I Have several questions to ask everyone who's been around a lot longer than myself. I just started my nursing career in a level 1 trauma center in a large teaching hospital and as an ER nurse I find a lot of attitiude coming from everyone.
I have taken many classes at this facility and on several instances have had the instructor say things like, "Oh we have an ER nurse in here I'll have to watch what I say." When I took my PALS class it was taught by the PICU nurses and when I went in for my megacode the instructor said, "OK Mrs. ER nurse lets see how you deal with this one." He made me run the megacode for at least 35-40 minutes and tried everything in his power to stump me, and didn't stop until he did.
My boyfriend is a floor nurse at the same hospital and we often get into discussions about how much the floor nurses complain about us. I try my best to give the best report I can with the focus assessment that I do. I rarely send up a naked patient after a trauma, and always put the patient in bed, get their tele pack on them, and if the patient is soiled, I clean them up before I take them upstairs, or I'll stay to help that nurse clean them if it happened in the elevator (yes it does happen in the elevator and we can't clean it then).
I try the best I can to establish a good repor with nurses from other units, because I believe that communication is key to patient care between departments. I find that I am always courteouse to nurses from other units. We have a 15 minute rule for getting a patient upstairs after report is called. I find that to be very unrealistic and in most cases if I don't need that room right this second, for a major trauma/MI etc I always tell the nurse to just call me when you are ready for them and I'll bring them up. There has been a few times where I had to enforce the 15 minute rule when we had patients in the hallway, and even then I explained the situation and apologized that I would have to bring them up ASAP due to the MI that was lying in the hallway.
I guess what I am asking is, has anyone else encounterd this? I just feel as soon as someone finds out that I am an ER nurse I am automatically disliked and treated differently. We are all nurses and I just wish we could all try and understand each other and work well together. Any tips or suggestions from those of you that have been doing this for a long time on how to keep the peace between departments?
I think you have the terms feminism and feminine confused. Little girls like to play with dolls, this is natural, would I like to see more life like dolls, with say more hips or stomach, sure.
Also, in todays slang, bitchy refers to an attitude, not a degrading sense for a female. I call men bitchy all the time, meaning they have a horrible attitude.
And being called a girl does not bother me. I am a woman, and am comfortable with my maturity. The same as when the docs say "who are my nurses", i say " who are my docs". I find it very sad when women do take being called a girl a bad thing, because it should not be considered this way. For example, when I got told i throw like a girl, i said your damn straight, now keep up.
I believe we hold the power as women to perceive words like we want to. If we take being called a girl as derogoratory, then men will always call us this to be mean.
thank you for your thought
spirit
FYI; I am not a "girl" I am a woman. Also using the term bitchy is sexist. I can't imagine how, from the ERA rally I went to @ age 18 1979 that woman have manged to infantize themselves, call one another girls et al & give their daughters Barbies dolls.This is why we are not taken seriously. Judging from my society it truly saddens me that I actually fought for feminism as a teenager. this reply is from Diana. Twin #2 My father actually wanted me to follow in his footsteps & join the LAPD. I wish I ha.
FYI; I am not a "girl" I am a woman. Also using the term bitchy is sexist. I can't imagine how, from the ERA rally I went to @ age 18 1979 that woman have manged to infantize themselves, call one another girls et al & give their daughters Barbies dolls.This is why we are not taken seriously. Judging from my society it truly saddens me that I actually fought for feminism as a teenager. this reply is from Diana. Twin #2 My father actually wanted me to follow in his footsteps & join the LAPD. I wish I ha.
you guys are on each others neck.How about some patients could be reading about our discussions and frustrations?What will they think of us?are really earning our respect like we should?Im a trauma male nurse and taking my doctoral studies(doing something about it coz i dont want any trauma nursing anymore).Sometimes i feel the same way especially when the helicopter cant stop bringing in trauma PTs.I dont complain but i do it because this is my job.If both of you feel you cant perform your duties i dont think you are safe nurses.Quit your jobs and sign up to work in the parking lots/dish washer where the stress volume is less.and again what happened to our professional jargons language?to keep the public from getting what we are talking about. :angryfire
Congratulations on your studies for your doctorate!
I would just like to clarify that the 2 previous posts have not been to complain about work. They were discussing respect. I personally agree with you , that if you hate your job then you need to leave. I love my job 90% of the time. I have my days, like all. And if you love the bedside nursing so much, then why the doctorate? To teach and research? Just a poponderance.
you guys are on each others neck.How about some patients could be reading about our discussions and frustrations?What will they think of us?are really earning our respect like we should?Im a trauma male nurse and taking my doctoral studies(doing something about it coz i dont want any trauma nursing anymore).Sometimes i feel the same way especially when the helicopter cant stop bringing in trauma PTs.I dont complain but i do it because this is my job.If both of you feel you cant perform your duties i dont think you are safe nurses.Quit your jobs and sign up to work in the parking lots/dish washer where the stress volume is less.and again what happened to our professional jargons language?to keep the public from getting what we are talking about. :angryfire
Congratulations on your studies for your doctorate!
I would just like to clarify that the 2 previous posts have not been to complain about work. They were discussing respect. I personally agree with you , that if you hate your job then you need to leave. I love my job 90% of the time. I have my days, like all. And if you love the bedside nursing so much, then why the doctorate? To teach and research? Just a poponderance.
spirt 1 im doing doctorates based on an independent federal funded project.It has alot to do with nursing and patients in general.I have been trauma nurse for 4 years im sure i have done, made a difference and saved lives and all that stuff.If you must know its related to the emerging superbugs.Dont you think we need people to do this reaserch so nurses can get meds and pass them on to patients.If i dont do it and someone else dont then who will?the best way to put it is im advancing with what i love best.and ofcourse i dont mind doing nursing even with my doctorates.I have masters in public health and chose not t go to med school.So nursing is in my blood.Sprit 1 im sure you understand all im trying to say
OK, how in the world did this thread go from ER Nurses Treated Different in my Hospital! to discussing girls and bitches?
To the poster of this thread. I have been a nurse for 18 years. 2 in CCU the rest in the ED. Yes we're treated differently. We're the redheaded step children of the hospital. The ER is notorious for losing money so administration treats us differently. We are different nurses than those on the floors and/or units. I agree with one of the posters who said she didn't want to be an ER nurse, well we don't want to be floor nurses either. You guys have to work too dang hard. Now don't get me wrong, we work extremely hard in the ER, sometimes just the sheer numbers and the stupidity of the compaints is overwhelming. We don't usually have to put up with them for long though. We either admit (when we have hospital beds) or treat 'em and street 'em. The thing about not accepting patients at shift change is just utter BS, we don't get to choose when we take patients, why should the floor?
OK, how in the world did this thread go from ER Nurses Treated Different in my Hospital! to discussing girls and bitches?
To the poster of this thread. I have been a nurse for 18 years. 2 in CCU the rest in the ED. Yes we're treated differently. We're the redheaded step children of the hospital. The ER is notorious for losing money so administration treats us differently. We are different nurses than those on the floors and/or units. I agree with one of the posters who said she didn't want to be an ER nurse, well we don't want to be floor nurses either. You guys have to work too dang hard. Now don't get me wrong, we work extremely hard in the ER, sometimes just the sheer numbers and the stupidity of the compaints is overwhelming. We don't usually have to put up with them for long though. We either admit (when we have hospital beds) or treat 'em and street 'em. The thing about not accepting patients at shift change is just utter BS, we don't get to choose when we take patients, why should the floor?
do you ever regard a doctor as being less than the other doctor?lawyer less as the other lawyer.Please refrain from using the word we work harder than other nurses.Other nurses work hard too.being CCRN which i am doesnt make me look at the other nurses as being lesser.We all have the same license RN but different specialities.And offcourse just like any other profession we have to work harder and in general make the nursing profession grow.If we think im a trauma nurse so im better than Rehab or Psych nurse surely,we all look like we are crazy.If you really want to prove your point lets all make a diffrerence and stop challenging each other am CCU nurse so im better or im a DNP so im the super nurse.You see what im saying.Consider these nursing is the only profession so far that has 2 year college graduating(unlike other professions that you have to be masters prepared as entry Eg PT or OT)we fall under this umbrella hence not getting the respect.
Actually, I have found quite the opposite treatment. I find that the ER nurses tend to treat floor nurses like medical wimps because we cannot do what the ER does (nor do we want to). We get treated like we're stupid or we're not fast enough, or that we're slackers who don't want to work.
The truth is, floor nurses do not have the resources to deal with patients crashing all over the place. We don't have the staff. We don't have a doc to give stat orders. We don't have the best access to medications and tests, compared to the ER. For instance, many ER patients are prescribed a stat dose of Rocephin. Guess what, I can't pull that from the Pyxis, only ER can.
As a floor nurse, I can tell you that it's very scary and dangerous to have a patient crashing and in the midst of that drama, Admissions calls for another room. It's like they're oblivious to the situation. This happened to me the other night. I was in a situation in which I had just gotten instructions to transport a patient to ICU, and the phone call that came as we were pushing that patient's bed up the hallway was for the next admission. I was the only ACLS nurse on the floor and I was the only nurse who could safely transport that patient.
Only one thing truly bugs the heck out of us:
We don't like it that the ER will hold onto patients until their staffing is assured, then ship them almost simultaneously to the floor at shift change. So we get 3, 4, 5 patients in a row who were sitting in the ED for 9, 10, 12 hours.
This is in addition to having a full load of patients.
We have to ask why those patients couldn't have come up in such a way that we would actually be able to finish one patient's admit paperwork before going onto the next.
In the ER, you have a triage nurse who will only let patients in when you are ready for them. Too many patients, not enough staff, and the ER goes to diversion. But we on the floors have no such thing. If we're backed up to the hilt, if every nurse has already taken an admit or two and we're scrambling to get stat meds out and get patients admitted, it doesn't matter--our arguments about safety fall on deaf ears. Our licenses and our patients' lives are in jeopardy at that point and instead of solving the problem, we're treated like we are the problem.
So please don't take it personally; we know you don't make the rules. But please do try to understand that floor nurses have a very different modus operandi than the ER.
Once your beds are full, that's it. You take no more patients. We, the nurses in the ER, have to take care of everyone that comes in the door. Just take the patient, please.
I guess that where i practiced at for the most part i got along well with the ER nurses. I was a charge nurse on a 53 bed med/surg unit. Yes i will confirm that there are some habits that the ER does do. Sending patients up during shift change is one that i have winessed before. I feel that attitudes like this start out with people that are so confident (or not) have to brag that they are the best because they work in the ER or ICU. Once i had an ER nurse rant about a patient she recieved from the nursing home. After listening to her for a good ten minutes and finally getting a report. I reminded her that i used to work in long term care and that she should try to practice in a LTC setting. Amazing how WELL that works. WE ALL ARE VALUABLE AND CONTRIBUTE WHEATHER WE WORK IN ER OR MED/SURG, OR IN A SMALL NURSING HOME.
:imbar i rremeber something to the phrase "dont judge untill you walk a mile in their shoes."
I Too Have Seen Both Sides Of The Fence. We Had The "30" Minute Rule And They Still Do. We Also Have A Protocol That From Bed Assignment In The Er To Floor Time Had To Be 15 Minutes. Doesnt Matter If Its Shift Change Or Not. Last Week I Got To My Floor And I Had An Er And 2 Transfers Waiting For Me. Time Doesnt Matter.
I Also Know That The Er Will Sometimes Do "both" Sets Of Cardiac Enzymes Before The Pt Goes To The Floor. Therefore The Delay. No We Dont Sit On Them. That Just Leads To Massive Amounts Of People In The Er And When Your Rooms Are Doubled Up And The Hall Is Lined With Beds, The Last Thing The Er Nurse Wants Is To Be "holding" A Pt So We Make Sure They Come Up At Your Shift Change. Er Nurses Change Shifts Too
WOW. As a former floor nurse, float pool nurse, and now ER i can honestly say that even on a BAD day i never felt like the ER was sitting down there laughing hysterically deviantly planning on how to piss me off by bringing up a patient at shift change. My thoughts are this. If the ER calls report on the patient, and you take it, then that's fair game to bring the patient up. PERIOD. We don't have to wait "our turn" til you get thru with your previous admission, or maybe you are getting another admission so could we hurry up?
I've done the floor thing. And i was the "red headed step child" aka float pool nurse as well. Sometimes i'd get ALL the admissions that day because "i made better $$$ than the regular staff, so i should get all the hard work." Yes that's what they'd say to my face. Did it suck? yes. Was it hard? sometimes. But there were PLENTY of times when i'd get 2 admissions within 10 minutes of each other, and have a patient come back from surgery, etc..etc...
NOW that i'm in ER, i honestly don't look at the clock. I call report when i'm ready to give up my patient. By giving up my patient, that means i've done all the work and here they come. I try to get them up within 15 minutes of report call, most of the time works, but sometimes it doesn't. I do not transfer patients to the bed by myself, regardless of how busy people are. Why? because ITS NOT SAFE and no one is expected to do a one person transfer, so why should i? i only have 1 back and i plan to make mine last. I try to bring up my patients in clean repair, linens clean, clean gown, with a glass of water if possible. Sometimes it doesn't happen. Sometimes things just don't go as planned, and nothing anyone can say will change that. But i know in my ER we don't "sit around" and plan on ways to screw the floor staff. we could care less what the floor staff thinks of us. I honestly think now that i've been on BOTH sides that sometimes the floor staff or unit nurses need to come spend a day with me in my ER. Try to juggle 6 patients, 3 unstable, 1 psychotic, 1 detox and 2 peds that may or may not have parents available. And draw their labs, start their lines, asses and document, trouble shoot, liason for the doc, assist with procedures. Do i think my job is harder? HEAVENS NO. I think each and every aspect of nursing whether its floor nursing, ICU, or ER has its hard days and stressful times. Who are WE as colleagues to second guess each other and point the finger? I can only assume when i call you that you are just as busy as me, and i try to keep the conversation light. I ALWAYS say "hi Jane, this is Dawn in the ER. I'm calling report on Mr. Smith, are you ready" i usually get a heavy sigh and they say "its now or never" and i say "how's it going down there? you guys keepin busy" then they tell me oh yeah or whatever. Then we ease on into report. It usually calms them down just enough to FOCUS on their new patient coming, and usually are so nice afterwards. They say "thanks Dawn, they are going to 308-1. can you wait about 15 minutes tho? i just got another admit and i need just a little more time." if i can i say sure. if not i tell them i can't and why. COMMUNICATION.
But the fact that people still think that ER just sits around waiting to ruin everyone elses day is just BEYOND me.
Actually, I have found quite the opposite treatment. I find that the ER nurses tend to treat floor nurses like medical wimps because we cannot do what the ER does (nor do we want to). We get treated like we're stupid or we're not fast enough, or that we're slackers who don't want to work.
The truth is, floor nurses do not have the resources to deal with patients crashing all over the place. We don't have the staff. We don't have a doc to give stat orders. We don't have the best access to medications and tests, compared to the ER. For instance, many ER patients are prescribed a stat dose of Rocephin. Guess what, I can't pull that from the Pyxis, only ER can.
As a floor nurse, I can tell you that it's very scary and dangerous to have a patient crashing and in the midst of that drama, Admissions calls for another room. It's like they're oblivious to the situation. This happened to me the other night. I was in a situation in which I had just gotten instructions to transport a patient to ICU, and the phone call that came as we were pushing that patient's bed up the hallway was for the next admission. I was the only ACLS nurse on the floor and I was the only nurse who could safely transport that patient.
Only one thing truly bugs the heck out of us:
We don't like it that the ER will hold onto patients until their staffing is assured, then ship them almost simultaneously to the floor at shift change. So we get 3, 4, 5 patients in a row who were sitting in the ED for 9, 10, 12 hours.
This is in addition to having a full load of patients.
We have to ask why those patients couldn't have come up in such a way that we would actually be able to finish one patient's admit paperwork before going onto the next.
In the ER, you have a triage nurse who will only let patients in when you are ready for them. Too many patients, not enough staff, and the ER goes to diversion. But we on the floors have no such thing. If we're backed up to the hilt, if every nurse has already taken an admit or two and we're scrambling to get stat meds out and get patients admitted, it doesn't matter--our arguments about safety fall on deaf ears. Our licenses and our patients' lives are in jeopardy at that point and instead of solving the problem, we're treated like we are the problem.
So please don't take it personally; we know you don't make the rules. But please do try to understand that floor nurses have a very different modus operandi than the ER.
I think you have the terms feminism and feminine confused. Little girls like to play with dolls, this is natural, would I like to see more life like dolls, with say more hips or stomach, sure.
Also, in todays slang, bitchy refers to an attitude, not a degrading sense for a female. I call men bitchy all the time, meaning they have a horrible attitude.
And being called a girl does not bother me. I am a woman, and am comfortable with my maturity. The same as when the docs say "who are my nurses", i say " who are my docs". I find it very sad when women do take being called a girl a bad thing, because it should not be considered this way. For example, when I got told i throw like a girl, i said your damn straight, now keep up.
I believe we hold the power as women to perceive words like we want to. If we take being called a girl as derogoratory, then men will always call us this to be mean.
thank you for your thought. Reply from Twin #2, Thank you for your input. I am quite content c my gender however the majority of thses terms are no more acceptable to some than A racial epithet would be as I noted by the time I was a tennager that ***** is not gender-neutral. ie. if men call one another bitchy it has become acceptable venacular which still holds the original meaning; that the guy is behaving like a woman. Think about common slang: S.O.B. is an insult to someones' mother; all the man is being called is "son". Same c Bastard; all you're saying is that some mans' mother got preggo s marriage. It is, BTW a vast generalization to state that it is natural to play c dolls; I am by not the only woman I know who didn't play c dolls. Climbing trees, exploring nature (Horned Toads, Spiders,Snakes et al was my idea of fun. I am curious as to how well this would go over if race/ethnicity were substituted. Obviously, Black men didn't enjoy being called "boy" as it was intended to remind them of their place in society; those who used the term did so to say, in effect, you don't have the status of a man c rights. Addendum; my Pts love the TLC & health EDU. I provide them; I adore my 5brothers & 20 y/o son & I, I do have some close female friends with who I trust but I've been an RN for 10 yrs &, dang I found out fast where the expression "nurses eat their young" came from. I know I'm off topic here.
I am intelligent & fascinated by a wide range of interests but school seemed (& I don't know others' input on this) to leaves Nurses hanging out to dry via too little clinical & too much classwork; our clinicals were 4 h long tice a wk & then you hit the real-deal p 1 month of orientaion; I was scared to death. my female collegues mocked my nsg stupidty open & sadisically q shift. on a good noc I'd make it off the floor s a sobbing wreck. I never came across as knowing the clinical; My father loved perfect English, politics et al & spoke of it so much that this was just the way I spoke (X when I was sobbing in the break room) I had been a waitress & we don't eat our young? 2 male friends/ collegues & I were wondering why female nurses can be so vicious. I didn't have an answer but I still try & arrange my days to work C Michael. he was the only one who protected me when I was new, became my closest friend & still protects me. Twin #2
:p
spirit1
5 Posts
I think you have the terms feminism and feminine confused. Little girls like to play with dolls, this is natural, would I like to see more life like dolls, with say more hips or stomach, sure.
Also, in todays slang, bitchy refers to an attitude, not a degrading sense for a female. I call men bitchy all the time, meaning they have a horrible attitude.
And being called a girl does not bother me. I am a woman, and am comfortable with my maturity. The same as when the docs say "who are my nurses", i say " who are my docs". I find it very sad when women do take being called a girl a bad thing, because it should not be considered this way. For example, when I got told i throw like a girl, i said your damn straight, now keep up.
I believe we hold the power as women to perceive words like we want to. If we take being called a girl as derogoratory, then men will always call us this to be mean.
thank you for your thought
spirit