she'd had a bad feeling about this patient all day, and when I came on at 3 PM she'd already made several calls to the MD who pooh-pooh'ed her concerns. So she asked me to check on the patient, and when the patient vomited again, I smelled both fecal material and blood. Gastroccult was POSITIVE! Of course, when we called the doc yet again with these results, he leaped into action.........but in the meantime, this patient had vomited over 1000cc, since the early morning, and who knew how much blood she was losing while doing it.
Now, for all you new nurses out there, the lesson in this is: Your instincts are just as good as anyone else's. All you lack is the experience of seeing the same health problems over and over again until you know, just from the look or smell or feel of something, what's probably causing the problem and what to request from the patient's doctor. That will come with time and experience; until then, you will need to be assertive with your co-workers. Don't let anyone intimidate you; you worked hard to get where you are, and you deserve assistance in becoming the best nurse you can be. If you have questions, ask; if you can't get someone to answer you, find someone who WILL.
Above all, know that although your co-workers are busy and may be a little gruff from time to time because we, too, are stressed out, we've ALL been where you are, and even if we pretend not to, we remember what you're going through. Nursing is not something one learns in two or four years of school; nor is it learned within the first five years of one's career. We are constantly learning and changing and growing, just like you; and if you have co-workers who act as though they practically invented nursing, you can take comfort in knowing that NOBODY knows it all........not even that crusty old RN who probably took care of Jesus as a baby.
