Frustrated in LTC!!

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Jun 30, 2007

Oh, honey, you're preaching to the choir. I work 7 - 3 too, and it stinks.

I have one resident's mom who will badger me no matter what I'm doing - I can be standing there with meds on the cart reading the MAR and she'll start talking. I have learned to be very direct with her, and almost rude. "Yes, it's good that your mother's drinkling more water. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to discuss this now. I'm in the middle of pouring medicines for another resident" and then literally walk away.

tatgirl · Jun 30, 2007

I hear you loud and clear!!! sounds like my work place. I have one resident whose husband will follow you while you are trying to give meds, wanting things for his wife. When I politely tell him that the CNA can get his wife ice chips or briefs, he still keeps following me. ughhhh. His wife is not my only resident that I take care of (I have 23 other residents). Then there are the residents who are so rude, demanding, and abusive to staff. I get so tired of being called demeaning names when I am helping people. Then there are the pyscho families who encourage the abusive behavior. I have only been a nurse for a little over a year, and I am feeling burned out.

Wendy

LPN

NurseyInFL04 · Jun 30, 2007

yeah and then people wonder why there is such a nursing shortage....go figure!!

Midwest4me · Jun 30, 2007

I am so sorry that you're having such a rough time of it. Sounds like a hostile work environment but, sadly, it was like that in virtually all LTC facilities in which I worked. We are supposed to be caring, understanding nurses, able to tolerate anything that comes our way but every one of knows that you can only put up with so much of the crap! The situations that you describe are more the norm than the exception...at least they were where I worked....which is the reason for my leaving that area. I think to a certain extent you'll find each problem in all nursing areas.(Medical office nursing was the exception for me.) Until your management personnel gets enough REPEATED complaints about certain problematic individuals, nothing will change. I've seen it all too often. The reason? Administration needs bodies; it needs the proper(or near proper) state-mandated ratios of patients to staff. In the mind of many administrators numbers (of paid bodies) equals quality of care and that just is NOT the case.

I hope you heal well and fast and can find something more rewarding of your caring nature. My heart really goes out to you; I've been in your shoes. HUGS to you!

tatgirl · Jun 30, 2007

Our management claims to back us up regarding abusive individuals but they really dont. One woman has been on every unit in the last 6 months. The reason: she is extremely verbally abusive and physically abusive to the nursing staff. She will use racial slurs and curse at us. The other day she dropped a piece of candy on the floor, and asked me to get it for her as she wanted to eat it. I told her that the 5 second rule certainly doesnt apply here and she got to screaming and told me :I hope you burn in h***. I secretly thought to myself: maybe I should have just let her eat that piece of candy with lord knows how many germs on it. lmaooooo. Oh well. I need a vacation!!!!!!!!!!!1

Wendy

LPN

star2nite2000 · Jun 30, 2007

I have worked nights in LTC here in southeastern Oklahoma for the past 15 years. All the things you have mentioned have happened to me as well. I work nights for a reason...no doctors, family, or administration unless something major happens. Every shift will always complain about the other shifts. I have my share of complaints about the other shifts but what's the use. After all these years I have found that complaining about the other shifts gets me no where and all it causes is ulcers for me. I make sure I do all my work and then if I have time, I will help do what the other shifts have neglected to do. I have to say though that the nursing home I now work at is the best I have ever worked for. For the most part the nurses work together, oh sure we have a couple that we would like to strangle, but we all try to pick up where the other one left off.

Don't let yourself get burned out, it's not worth it. You'll have to learn what needs to be stressed over and let the 'little' things go over your head.

paulla29 · Jun 30, 2007

Oh, I hear you so loud and clear. I work 7-3 also. I feel like all I get done are my med passes and playing "clean up" for everyone else. Don't get me wrong, if the prior shift ran out of time or was really busy and couldn't get to it, I have no problem with that. But when it comes down to another shift getting antibiotic orders for a resident (our policy is to start them asap), they won't pull them out of our e-box and get them started. Or, if an xray needs set up, they won't call the 24hr. mobile xray unit and do it. These are only a couple examples, but the list goes on and on. I asked my DON why all of the QD treatments are on first shift (when we're already swamped) - her response was "because I know first shift will do it". How frustrating. She's acknowledging a problem but doing nothing to solve it.

I'd say hang in there, but I can't. I've been an LPN 12 years and it seems like it's only getting worse. It's very hard not to let those things stress you out. You, like me, expect everyone to do their best and to give the best care they can, sadly, some show up just to get through the shift doing the least amount they can get away with.

I love my residents but I can't take it anymore. LPN's around here are pretty limited on where to work, it's mainly LTC. I just recently made the decision that the only way to change things is to improve things, so I'm starting with myself. I'm starting back this fall to get my RN.

Kanani_Ikike · Jul 1, 2007

:monkeydance: Hello, I am an LPN in a nursing home and recently my job has had me so frustrated I just wanted to quit. The working environment can be unbarable at times. And it doesn't seem like there is any help coming any time soon. My frustrations are as follows
1. coworkers unwilling to help ease the load (24hr nursing) they think that if it didn't happen on their shift then it just didn't happen and then it is left for me to finish when i get back the next day or sometimes even the next week.
2. Residents have rights, what about the employees, residents are expected to be treated a certain way...this is their home, but what about the care givers, its not fair that the residents are able to speak and treat the workers anyway they feel like, to the point that most of the workers feel like slaves, and sometimes even in tears.
3. leadership abilities, what is the point of giving a nurse the right to lead a group of CNA' and discipline them if it wont be followed up on, or if the cna will retaliate against the nurse
4. gossip and team work, alot of nurse feel that they can do no wrong, and they are constantly trying to find fault in other nurses work, and continuously tattle tailing on each other instead of offering a right and wrong solution, nobody is perfect.
1)coworkers- alot of my co-workers are just plain lazy, they think if it didnt happen on their shift then it didnt happen and loads of work is often left for me to finish, i have gone to the supervisor over this many times and all that is said is we all need to get along...well duh!! I am so tired of work being put onto my shift 7-3 which is where alot of all the politics goes on, it is very busy on 7-3 and i barely have time to do med pass let alone deal with families, Dr's, therepy, social services, and all the other million and one charting things i have. Discharges and admissions. But dont dare ask the next shift to finish up for you, its not their job..bull honky, its all of our jobs and i am so sick of hearing that excuse, I have my 3-11 nurse who absolutly refuses to do straight cath for urine specimen, it frustrates me, she should atleast try to get it even if on the cammode, but she refuses saying it is 11-7 responsability, well yes usually but if you have the time then help them out and just get it. dont be so lazy.and why is it that alllllllll order clarifications have to be done on 7-3 why cant 3-11 do it, or why cant 11-7 send a fax to the office? Nope it is left for me to do. excuses , excuses. GRRRRRRR
2)employee rights, I have this one resident who is verbally and physically abusive to the staff, she calls the cna's ******s, and has called me a fat B on several occasions, she will hit the cna's and she will scratch them drawing blood, this woman is very alert and oriented but the daughter says "its her alzheimers" this woman has no dx of the disease but we are still supposed to put up with it. the daughter will stand at the nurses cart or desk for 30 minutes just baggering the nurse for things and no matter how many times the nurse explains how busy she is the daughter says" i know but......." I had to hide in my unit mgr's office on my lunch break one time, and as soon as i walked out there she was waiting for me....give me a break lady...let me get my work done, as if your mom is the only one i have to take care of, her mom was on another floor in the building and the administrator told her and her mom they had to go to another facility due to the abuse , and then they apologized so the facility decided just to move them to my floor, at first they were fine, but once they got comfortable all hell broke lose, now if an employee treated either one of them the same way, that employee would be fired or suspended, why are these people allowed to get away with so much?
3) leadership is one thing a nurse is required to display, and also is given the ability to use ones own judgment for discipline, but how can we discipline the cna's when they decide to retaliate after being disciplined, i recently wrote up a cna for insubordination. it was on 11-7 and i caught her several times on several different occasions not doing her rounds and leaving residents wet all night, but still having time to go out and smoke every hour. I gave her several verbal warnings, one night I was just fed up, a womans bed was soaked from head to toe and the sheets were brown, and we already had this woman on ABT's for UTI. So i wrote up the cna. A week later I was being called into the office for a claim that i was picking on the cna, and that i was racist, since she was spanish. which i am totally not. and i couldnt understand why several other nurses have complained about this same cna but when i finally write her up i am the bad guy. I explained to the DON how are we to make a change and get ahold of this problem if every time we write up the cna's they think they can get out of it by just complaining, well needless to say a few other cna's came to my rescue and oblidged that the cna in question is lazy and has had several warnings, therefore i was off the hook. But it shouldnt be like that AT ALL..
4) why must nurses feel that they do no wrong. Im sorry but all nurses make mistakes some greater than others, but who is anyone to point the finger. If you see something that isnt too terribly wrong pull the nurse to the side and give them the heads up, cause you never know when you might need each other for something. dont be so quick to point out all the mistakes because it will come back on you, I have seen it happen so many times, certain nurses get comfortable and think they are perfect, then one mistake and of course the others nurses are just waiting for that day, then what, that nurse is fired, now if they would have played by the "nursing guide" and been nicer and more helpful they might still have a job.....I had an EGD done a few months ago and I was leaving work early at noon, so another nurse came in to fill my spot till 3 pm. As I am driving to the Dr office my phone rings, its my job, i say hello and its the nurse who relieved me,he called to ask me where i charted the BP for so and so because it wasnt in the mar( we have computer charting) so i told him its in the notebook with all the vitals, and that i wrote it down on a scrap piece of paper, he then continues to accuse me of giving BP meds with out taking the bp of the resident, I tried to explain that i did it , it just slipped my mind to write it down in the mar before i left and i was driving so i couldnt go through my pockets for the piece of paper, he is a regular weekend staff, and when i got back to work on monday nurses were coming to me questioning me about the incident, apparently he had blabbed to all the weekend staff that i dont do bp's before meds and so on and so forth, i told the mgr about it and once again "we need to work together" oh it made me so mad....i wanted to slap him, but all i could think of was the huge med error he just made with a certain resident and IV mag. so i didnt understand why he thought he was so invincible. I just blew it off, anyway recently I have undergone a pilonidal cyst removal and have been out of work for 2 weeks now, and as much pain as i am in i have to say " it couldnt have come at a better time"......

Oh my goodness!!! I had to look at this post twice because I thought I was reading something that I wrote at first. I totally can empathize with because I go through this at my job, too. Read my thread, "Nursing home conditios are unacceptable". You will see that I am fed up, too. And you know what? We shouldn't have to quit a job to feel okay. We should be able to work without having to deal with all these issues. We already have problems with being overworked, understaffed, and unappreciated. Then we have to deal with low down co-workers that if they were doing their job, they wouldn't have time to find fault with you.

You are right, nobody is perfect. And those nurses need to quit finding fault with every little incident. It seems like sometimes they are out to get you. And the CNAs, I don't really have a problem with my CNAs, but I now that the ones on 1st shift you can't say anything to. They will be insubordinate and give you hell if you do. I don't know what the solution is. In my opinion, the residents that are in their right mind and abuse staff gets no love from me. I don't tolerate it and I let them know it, too. I don't care if they report me. I don't have to too much deal with residents that don't have Alzheimer's, but occasionally, I float. And when I do, I don't take that bullying from them. We are there to help them and they treat us like we're the enemy. If they knew how much the MD doesn't give a rip about them except when it's time to get paid, then they would treat us differently.

Just know that I am with you, girlfriend. I share your pain and I hope (in vain) that things will improve. :uhoh3:

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Jul 3, 2007

Have any of you worked in a hospital or at some other kind of job? There will always be co-workers who slack off, who gossip, who treat you badly. There will always be patients and customers who scream at you and call you foul names. I got called a thief when I worked in a concession stand. The man yelled for 15 minutes that I shorted his change.(I hadn't of course and he later came and apologized to me).

The point is that no matter where you work you will find creeps. You have to find a way to deal with them. It's not LTC that's at fault. Stand up to them if you can. Surely the 'good' nurses out weigh the slackers. Document aggressive patient behavior; talk to the docs. There is a bill pending which would 'strengthen the laws against violence toward health care workers'. Find out about it and help get it passed.

WE are the ones who can change what goes on where we work.

BoopetteRN · Jul 9, 2007

All the things you have listed has happened at my LTC. No matter where you work, it seems like those kinds of things happen. The thing to remember is that we do what we for the residents, and yes sometimes those residents and their families can be very trying. When you are approached while on med pass, tell them you are on your med pass and that you do not want to make a mistake, I have even told families that you would not want me to make a mistake with your mom's meds because I was talking to another resident's family, done tactfully this seems to work. As far as co-workers, trying to get teamwork going can be difficult, if you have an in-service person go to them and ask if there is something he or she can do to help with a teamwork effort. Shift to shift problems will always be there, just continue to try and work out a plan so that everyone is accountable, try different things, maybe the daily meds can be given on pms to lighten your load, or speak to the pm nurse and say well I will do this if you can help me with this, try to ask the pm nurse what he or she thinks the problem is and how can we work with this as a team. Many times trial and error works better, but remember to keep the lines of communication open

AprilRNhere · Jul 9, 2007

Wow...just reading that made me remember how little I miss my old job. I quit right before finals (early May) and decided I just wouldn't work until I found a job as a RN. I start my job at the hospital next tuesday and I'm so glad.

The same things happen everywhere...but they do seem to be magnified in LTC. I think it's because of lack of variation. You see the same patients and workers every day. In a hospital...if someone or their family rubs you the wrong way..it's not hard to grin and bear it..knowing they'll soon be discharged.