Miserable nurses

Nurses General Nursing

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This is more a vent, because i had a horrible day at the hospital today. As a nursing student I was assigned to one of the nurses at DEU facility. At 7am I introduced myself and let her know I will be working with her. She looked at me, didn't say anything and left. I literally ran after her. She was getting a report when the patient started complaining how everyone gives her different diagnosis and she can't trust anyone. As soon as we stepped outside of the room (night shift nurse, my nurse and I), PCT informed the nurse that patient wants to talk to the head of the hospital. Charged nurse told my nurse to just talk to the patient again and try to calm her. At the same time, the night nurse told me to stay outside of the room while they are talking inside (so that patient doesn't get even more agitated).

I was standing outside of the room when my nurse open the door and screamed at the top of her lungs "why are you just standing there, my patient tripped and almost fell, what's wrong with you. You should help me."

I made sure patient was ok (she didn't fall, she tripped as she was walking and talking to the nurse) and told my clinical instructor to assign me to another nurse. She said "yeah, we had the problem with this nurse before" and she reassigned me.

Towards the end of my shift, I overheard charge nurse talking to the mean nurse. She informed her that medical director complained that she never smile or talk. I was thinking "ok, but screaming on top of her lungs in front of the patient and patient's family at 7am is ok?" I was just buffled that no one cared, it seems like some nurses can act any way they want and professionalism is something some nurses forgot and they still can get away with it.

Ok, thank you all for your replies. I am going to give you my opinion and some update one more time then I am off to study. First of all, I don't really care if she gets fired or not. This job seems like enough punishment already and I couldn't care less about her anyway. Second, what pissed me off yesterday, is that you (some of the nurses) ganged up and deliberately refused to hear what I was saying and jumped to the conclusion that she was simply having a bad day or personal/family problems or even was busy (which is not true).

First, as some of you realized, this is not the first time that she was nasty. She got reported before, the student had to be reassigned (that was last term). Second, today, i found out that during the past few weeks she had other students from my class and was nasty to them, mostly ignoring them AND she gave everyone (5-6 people) the highest evaluation grade 2 (1 being incompetent, 5- extraordinary). other nurses usually gives us between 3 and 5. Don't tell me she is so good and just has high standards.

Second, I said the charge nurse is the friendliest person ever and while she told the mean nurse what the medical director said, she said it in a nice way, soft voice in a secluded area where she thought no one can hear. You all (some of you) jumped to a conclusion that charge nurse was unprofessional, no one made an excuse that maybe she tried to find an empty room but this floor is simply too busy. I actually was in that secluded area myself to try to calm down after insulin mistake.

Most importantly, I said medical director said she doesn't smile and talk to the staff meaning she is not friendly and doesn't communicate well with others. You all jumped that it is sexist to tell someone to smile, completely ignoring "not talking to other." SHE is the one who makes the hospital to be a hostile environment. It is not about smiling, it is about having condescending, unfriendly, unapproachable attitude.

And finally, you justify her actions by saying she probably has personal problems. Did it ever occur to you that those on the receiving end (students) have a family member dying from cancer or an abusive husband at home and now, on top of everything they are being psychologically and verbally abused by a nurse. We, nursing students and other people, who are not nurses, we are not punching bags, we are human too, we also have family members dying, we also have abusive husbands/boyfriends, bosses and even jobs that are more important or more stressful than yours, you angelic nurses.

Oh, and she doesn't like having students.... really??? let's just get rid of students and then I wish your family member is treated by a new nurse who never had any experience beyond the classroom.

My classmates think that she is trying to get fired and that is the reason she is nasty. They probably can understand that someone can be such a scum. When I approached her to indroduce myself, she wasn't busy, she was sitting in a chair trying to see what room numbers she got. I said my name is so and so, I will be with you today. She stared at me for 5 seconds, with this resentful look on her face, got up and walked away.

All in all, I don't care what will happen with her. Some of you once again confirmed that nursing is a profession where bullying is popular. Also, some nurses are very entitled because "oh, we nurses have such a stressful, hard and important job and that's why we are allowed to occasionally use others as punching bag

No other profession as ours."

I love patient care, but I, hopefully, won't be a part of this non-sense for more than few months before I move on to something better and more civilized.

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Oh, and she doesn't like having students.... really??? let's just get rid of students and then I wish your family member is treated by a new nurse who never had any experience beyond the classroom.

I and a lot of other posters have attempted to give you sincere and hopefully helpful advice. I know I was actually trying to help you and I'm convinced others were doing the same. Have you even attempted to look objectively at the replies you've received? It seems to me at this point you are only trying to pick a fight. I think the above response is uncalled for and both vicious and childish.

All in all, I don't care what will happen with her. Some of you once again confirmed that nursing is a profession where bullying is popular. Also, some nurses are very entitled because "oh, we nurses have such a stressful, hard and important job and that's why we are allowed to occasionally use others as punching bag

No other profession as ours."

You surely are trying to pick a fight :) I'm immune ;)

(As a side note, I loathe genuine bullies and I've stood up to them in real life on more than one occasion. I will defend a coworker or student or physician or anyone who I think is unfairly or poorly treated. But really OP, advice that isn't welcome doesn't necessarily amount to bullying. In fact it seldom does).

I love patient care, but I, hopefully, won't be a part of this non-sense for more than few months before I move on to something better and more civilized.

That doesn't make any sense. Why spend even another single day of your time studying or a single tuition dollar if that is how you feel about nursing? What's the point?

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Sorry, I said my last post, therefore won't be replying anymore nor pick up a fight. I don't like that nursing culture (though most of the nurses are nice, others just ruin it for everyone).

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Attibuting this nurse's behavior due to a bad is why we have bullying in nursing, as we condone this behavior. Stop making excuses to why this nurse treated this student like crap. Every single one of you have been in the place of the student once, yet act as if you have forgotten this. Ignoring a student is passive aggressive behavior. Screaming at the student is inappropriate. Perhaps the "not smiling reprimand" is a key sign to a major potential problem; burn out is more than likely occurring, but that does not mean it is okay to behave like this.

The nurse lost her temper and took it out on the OP one time that is not bullying. What she did was wrong, but she is human and I think we all know how stressful nursing can be and dealing with a difficult, unhappy complaining patient doesn't help matters. I think the majority of us have empathy for the nurse who had an unprofessional outburst because we can relate to feeling stressed and overwhelmed. No one is condoning her behavior. Obviously if this is a pattern than she needs to get some help whether therapy and or meds.

As to we all have experienced this as a student I have to say no I did not. I had a wonderful, calm, kind clinical instructor and I could see the nurses I worked with were very busy. I have been a victim of a bully someone who targets you personally, trying to drive you away and turn everyone against you. This is not what happened to the OP.

Bad behavior is rampant in nursing, but mostly from the patients and their family members toward staff. Sometimes due to altered mental status and dementia other times due to psyche issues or just mean, nasty people. Regardless you still have to find a way to work and deal with it, you can't just refuse to take care of a patient. I'd say the majority of responses on here are trying to point out this reality to help the OP reframe what happened, let it go and be prepared for what nursing entails, not to give the offending nurse a free pass.

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Sorry to sound callus, but get used to it. Nursing is a back-biting profession. There's always someone around ready to throw you under the bus to save themselves... And it only gets worse the longer you're in it. My favorite was "grow thicker skin"...

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Second, I said the charge nurse is the friendliest person ever and while she told the mean nurse what the medical director said, she said it in a nice way, soft voice in a secluded area where she thought no one can hear. You all (some of you) jumped to a conclusion that charge nurse was unprofessional, no one made an excuse that maybe she tried to find an empty room but this floor is simply too busy.

Of all the silliness from this particular post, for some reason, this part above really irked me. If someone in a supervisory role is reprimanding someone--the supervisor needs to be 100% certain that they are in a private place, and no other person can hear it...no matter what...period. No one jumped to some strange conclusion--it is entirely a fact that this was unprofessional on the part of the charge nurse. But I guess it's OK, since this gave you a small bit of satisfaction. :down:

Yes, it was inappropriate for the nurse to have a bad attitude with you, but being reprimanded (for not smiling enough, of all things) is just as uncivil as everything else you describe.

Good luck with your studying.

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No excuse for the "preceptor". The facility and your instructor KNEW she should not be with a student.

Good that you could stick up for yourself. Sorry you had to go through that.

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
This job seems like enough punishment already and I couldn't care less about her anyway. Second, what pissed me off yesterday, is that you (some of the nurses) ganged up and deliberately refused to hear what I was saying

We heard what you were saying, you didnt like what we had to say

and jumped to the conclusion that she was simply having a bad day or personal/family problems or even was busy (which is not true).
What I suggested was that you develop a little compassion for other people. Because without compassion a nurse becomes a horrible excuse for human being that no one wants to work with

Oh, and she doesn't like having students.... really??? let's just get rid of students and then I wish your family member is treated by a new nurse who never had any experience beyond the classroom.

Calm your farm.

All in all, I don't care what will happen with her. "
If you cant have compassion for your fellow nurses how could I ever trust that you would have compassion for your patients.

What will you do when you have a patient who refuses to talk to you? Or worse who only talks in cuss and whose every word out of their mouth is a swear word and who is non compliant with everything you propose?

People are dicks, that doesnt excuse bad behaviour. Like I said though, the only persons feelings, thoughts and behaviours we have any control over is our own. What the nurse did to you was crap. How you've run off afterwards isnt any better.

I love patient care, but I, hopefully, won't be a part of this non-sense for more than few months before I move on to something better and more civilized.

If you dont learn to nicely with others now, it wont matter what area of nursing you move to, you will always continue to have issues

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Op. My two cents is that you are NOT in the wrong to feel the way you felt. Regardless of someone having a bad day, it is NOT ok to treat a co-worker that way. And yes, you were a co-worker on many levels. Generally nurses will get asked if they want students and/or they get paid more to have a student. On top of that , she should have felt blessed that she had an extra pair of hands, eyes, ears, etc following her around to help her out with the difficult patient. I have seen it many times, and experienced it myself as a nursing student. And guess what...I took on students once i was able to and I NEVER treated them like that. Disgusting and that nurse should be ashamed of herself and her lack of self control and professionalism. Yes it is ok to have a bad day, but its really crappy when THEIR bad day turns into everyone else's bad day too. Misery loves company

No one is saying this nurse's behaviour was okay. It wasn't. It's very apparent that this nurse, herself was not okay. If I had to guess what was going on, I'd bet she's been having problems for some time and management blew off everyone's concerns. Hopefully it's all been brought to a head though it is unfortunate OP had to be there for the big blowout.

As far as being blessed to have extra eyes, hands, etc., that is just an unrealistic perception. Most often a student is like having another patient to look after. If they're still at the point of everything being about them, then I can guarantee you they're not yet ready to be a blessing to you.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
I recall an incident that happened as a student.

I had a not nice experience with a nurse in my second year who was horrible. The only consolation I had was that I observed this nurse being horrible to pretty much anyone, nurses, doctors etc so it wasnt me especially. She told me she didn't think I had what it took to be a registered nurse because I was lacking in the basics.

(I had to bite my tounge to not say "if being a nurse means being a mean nasty cow like you, then you are quite right I dont have what it takes)

Instead looking it an an opportunity to learn from the situation I said out loud "Can you give me an idea of what you think I need to improve on?"

The stunned look on face was priceless. It was a great learning opportunity for me. I learned that day when people are coming at me with contructive feedback it is always specific eg "Tenebrae, I want you to go home and research this procedure, and the potential side effects" when feedback comes from a different motivation such as it was from this nurse the feedback is always very vagues. This nurse said "oh just go and learn the basics, the nursing basics"

We all know how much information is contained within the 'nursing basics"

This is right on. The best way to deal with any criticism is to ask for more information. If the criticism is well-intended, the information will be useful. If someone is just power-tripping or being nasty, the request for specifics usually shuts them up.

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(flounce) BINGO!

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

[quote=FutureNurse0201

My classmates think that she is trying to get fired and that is the reason she is nasty. They probably can understand that someone can be such a scum. When I approached her to indroduce myself, she wasn't busy, she was sitting in a chair trying to see what room numbers she got. I said my name is so and so, I will be with you today. She stared at me for 5 seconds, with this resentful look on her face, got up and walked away.

.

Let's take you at your word that she is a poor nurse, a terrible preceptor and a lousy human being altogether. You're right; she shouldn't be there taking care of patients and precepting students. But she didn't start a thread on this website; you did.

So we're telling you what we would like to have known when we were in your shoes. We have learned not to personalize someone else's behaviour and expect things to be fair. We have learned when to stand up for ourselves and when to blow things off. You did the right thing by going to your instructor and requesting another preceptor.

You're doing the wrong thing by continuing to personalize this and ruminate on it. This is not the last time you will be on the receiving end of blatant unfairness. You dodged a bullet by getting another preceptor so you know you won't be given a rating of "2" no matter how hard you work. Madam Meltdown no longer has the power to cause you problems.

Hopefully the powers-that- be finally step up and address this person who's giving the rest of us a bad name. However, be warned that employers (especially hospitals) are notoriously slow to address personnel problems and tend to let things fester until they blow.

No, you should not have been subject to that kind of behaviour. And the person you care for tomorrow should not have to have cancer or whatever they're dealing with. Dust yourself off. You're learning and growing.

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