I've seen this so many times and I am pretty tired of this. This nurse comes in and first of all has nothing good to say about any (mind you ANY) of the other nurses that work on our run during the week. She didn't forget to say a little "spicy" info re. the miserable work they are doing, about anyone, any shift. Except me of course, because I'm looking her right in the eyes. I give her a good reasonable report and then it starts: Is this pt still on this abx? (Not given on my NOC shift, I have 14 pts with at least over hundred meds total, there is no way I remember each med. You'll see it in the MAR during your morning med pass.) After I told her that all the BS are stable and covered with insulin she asks me to give her the exact numbers on each of them... Again, they are stable and covered, look it up, if you really want to know... But I did actually have these written down on a piece of paper, from when I was doing my round taking them, so I gave that to her to copy. Then she wasn't happy with the way I had them written on the paper... the vertical line with the room numbers didn't quite match precisely with the vertical line with the blood sugar values, so she started scribbling arrows on MY paper. Then the narc count. (Ooooh I'm so scared!) One large 400cc bottle of Methadone, one of those big square ones that have just a tiny slit on the side to read the level, didn't quite add up by about 20cc's (I'd say by about 10cc's, she was saying 20). The patient is getting 30 cc's at a time every six hours. If you shook the big bottle up and then read it, my guess is, that the amout that was missing would probably run down the walls of the bottle. she was standing there with sort of a typical "gotcha" look on her face, probably expecting that I'll be squirming and mortified. A few moths ago, when I was new to LTC with the med carts and no pixys, I would have been. Now, I just shrug my shoulders and said calmly, yeah, these are sometimes kind of hard to keep completely straight. (By the way, we don't withdraw from this bottle with a syringe, we pour it. There is no rubber cork on it, just a regular lid.) I know I didn't take 20 mls (even if it was 20 mls) of Methadone and I'm pretty sure the DNS would too, in case she wanted to take it to her. And if she did, well, my conscience is clean. I guess at the end, that's all that matters. I can't imagine anyone wanting to steal four tea spoons of this particular drug...
At the end, after she didn't elicit any respons e from me, she just signed the book and said that she'll put "cic" in the little box for count incorrect, instead of "cc" for count correct. ...Well, that's fine with me.
I'm really kind of tired of this. Wherever you go, on every shift, there is allways at least one. The class primadonna, or the bully, if you will.
There is one of these in every crowd. They have to keep probing until they find something you cannot answer. THey get some sort of perverse satisfaction out of this. THen they can complain about the "incomplete" report that they recieved.
I have little patience for the great inquisition.
I guess you could get a ruler and make her her own special shhet with a perfectly aligned box for all info she demands. ( I hope you know I am kidding.)
Oh I can SO relate! Got one of those! Arrrgh! :rotfl:
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Once I got my first computer with MSWord on it (I worked on an Apple II for years with Broderbund word processing) I started playing around with the Table formatting. After a year I started creating my own customized report sheets every day. I kept a template I created in a document file that I would update as needed. I was able to change the day and date at the top as well as frequently called numbers so I wouldn't have to keep looking them up all the time. I had patient names, room numbers and their doctor listed on this thing. I learned how to add text to the cells for blood sugar results and vital signs. I would print out a sheet before I went to work each day. That way, it had things on it that I felt I needed and I didn't have to do anything more than hit the "print" button on the computer. You might want to think about doing something like that for a report sheet. My experience in nursing homes is that at some point someone creates a report sheet and because people like it, it gets copied and used by everyone. There is no rule that you have to use their report sheet and like it. Be creative.
I give her a good reasonable report and then it starts: Is this pt still on this abx? (Not given on my NOC shift, I have 14 pts with at least over hundred meds total, there is no way I remember each med. You'll see it in the MAR during your morning med pass.) After I told her that all the BS are stable and covered with insulin she asks me to give her the exact numbers on each of them... Again, they are stable and covered, look it up, if you really want to know... But I did actually have these written down on a piece of paper, from when I was doing my round taking them, so I gave that to her to copy. Then she wasn't happy with the way I had them written on the paper... the vertical line with the room numbers didn't quite match precisely with the vertical line with the blood sugar values, so she started scribbling arrows on MY paper. Then the narc count. (Ooooh I'm so scared!) One large 400cc bottle of Methadone, one of those big square ones that have just a tiny slit on the side to read the level, didn't quite add up by about 20cc's (I'd say by about 10cc's, she was saying 20). The patient is getting 30 cc's at a time every six hours. If you shook the big bottle up and then read it, my guess is, that the amout that was missing would probably run down the walls of the bottle. she was standing there with sort of a typical "gotcha" look on her face, probably expecting that I'll be squirming and mortified. A few moths ago, when I was new to LTC with the med carts and no pixys, I would have been. Now, I just shrug my shoulders and said calmly, yeah, these are sometimes kind of hard to keep completely straight. (By the way, we don't withdraw from this bottle with a syringe, we pour it. There is no rubber cork on it, just a regular lid.) I know I didn't take 20 mls (even if it was 20 mls) of Methadone and I'm pretty sure the DNS would too, in case she wanted to take it to her. And if she did, well, my conscience is clean. I guess at the end, that's all that matters. I can't imagine anyone wanting to steal four tea spoons of this particular drug... 
FroggysMom
132 Posts
Oh I can SO relate! Got one of those! Arrrgh! :rotfl: