I work in a PEDS ER as a Paramedic. Going to school to apply to nursing at this time. This is my issue:
im approaching 12 weeks employment. And I love my job, there's just one problem; I feel like I'm constantly underappreciated and everyone's little toy. All the nurses can be sitting on their phones or something and they're like do vitals on this patients. Do this. Do that. I need this. I need that. When I need a little help too you know. Also I wipe down the beds before and after patients and it really aggravates me when I'm busy with patients in the triage area and i walk back and find dirty rooms. WHAT WERE YOU DOING? Sometimes I just feel like I'm constantly being pulled. They won't do their own vitals. Or even wipe down a bed or table. They won't EVER do crutches or splints. I enjoy my job but sometimes I get extremely overwhelmed when all these nurses are sending me to do things while they're sitting down. Mean while, I barely sit, if I'm drinking water it never fails for someone to tell me to do something. They all get to eat their lunch at a reasonable time and here I am waiting till 2:30 or so to eat because I'm just too busy to break away. It's really aggravating me. It makes me think, you're a nurse, but you can't do these small things? Or is it that they think they are above taking vitals or doing splints. They also refer to me as a nurses aid, when I am a PARAMEDIC. I have a license. I went to school for this. How do I handle all of this?
If you are truly overwhelmed, you can ask your RNs for help, too. When my techs are swamped, I am happy to get vitals or walk a patient to the bathroom, but sometimes I don't know that they have two people who were just incontinent and need to restock their area and are setting up a room for an admit or whatever. They tell me it's busy, I help where I can, it's cool.
I think in most jobs in healthcare, we don't see 70% of what other professions are actually doing. Don't assume they are being lazy. Not saying it doesn't happen, but there is a ton of work RNs are doing, even if it looks like they're sitting down taking a breather. Also, +1 for nurses who look up meds on their phones.
I understand you are a paramedic, but your scope of practice is that if a tech. Many ERs use paramedics as techs, I'm going to venture a guess and say it's because of the ACLS or in your case PALS certification that can come in handy in a trauma. Your job duties are still those if a tech.
When i was a tech, I could draw labs, perform an EKG, do bladder scans, all of the things you are describing, minus the ACLS. You are not being asked to do anything outside your job description. Being busy makes the shift go fast, both as a nurse and a tech. You don't get all that a nurse does yet. You are new. Stop complaining.
Usually Triage/do vitals when they first come in. IV's. Blood work. Help hold down to give shots. Let me clarify. I don't have a problem doing vitals and triaging and IV's. (I have PALS NRP and ACLS) during times when we get a rescue and do the EKG, all of that stuff. I do assess and hand off to the nurse and they choose either to assess for themselves or take what I give them. I don't have a problem doing my job, I love kids and I love my job. (My unit doesn't even transfer a lot. It's mostly kids with just fever or something else like strep) it just bothers me when I'm used like a pawn and I'm not called by my job title. It bothers me even more when people are sitting around gossiping and 4 nurses are telling me at once to recheck vitals and do a splint or whatever while they're all sitting, talking, gossiping. I think what I was posting didn't get accross to some people. I think whoever it is. The paramedic, CNA, MD whatever all of us need to work together. I shouldn't be abused and neither should the nurse by the doctor. I'm only one person. I can't do 4 kids vital signs at once and do this line for one kid and this other thing. It would just be nicer if one of them did like a part of that so I'm not running around like a crazy person.
A paramedic posttion in an ER is unusual for me. Perhaps it also is for the nurses in your ER?
If you are continually being directed to perform aide duties, while the nurses are goofing off.. you have 2 choices. Remind them of your role and redirect THEM,and/ or discuss the problem with you immediate supervisor.
Nobody should be running ragged, while others are goofing off.
OP, if you're planning on becoming a nurse, search the allnurses forum for any thread that's titled, "you know you're going to have a rough shift when...."
When the nurses ask you to do something and you are truly too busy to do it, do you ever tell them "I'm so sorry but I can't right now because I have to ___"? Yes, they are above you and can delegate to you. However, it is a two-way street and if you do not communicate that you are busy then they will continue giving you more tasks than you can handle.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I am a paramedic in the hospital. That is my job title.
As a paramedic in a hospital, you are probably employed in a Tech capacity. You aren't a first responder; you're essentially unlicensed personnel. All those things that people are asking you to do are your job. You've been at the job far too short a time to have this much attitude. Furthermore, you don't know what you don't know. Those nurses "playing with their phones" may be looking up medications, texting a physician, looking up lab results, checking their work email, looking up policies and procedures, texting the nursing supervisor, looking up a disease process, texting other employees to resolve staffing issues, studying for ACLS, putting together a power point presentation for a class they're teaching, filling out your evaluation, emailing the manager to alert her to a possible customer service issue, ordering specialty beds or Wound Vac canisters, or checking out AllNurses.com for advice on how to deal with a paramedic who doesn't know what he doesn't know.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I think it's very fair to say we have all felt that way. I know I have caught myself looking in at my charge and manager thinking how they just look like they are sitting there, on their computer, their cell phone, laughing, talking, appearing to have a good time, but remember their responsibilities and how much they do that I do not see day to day and it gives me pause.
The fact is, I don't know every detail of what they do. I have fair understanding but don't know everything. I have days where I feel horribly under-appreciated and grumbly and "dumped on" but I try to remember, it comes from a lever higher than them, when asked to do more with less. And at the end of the day, the responsibility they shoulder is larger than mine and I get to go home and leave it at work. They don't and when stuff happens after hours, it's they that are called/texted to come in and deal with it---not me.
See, I understand, I don't know what I don't know, and accept that. You need to do the same. If some day you become a nurse, you may see that they are likely NOT just goofing around, gossiping and getting nothing done and the responsibilities they carry are much larger and graver than you can comprehend right now. Keep pressing on and ask for help when you need it, but understand if they can't give it every time you ask.
There are reams of posters here on AN who have written:
"Now that I'm a nurse, I am embarrassed to admit how much I thought I knew, and how little I thought nurses did when I was a CNA (or PCT, or Tech, nursing student, or similar)."
It's really easy to say someone doesn't do much if one hasn't walked in those shoes.
There are reams of posters here on AN who have written:
"Now that I'm a nurse, I am embarrassed to admit how much I thought I knew, and how little I thought nurses did when I was a CNA (or PCT, or Tech, nursing student, or similar)."
It's really easy to say someone doesn't do much if one hasn't walked in those shoes.
Exactly, back when i was an aid i felt that i was always running around and i saw the nurses just sitting at their computer. Well now that i'm a nurse i know that i'm not just "sitting around" but instead trying to catch up on the hours of charting i haven't done.
martymoose, BSN, RN
1,946 Posts
I hate to say , the running around like a chicken wit h their head cut off is exactly how the nursing job will be.
You sure you want that?
wouldnt it be better to work as a paramedic out in the field instead of ED?