Is there ANY reason for Experienced nurses to be Rude to New Nurses??

Nurses General Nursing

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I am a new nurse, graduated in September, passed board November 30th and started Orienting December 31st. I just finished my 7th week and until now have been very lucky as far as having most of the nurses I work with be very supportive and nice. I work on a very busy 32 bed Med-Surg/Ortho floor and have worked on this same floor for 3 years before becoming a nurse. I should also mention that I am an LVN, not an RN. Anyways, there is a nurse on Night shift, who has been working as a nurse about a year now. She is much younger than I am. I am 40. Friday was my second day with 5 patients on my own, with my preceptor watching over me. I had my hardest/busiest day yet this past Friday. I had 5 patients. One was a partial gastrectomy patient, one was a lap chole, one was a paraplegic with a flap closure for a decubitus, one was a total knee and the other a lumbar lami. So I had a good group. My patient with the gastrectomy was very busy. She was getting meds every few hours, she was on TPN and Lipids. Neither of which I have had to deal with yet. The patient with the knee replacement was going home, so was the Lami patient. I had critical lab values called to me, Another first. This day was FULL of first time things for me. I also received a PACU patient who had a bulging to the right side of his incision which the PACU nurse had said gotten bigger since he was in PACU. The Dr ordered a STAT MRI so I also had to do my first consent for MRI and all the paperwork. Then my gastrectomy patient got orders for remicade because of her crohns. So Even though I can't hang that I had to do all the pre-paperwork. Weigh her, do the questionnaire etc. My preceptor hung and monitored it because the rate needed to be increased every 15 mins. I also had 2 patients who needed accu checks. One patient required coverage twice. This patient also had a foley which was putting out bloody urine and the report I got from the night nurse was that the output wasn't good enough. Well I made him my priority at the beginning of the day and it just lasted till shift change. Long story short with him was that we scanned him because he was complaining and there was 253 mls of urine in his bladder. Got orders to flush, couldn't flush so we got orders to pull the foley out, wait an hour to see if he could void, he did, but it was just barely under 100. Scanned him again, 507. Got a coude catheter and put it in and a clot came through the tube, bloody urine and cloudy urine. BTW, the old cath had a clot in the tip when I removed it.

Well I guess my first mistake was that when I wrote the orders in the chart to flush, I wrote it a page back. My preceptor noticed and started writing it on the right page, but crossed it out when she saw my order. Ok the next morning when I came in, the night nurse YELLED at me that she had to call the Dr for an order to flush the catheter because there wasn't one written. I found my order and she still kept on going. I was apologizing profusely. But she would NOT let up. She just kept going on and on and on, and all the other nurses there said Oh she DID write the order! Then on her way out she says very rudely and loudly in passing by "OH and the Protonix (iv push) wasn't given and neither were the dulcolax suppositories" and she just walked away. My preceptor then jumped in. #1, I KNEW about the protonix and asked my preceptor to give it, and she said we could leave it for nights because she was doing the remicade which would be much more time consuming for this nurse to deal with at shift change since it needed to be increased every 15 mins. The protonix was due at 7PM. she still wouldn't let up and then stormed out and said "I DON'T CARE DON'T MAKE EXCUSES" OMG, I was mortified and humiliated! Yes, I am new, Yes I wrote the order in the wrong spot, but it was an empty spot. I guess I didn't think to move it up. I was having a bad day! As for the dulcolax, it was not in the emar before i left and wasn't put into the emar until 5AM the next morning. I have no clue why, the other meds that were there on the same order were put in and given at 6:30PM by me. So if all I did was write an order in the wrong place, well considering my day I am pretty ok with that.

My whole point of this is WHY do experienced nurses feel it's just ok to be RUDE. I mean, I can accept constructive criticism, but she was being rude, she was walking around just saying it in the middle of the station at shift change with ALL day and night shift nurses present. I can understand if she says to me hey, you wrote an order in the wrong spot, or she could have even called me at home, but she was just flat our RUDE. She is a NEW nurse her self. (1 year old) But I felt she handled it poorly.

Believe me I am humbled, I don't presume to know everything, I know where I came from. I am just really hurt. This nurse and I worked side by side for YEARS as CNA's before she became a nurse and it seems as though it went straight to her head. No one is perfect.

I know I can handle my job. I know I love my job and I know I still have a lot to learn, but I feel there is NO reason for people to be rude to new nurses, to reduce us to tears. Being rude won't help me learn, it has only made me not like this person very much!

Oh and by the way, this day that was very hectic for me, I was assigned a student nurse which only put more pressure on me. I don't feel ready to have a student with me, I am still new myself, but I can't help who the instructor assigns. I am not saying that in a bad way, but I want students to have someone who is REALLY good at what they do.

Oh well, sorry oto whine, but I am very hurt by this incident

Specializes in ICU/CCU, CVICU, Trauma.
i'm a 33 year rn.

there are mean people in this world.

you are not a mean person (i can tell)

your co-worker apparently was born with her knickers in a knot.

you need to perfect that most important nursing tool:

the look.

the look doesn't frown, smile,speak. it is just the look.

when this co-worker makes an error do not judge, laugh or criticise. just the look. if she asks for help give it. then give the look and go about the business of being a quality nurse.

:yeahthat: i love "the look". it accomplishes so much more!

Specializes in Accepted...Master's Entry Program, 2008!.

I agree with all the posters that say there is never a reason to be rude. There isn't. Being courteous costs you nothing.

Specializes in ICU's,TELE,MED- SURG.

This is typical of staff. You saw a truly burned out Nurse and what you do with this is let them explode, ventilate but walk away from them. Never get into any verbal confrontation. You report this behavior as being unsafe and this person being unstable.

I've been a Nurse for 28 years. I never have yelled or belittled anyone. I tend to enjoy showing, teaching sharing and being very open to new opinions. Just because you're new doesn't mean you don't have bright ideas and can show a better way of doing this kind of work better and safer.

You're learning and that's what count but this person sounds to me like they need some counseling or a good shrink.

Specializes in rehab, antepartum, med-surg, cardiac.

The person that attacked you was a relatively new nurse, not an experienced one. It seems to me that your coworkers were defending you to this extremely rude person, if I read your post correctly. She had no right to attack you verbally in front of all the other nurses; if she had a issue, she could have asked you to talk with her in private. She was unprofessional in her conduct. :nono: I'm glad to see that you didn't lose it and respond to her in kind. :)

Sounds like you had a lot on your plate and handled it very well. Keep up the good work.

TEEHEE! Hey, I never thought of it that way! It never even crossed my mind that if the suppository was such a huge deal, why did she wait till shift change to give it! Hmmmmm,

Once again, thank you for making me feel better

The best time to give a suppository is early in the morning so the pt can poop during the day. People don't poop at night usually. When I worked LTC, the traditional time was to give suppositories at 6:30 AM. Similar to Lasix, you don't want pts peeing and pooping at night, it disturbs their sleep.

LOL, Well she gave it to him at 6:50 the next morning and I joked with my preceptor that she gave it then because she thought I was going to have him, but my preceptor was made charge nurse and I had different patients!

Thanks for making me feel better :-)

That's just wrong! And ...she did do it purposely because she thought you were having this patient!! You know I know some nurses...some who have been nurses for over 25 years......and they have even mentioned this to me to watch out for from nurses who are playing games like this.........and it's sad because it's the patient they are using as their little gamepiece. And to give a suppository or enema right before shift change is just dirty (no pun intended) game playing. Why would you wake a patient to give a suppository at 630 am?????? Why not give it later in the morning??? It doesn't take hours to work for pete's sake!

I would call her on it ...absolutely! And you can do it in a very nonchalant way !!! Good Luck!

This is called lateral violence, there is a lot of new nursing literature about how to deal with it- and it is unacceptable!!!! nurses who engage in this behavior are way out of line.

I would just go back to the person -1 time only and say "I want to talk about a situation with you" calm and nonthreatening, then let it go- my motto is- how can someone know they need to change if we don't give them feedback?

Good luck, hard situation

Lab comes in at my hospital before 6 and wakes us the pt. I personally see nothing wrong with her waiting until shift change when the pt will soon be gotten up for breakfast. If I were a pt I would not like to be given a suppository at bedtime.

The problem with the nurse was her rude manner of communicating, not the fact that she waited to 6:50 AM to give a suppository. That's good nursing judgement in my opinion.

The fact of the matter is not anything other than that nurse gave a suppository at shift change so that the oncoming nurse had a mess to clean up because the nurse wanted to play games (the rude one) ....I can tell you this happens alot, and any good nurse would not do this at change of shift....that's just a "crappy" thing to do...no pun intended.

That nurse has a hair across her butt and maybe her life is so miserable & out of control that this was one thing she could control.

She needs to be told to put a rubber band around her head & snap out of it...lol

Once again, I totally disagree. There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a suppository before the the day shift arrives. Yes, I agree, this nurse is out of line in how she communicates, but she gave the suppository at the proper time.

I have had nurses discuss suppositories needed at shift change. There should be communication regarding the plan. For instance she should have mentioned it in report, saying "I wanted to wait until AM for the suppository so the pt can sleep". It should be communicated to the next shift. Or, if the day nurse had communicated properly at shift change, then the night nurse could have said "Oh, I'll give it in the morning, don't worry about it", or the day nurse could have said "Will you give it in the morning, or do you want me to do it?" Communication is the key, not trying to blame one another. Communicate and come up with a plan. I personally would never consider a suppository given to a pt at 6:50 as a way to shift work to me. I would thank the nurse for having given it.

Don't let rude nurses run you off. Just do your job, and if you can force yourself, smile and nod at them. Be good to your patients, make sure you chart and document well, maintain good relationships with the docs, protect yourself.

I let some nurses run me off my first job, and I wish I hadn't. I could have learned a lot, and I loved hospital nursing.

Fate or the Old H.P. have put me in a different place entirely, and I'm glad for it, but I wish I could have had a year on that tele floor.

Hang in there!

Once again, I totally disagree. There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a suppository before the the day shift arrives. Yes, I agree, this nurse is out of line in how she communicates, but she gave the suppository at the proper time.

I have had nurses discuss suppositories needed at shift change. There should be communication regarding the plan. For instance she should have mentioned it in report, saying "I wanted to wait until AM for the suppository so the pt can sleep". It should be communicated to the next shift. Or, if the day nurse had communicated properly at shift change, then the night nurse could have said "Oh, I'll give it in the morning, don't worry about it", or the day nurse could have said "Will you give it in the morning, or do you want me to do it?" Communication is the key, not trying to blame one another. Communicate and come up with a plan. I personally would never consider a suppository given to a pt at 6:50 as a way to shift work to me. I would thank the nurse for having given it.

Sorry, but I think you are seeing it with blinders on as in doing a favor by giving it for the other nurse....., not the big picture as in after it's given........ I have a nurse at my house right now, a very good friend of mine...who works in LTC with patients who routinely get bowel regimens like this done, has been a nurse for 30+ years, and she says this is a dirty thing to do...she has seen it herself time & time again, & has had it done to her as well as others she works with from the types of people who are just plain miserable & yes lazy as well......they can't be bothered and don't want to clean up a mess so they give it with the mindset of someone else will clean it up....

If the oncoming nurse wants to give the suppository then fine...or if it was discussed beforehand & the oncoming nurse didn't mind that's one thing..... I personally would be pretty disgusted & lose all respect for that other nurse, unless I had discussed it with the her prior to it being given right before shift change.........if they both agreed that it was ok then that's one thing...but she obviously is vindictive.......& does it in a suttle sneaky way....:idea: aas Forreest Gump said..." That's all I got to say about that";)

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