How do you deal with lazy co-workers?

[RNforLongTime]

I have been an RN for 4 years and have always considered myself to be a "team" player. One of my fellow RN's who I work with on a regular basis, just does not seem to be as helpful. The other night I was extremely busy and asked her politely if she would mind attempting to re-start an IV for me. I had already tried myself and was unsuccessful. She said Oh I have a dressing change to do. But at the time she was just standing at the nurses station doing absolutely nothing. This made me very angry as I offer my assistance to her when she is busy and I am not. It makes me want to just not offer my assistance to her any more. She gets her work done but NEVER offers to help anyone else who might be in need. There have been numerous times where I have noticed her sitting at the computer playing solitaire when the rest of us are running around like chickens with our heads cut off! What should I do? Do I confront her? I am not very good at confronting people as I like to avoid conflict whenever possible. Or do I just not offer my help anymore? What would you suggest?

Thank you for your input.

Kelly:)

[JennieBSN]

Kelly--

We have some VERY lazy nurses on our staff. They are not qualified to be in charge (thank GOD), and therefore never are. The way WE handle it is that when they are on, we assign THEM the most DIFFICULT PIA patient and LET 'EM DROWN. We have complained MULTIPLE times to our nm (both verbally AND in writing), and she of course has a severe case of cranio-rectal inversion and doesn't give us a da** bit of credence. SO....we took matters into our own hands and decided that if she wouldn't listen to us, she'd start listening when the docs complained. LO AND BEHOLD, once we started letting them 'drown' in their own laziness and inefficiency, the docs started complaining left and right.

One of them was placed back on orientation, and the other...well, haven't seen her for a while, so.....

Anyway, I think the only way to handle it is to make them lie in the bed they've made. Passive aggressive, yes, but direct confrontation has not worked with these people, so we had to take the alternate route.

Hang in there, sister!!!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Cranio-rectal inversion? I love it!

How do you manage to ignore them and still make sure patients didn't crap out without being noticed? I love the idea, but don't have the peripheral vision to pull it off safely.

Wish we had more ability to off-load dangerous nurses without a long delay for them to PROVE they are incompetent, and nursing should have a better voice without the docs help in identifying poor practitioners. With the shortage though managers will soon be looking for warm bodies, with or without skills.

[mcl4]

Originally posted by kaknurse

Thanks to all for their support!

On evening shift at my place--there is NO charge nurse. Only the house nursing supervisor. Over this past weekend we again got bombarded with admissions and I AGAIN asked the sup for help but was declined. As I posted before--the powers that be are only concerned with the number of patients on the floor not the acuity of the patients. For example--this weekend I was assigned to care for a chronic trach/vent patient along with 4 other patients. Our policy states that the RN who is caring for such a pt is to have only 3 other pt's. Well since this pt is not really on a vent(he's on C-PAP mode but did I mention that he is also on ORSA precautions?) and "really isn't a lot of work" , they changed the ratio to 1:6 for the RN caring for this pt--this includes ALL THREE SHIFTS!!! And the other RN's are assigned a max of 6 pts. Plus this pt is a full code! They change the rules to accomodate staffing--which is really unsafe and I also was caring for a severly hypogylcemic pt as well! Oh I could go on.

I am really at my wits end!

I don't believe you are alone with working impossible shifts, especially after reading the thread "Obstacles to providing care." The list given by nurses are long and give an idea how difficult nursing can be today.

[OneChattyNurse]

Why is it that the lazy ones are the ones who claim to be the best workers. I have never worked with so many "active retired" staff memebers in my whole life. They however seem to be the ones that are always talking about how much work they do!!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

My pet peeve is nurses who do minimum for their patients, then sit at the station "charting" all day, putting their two cents worth in about everyone else's assignment.

What a waste of good protoplasm.

[nurs4kids]

.

[nurs4kids]

LOL..I love the "cranio rectal inversion"!!

I agree with canoehead. Ever notice these are the same nurses that patients just dearly adore? The same nurses that the nurse on the following shift receives a complaint from the patient because he/she "came in the room too often"? Ever notice they have more patients go into full blown codes (things that with good assessment may have been caught early)? We have two of them..they call themselves "good time managers". We call them "good bs'ers".

I once hid a stethescope of one of them..very very early in the shift. He began looking for it after he clocked out 12hours later. Sad, eh?

[Nursz-R-Awsm]

nurs4kids

Yes, that is very sad....

.....but I like the way you think!

Lisa

[longforseaair]

These are great to read! I just finished too many twelves in too few days. Got so tired at the end that I was working at half speed. I haven't been an RN for long and perpetually struggle with getting everything done and charting as well. And, every shift as I attempt to sit to chart, there goes another light, or a call from a doc, or family wants to talk, or call for a bed, and I can't note and talk to someone else at the same time. I never get to take a break, and rarely get my lunch. Sometimes, not eating for twelve hours. And I know, I know, I may be more efficient if I did those things, because it may reenergize me. But, I swear that as soon as I get those meds done, or procedures done, or critical orders noted, or that one more thing that is pressing, things snowball and I miss the opportunity. I cringe sometimes when I go in a patients room because I know that they will want twenty things done while I'm in there and I will get snowballing.

I am often charge, even as a baby nurse, because we have many LPN's and no one wants the responsibility. At my unit, charge simply means that you assign beds, make sure supervisor staffs for the next shift and make pt. assignments at shift change, plus complete all the routine paperwork such as crash cart checks, etc, plus assume ultimate responsibility for all mistakes or go-wrongs. I have asked to not be charge so often, to deaf ears.

Most of my co-workers are longtimers and independent of my decisions. We all just pretty much pick up the same groups we had the night before and admits come by turn regardless of acuity of busy groups. Sometimes you get all the bad and vice versa.

We have slugs and self-promoters, and look-gooders and great-talkers and connivers who somehow secure the best aides for themselves always.

We also have good nurses who offer to pitch in and restart IV's that go bad, or give pain meds while you're stuck in a room, etc. And I remember them fondly when they have a bad night.

While I sincerely feel (ignorantly) that I treat all patients and co-workers equally, it sideswipes me when an aide complains that I don't help. It equally sidewipes me when I enter a pt. room first time that night and they exclaim, "Oh! "bbqchick", I am so glad you are back! You're the only nurse who seems to really care and are not here just for the job!" I know we have other caring nurses. I wonder if I am sacrificing my organizational goals for overdoing for pt's and letting aides walk on me? And, more freq I get my charting done by shift end now.

But, it seems like more nights than others now, we have too high of acuity which doesn't matter when calls come for a bed. The other night, I was at the end of my coping ability, fully frustrated told the caller that I had to refuse the patient r/t understaffing. Supervisor called in microminute and loudly proclaimed that I could not refuse the patient and we were not understaffed. It's true that our nurse patient ratio agreed with the number shuffle but our 15 patients with three nurses (one new grad still on orientation) and one aide on a step-down unit felt like twice as many patients, the nurse aide started bawling at least once that night. One patient should have been in ICU- septic, cdiff, TPN, DM, decub and huge man, total care on a mask with prn suction.

I don't see how nurses get everything done in time and can sit and gossip and read mags.

I know I'm a dumb cluck and also can't stand to hear a light go off and let it ring. Oh well...I self-speak that the running is keeping my leg blood circulating and maybe burning calories? And I try to smile, smile, smile. What a sucker.

[longforseaair]

These are great to read! I just finished too many twelves in too few days. Got so tired at the end that I was working at half speed. I haven't been an RN for long and perpetually struggle with getting everything done and charting as well. And, every shift as I attempt to sit to chart, there goes another light, or a call from a doc, or family wants to talk, or call for a bed, and I can't note and talk to someone else at the same time. I never get to take a break, and rarely get my lunch. Sometimes, not eating for twelve hours. And I know, I know, I may be more efficient if I did those things, because it may reenergize me. But, I swear that as soon as I get those meds done, or procedures done, or critical orders noted, or that one more thing that is pressing, things snowball and I miss the opportunity. I cringe sometimes when I go in a patients room because I know that they will want twenty things done while I'm in there and I will get snowballing.

I am often charge, even as a baby nurse, because we have many LPN's and no one wants the responsibility. At my unit, charge simply means that you assign beds, make sure supervisor staffs for the next shift and make pt. assignments at shift change, plus complete all the routine paperwork such as crash cart checks, etc, plus assume ultimate responsibility for all mistakes or go-wrongs. I have asked to not be charge so often, to deaf ears.

Most of my co-workers are longtimers and independent of my decisions. We all just pretty much pick up the same groups we had the night before and admits come by turn regardless of acuity of busy groups. Sometimes you get all the bad and vice versa.

We have slugs and self-promoters, and look-gooders and great-talkers and connivers who somehow secure the best aides for themselves always.

We also have good nurses who offer to pitch in and restart IV's that go bad, or give pain meds while you're stuck in a room, etc. And I remember them fondly when they have a bad night.

While I sincerely feel (ignorantly) that I treat all patients and co-workers equally, it sideswipes me when an aide complains that I don't help. It equally sidewipes me when I enter a pt. room first time that night and they exclaim, "Oh! "bbqchick", I am so glad you are back! You're the only nurse who seems to really care and are not here just for the job!" I know we have other caring nurses. I wonder if I am sacrificing my organizational goals for overdoing for pt's and letting aides walk on me? And, more freq I get my charting done by shift end now.

But, it seems like more nights than others now, we have too high of acuity which doesn't matter when calls come for a bed. The other night, I was at the end of my coping ability, fully frustrated told the caller that I had to refuse the patient r/t understaffing. Supervisor called in microminute and loudly proclaimed that I could not refuse the patient and we were not understaffed. It's true that our nurse patient ratio agreed with the number shuffle but our 15 patients with three nurses (one new grad still on orientation) and one aide on a step-down unit felt like twice as many patients, the nurse aide started bawling at least once that night. One patient should have been in ICU- septic, cdiff, TPN, DM, decub and huge man, total care on a mask with prn suction.

I don't see how nurses get everything done in time and can sit and gossip and read mags.

I know I'm a dumb cluck and also can't stand to hear a light go off and let it ring. Oh well...I self-speak that the running is keeping my leg blood circulating and maybe burning calories? And I try to smile, smile, smile. What a sucker.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

bbqchick You sound like someone I know, your problems are shared by about a zillion other new grads (and old grads). Hang in there.

[JennieBSN]

Bbqchick, just READING your post made me tired. I know how you feel, my dear....sometimes you just want to SCREAM.

Fortunately, most of the folks I work with are really hard workers and compassionate nurses, and we work V-E-R-Y well together. However, tonight was the 2nd night in a row I came home way late because I stayed over to help out the next shift. Last night we had all 'strong' nurses, it was just that census was booming and we had a lot of wild patients (one standing in the middle of her bed screaming, threatening to push on her only 7cm dilated cervix...but that is another thread entirely...). Tonight, it wasn't as busy, but we had 2 'weak' nurses, so it FELT like we were only 1/2 staffed. I called my husband and told him I was coming home late...again. Then limped into my patient's room (cartilage in my hip is dislodged or something....don't understand my own dx...and is pinched between the head of the femur and my hip socket...again, that is another post entirely) to start her IV and load her up with mag to stop her flaming preterm labor.

Just wanted you to know, you're not alone, sista!! We feel your pain!!! I'll now have a ceremonial glass of wine in your honor.... Hang in there...it DOES get better.