That Crazy Old Lady Did It!

When I started my first nursing job in the late 1970s, I was the very first BSN graduate hired at that hospital. They had their own School of Nursing, you see, a diploma school, and they pretty much exclusively hired their own graduates. I'm not sure WHY I thought it would be a good idea to work at this hospital rather than the large university teaching hospital where I originally intended to work and where I'd been offered TWO jobs on two different floors. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

That Crazy Old Lady Did It!

Maybe because it was smaller and, despite my years of college I was still pretty much of a farm girl. Maybe it was because it was within walking distance of our new apartment in the city and my then-husband and I shared a car. Maybe it was because my aunts and uncles who lived in the city told me it was "a great hospital." And maybe it was because the head nurse seemed grandmotherly and comfortable when I interviewed.

Once I started my new job, it immediately became obvious that they had no idea what to do with me! A diploma graduate hit the floor running -- they were completely trained and their senior practicum had them doing charge on the floors. Me -- I'd had six hours of clinical a week (compared to their 8 hours a DAY) and I had not only mastered many of the skills of a registered nurse, I hadn't even SEEN them. About the umpteenth time the instruction "go put an NG in Mrs. Smith" or "Mr. Jones needs a catheter" were met with blank stares on my part, the charge nurses threw up their hands in frustration. It never occurred to any of them to SHOW me what to do or attempt to TEACH me. Orientation in those days was "throw the new nurse into the fray and hope for the best."

Finally, in frustration, the charge nurses decided to use me as a glorified aide -- one with a "GN" on her name tag -- and threw me into the fray at a level they hoped I could understand. I was greeted at the start of my 0700 shift with a small slip of paper with a list of room and bed numbers. "Go weigh these patients," I was told. "Then come back and we'll figure out what to do with you." ("And they say BSNs are the wave of the future," I could hear muttered under the breath. "Yeah, and they ALSO say someday they'll be running the hospitals." Raucous laughter ensued, and I slunk out of there clutching the list of numbers.)

I started my days out in a similar fashion for weeks. One morning, I entered the room of a particularly genteel looking woman, scale in tow, to find a fresh, steaming pile of poop in the corner. Catching the direction of my gaze, the patient lifted a shaking finger and pointed it in the direction of the door I'd just come through. "She did it! That crazy old lady just came into my room and squatted in the corner and did that! That crazy old lady!"

"Uh-HUH," I thought to myself. I hadn't seen any old ladies -- crazy or otherwise -- in the hallway and the only female patient on my list who could be called both old and crazy had been sound asleep when I dragged my scale into her room. I marked the I& O sheet with "large, formed brown stool" and went on my way, remembering to mention to the team leader what I'd found. The same thing happened the next day and the next. Always it was "I didn't do that! That crazy old lady did it!"On the fourth day, the genteel old lady asked for a laxative, because she hadn't moved her bowels in DAYS. "Confused? short-term memory deficits," I wrote down on my "brain sheet" and remembered to pass it on to the team leader.

On the fifth day, I happened to be out in the hall trying to decipher the handwriting of the night charge. Was it room 3, room 5 or room 8B that needed a weight? So that's why I happened to catch out of the corner of my eye, an elderly woman suffering from dementia sneaking out of her room at the end of the hall. Before I could react, she'd darted into the room of my genteel older lady. I arrived in the doorway just in time to see that crazy old lady squatting in the corner and leaving her fresh deposit of steaming poop!

It taught me a lesson -- one I've had to re-learn a few times over the years, unfortunately, but a lesson just the same. Before labeling anyone as confused or disoriented or hallucinating or suffering from dementia, it bears a little investigation. (Someday, I'll tell the story of the UFO and the little green men!) It also taught me that if someone says they're constipated, it's worth checking out.

I eventually passed my boards -- on my first try, unlike some of the diploma grads working in the hospital -- and graduated to more complicated tasks. Like putting down NGs and inserting Foley catheters. An experienced LPN nearing retirement took me under her wing and taught me those skills and many other skills I'd need to know.

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Ruby Vee

About Ruby Vee, BSN

Original Member of the Crusty Old Bat Society, Ruby Vee, BSN

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Specializes in Psych, corrections.

Bless your heart, Ruby Lee!

Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Wow, that was a very entertaining story as always!

I had a pt once of whom her family thought she was crazy for talking about the "harp music". Little did her family know we had a harpist on the floors some weekends!

Specializes in PICU/NICU.

I gotta tell ya Ruby..... you have the BEST stories! Keep um comming!

You keep cracking me up!

Orienttion hasn't changed much, BTW.

I'm glad to hear that an LPN is who taught you how to do routine nursing functions. I was an LPN for almost 15 years before going back for my RN and this was not the first time a brand new BSN came on to the floor thinking that they knew how to be a nurse. I even had a masters prepared RN that didn't know how to change a SP catheter. I had to SHOW her as LPN's were not allowed to change them, only RN's in the facility I was working. Hopefully BSN programs will start including more practical time, as it stands now, most of them I've come in contact with are great at school but not at patient care.

great story....we all need to be reminded to listen a little more...

by the way, new nurses are still treated like "throw the new nurse into the fray and hope for the best.” --be it lpn or rn

Specializes in CVICU, PICU, ER,TRAUMA ICU, HEMODIALYSIS.

This was an interesting post. I do have a question. Why did this graduate nurse not have the skills to insert an NG or foley and had to rely on the hopefully adequate and accurate training from a soon to retire LPN?? I graduated from Indiana University in 1975. We had a list of competencies that we had to perform IN THE PRESENCE OF ONE OF OUR INSTRUCTORS before graduation. It is no wonder I keep running into nurses who allow the tip of a foley catheter touch the patient's sheet and then look at me quizzically when I tell them that they just contaminated the catheter and will have to get another one from supply. There is a serious lack in the teaching area of the nursing profession. And to think in a few years I will be at the mercy of these poorly trained "professionals".:nono:

I agree....my LPN program trained me..well..... better than the AD RNs I hired with.....

however, the "thrown to the wolves" aspect has just been things like the run of the floor, what labs, etc., before certain surgeries, what docs you can page, which ones will scream at you, just general help in figuring out phone numbers, etc....

things that I have figured out now, but when I first started, would get wrong, or not get, and then get screamed at because I didn't know.

Specializes in Med-Surge, PACU, now Hospice.

Ruby - please keep the stories coming. I love reading them. When I graduated in 1994, we moved immediately from Boston to Atlanta. I took my board in GA. I had trouble getting a job as HR was going to hire from known schools. I thought Northeastern Univ. was a pretty darn good school, but hey......

I ended working at a nursing home for about 3 mos. I walked in on one of my patients who was standing over the toilet with a box of cookies. I looked in the toilet and it was full of the cookies. I asked him what was wrong with the cookies, and he answered, "Nothing.". I shrugged and started to go to get the plunger. I walked by his sink and there was a huge, steaming BM. I was speechless. I hated to make housekeeping clean that up, but still, I didn't want to either. YUCK!!

I worked at a small teaching hospital in our town after graduation (associate degree). It was a great experience for learning. I had heard that nursing "ate their young" and was a little nervous, but even the doctors at this hospital were into teaching. I had learned a lot in training, 24 hours a week in clinical, but nothing really prepares you for the real world. Two patients for 8 hours in not like 8 patients!

I've been a nurse for about 16 years and can remember vividly how it was to be new on a unit. Some nurses actually seem to enjoy seeing the fumblings and insecurities of a new gratuate, just to spite them I guess. They think it's funny to see how another person can feel embarressed and unsure of themselves.

I was fortunate enough to have the other type of nurse take me under her wing. She didn't forget what it was like to be fresh out of school. She had patience and showed me how things were routinly done on this unit. I remember never feeling stupid in her presence. I only felt inexperienced, which is nothing to be ashamed of. Now I'm one of the older ones and gladly take the newbies in my care. They all like to work with me, too. I'm working together now with a new graduate. One of my coworkers worked with her for two days and said, "she just doesn't have a plan about anything". I would never judge anyone after such a short time. She has been working with me for just two weeks and is proving to be very smart and a fast learner. She feels comfortable in my presence because I want her to succeed, not fail. Know what I mean?:nurse: