some cheese with your WHINE?

Nurses General Nursing

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I am sooooooo tired of working as the designated incharge RN on my unit, sure I'm a younger nurse compared to some and have gotten positive feedback from everyone about the job I'm doing

but its just not me

I dont dig all this administrative stuff

I miss my patient care!

I want to leave feeling that I've helped someone specifically and made a difference......

today I walked into work and heared everyone moaning and pizzing about how heavy their teams are!

I mean I know we all complain sometimes but each team complained and really the teams are not that brutal right about now.

I wish that some ppl would start viewing their patients as ppl,and not just part of "a brutal assignment"

people are here cuz they need us, and I know I may be idealistic when I start ranting about how I dont like to hear my co workers complain about patients but it just makes me feel bad that just because a person may need a lot of care that nurses get upset and hostile because of all the potential work they are gonna have to do on their shift.

nursing is never a cake walk.....its a damn difficult career to maintain, and you cannot go into it with the notion that you will not always be working ur butt off and clearly making less money than you deserve.

the desire to nurse comes from within, comes from somewhere that I personally cant explain

but when you hear your fellow nurses complaining about this patient, or this assignment, on a habitual basis, not just because their day is particularly rough, doesnt it make you ponder why they continue to nurse in the first place?!?!?!

Specializes in Med-Surg.

:chuckle :chuckle

You've said it well Susanmary!! There's such a difference between: stating your opinion, expressing your point, standing up for yourself, demanding change....

and whining.

Check your tone, state your facts, leave last weeks complaints out of it.

Work for change, and if it doesn't come, time for change of work!

HapeeWendy, You deserve better. Positive tone does trickle down from the top. Are you being supported? Are you given what you need to take care of your staff? Do you have the management skills you need to make the best for you and your staff?

Just because you are a good nurse does not automaticly mean you have the administrative skills to do the job. Good nurses get "moved up" often without the training needed for management.

I feel for you. Hope you find your way!

Originally posted by hapeewendy

...but when you hear your fellow nurses complaining about this patient, or this assignment, on a habitual basis, not just because their day is particularly rough, doesnt it make you ponder why they continue to nurse in the first place?!?!?!

Brownms46...

I think this is the point Wendy is making, and it has nothing to do with Nurses being over worked and under paid, its about people, who happen to be nurses who make everyone else miserable because they are.

Hello Hapeewendy,

Poor girl... It can be frustrating doing a job that you aren't happy doing! (Be careful though... if you do too good a job at something they'll make you do it forever!) Then to top it off with walking into a conversation where other nurses are complaining about their assignment, (and I bet what really has you upset is that you overheard them using your name in this discussion in some way or they are trying to make you feel responsible for their work load?)

Okay so you don't like the admin stuff but I bet you are pretty good at it!

You miss doing actual hands on patient care and want to leave feeling like you've made a difference...

Now just stop and think for a minute... how many "more people" do you have an effect on by being in charge of the overall care that is delivered rather than at the bedside...

Somedays I leave feeling like I did more for the staff or a family member then for the actual patient! All it takes is a lot of money, (just kidding) okay a big part of it is listening and genuinely caring about what the other person is saying, be they staff, visitors or the patient...

I don't have to have a gown on for you to make a difference in my life!

I might have be wearing scrubs or I might be sitting at my computer, (hey wait a minute... I am at my computer!) Never underestimate the power you have to make a difference in someone's life! You as well as several others on this board, (and by the way where is obnurseheather:) Great posts!) you all make a tremendous difference in how I feel somedays! And yes,somedays it's me throwing the fits and somedays it's me trying to be the peace keeper...

And if you don't like it...why don't you leave???:confused:

happeewendy...I have a lot of respect for you...but this post smacked of indifference.....and sounded like management. For one who says she doesn't like being in the position...you sound like you're in the right place to me IMHO!

If you had bothered to actually read my post before responding you would have seen that I am not talking about being overwhelmed , I am not saying that we dont have the right to complain, infact I have said that we all complain and in many of my posts I myself have complained.

what I AM saying and will continue to say is that people shouldnt complain and gripe about the potential heaviness of their workload.

you cant be overwhelmed by words on a friggin kardex, get out there , meet your damn patients and see how it goes,dont sit around and say things like "well team 2 has 3 independent ppl and no trache and a young person"

etc etc

how can you pre empt being overwhelmed?

by reading the kardex they see that four out of seven pts need to be washed so they start sighing heavily and comparing with the amount of care other teams require.

to me this is lazyness and BullSh*t

its not about complaining.

I never sound like management, I am however a patient advocate and if it means putting down some of my lazyass coworkers in the process sobeit

overwhelmed and underpaid are legit complaints

I dont think it is legit to start pissing and moaning about the care you are gonna hafta provide before you even give it.

and about your comment about why dont I leave, I dont leave because I love what I'm able to do for my patients where I am right now, and in my HUMBLE opinion I shouldnt have to be the one to leave

the lazyasses who dont want to work should be the ones to leave because theyre so caught up in the potential hard work that it doesnt get done anyway!

we are all entitled to our opinion, but I think you glossed over a lot of the points I raised to respond quickly by saying that I dont understand and that my co workers are overwhelmed and that I sounded indifferent.

I mentioned the fact that we are all overworked and underpaid, and that nursing is damn hard work, and that we are all overwhelmed

I understand perfectly

But I am allowed to be annoyed when I see petty and childish complaining and griping on my unit.

interesting side note

for the first time ever I regret posting something here! not because I am ashamed of how I feel , but because the title of the thread I used made some ppl feel like I dont understand things, and because my actual feelings and words made others think poorly of me, reading the post myself I dont see how I'm so darn unsymphathetic or unfeeling , but to each his/her own

dont wanna be a patient needing care anytime soon though

deletion of thread in order perhaps

cheers!

The people that kill me are the ones who ***** and moan to me (a staff nurse who refuses charge due to chronic inadequate staffing) about every little aspect of what they don't like about their jobs but never say BOO to any of the suits. Or when I bring it up at a staff meeting they all sit there doing their best Helen Keller impersonation! I am forever saying "if you do not stand up for yourself, no one else will. If you don't stand up for yourself how on earth will you stand up for your patients?????"

In my humble opinion, you either wear scrubs and take care of patients. Or you call yourself a manager and have lost touch with what it is like to be a nurse. Nurse managers that take care of patients are few and far between. Maybe thats why most of them are so far out of touch. For years I have seen nurses take assignments that I know their managers couldnt handle. I will take care of people and ignore 95% of the political b.s. that comes from most managers. I hope everything works out for you. For as everybody should know we cant afford to continue the hemmorhage of nurses from the proffession.

Sheesh....I don't get this whole "my assignment is heavier than yours" stuff. Where I work, we have usually 8pts each which is bad enough when they are reasonably independent because no matter how independent people are, they still have needs. It is heavy and we work hard but we work as a team of nurses.

If my workload's a bit lighter than someone else's, I'll get right in there and pitch in to help them out. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't do the same for me.

Of course, there's days when we are all flat chat and those are the days when we all drive down to the pub after work and have a good *****. But we get over it and go back to work the next day.

I'm not a suffragette but I believe that if you don't like your situation, then you should change it. I realised about a year ago that if someone told me I'd won the lotto, I would pack my bags and never look at a patient again. When I realised that, I started examining who I was and where I wanted to go in life. Nursing just wasn't going to cut it for me for the rest of my life. So now I'm working part-time and studying in another stream so I can "find a job I like and never work a day in my life".

I really want that and I know that there are other people who would want that too but they are so scared to make the change and go out and get it. Going back to study hasn't been easy but when I look at all I've achieved since I've returned to it, it's been worth all the hard work.

All I can say to anyone else who's considering a change, just go for it and make it happen!!!

Good Morning Hapeewendy!

Hope I didn't say anything to offend you, from reading your posts I think you are Great! I was trying to encourage you because it is a pain to be put in a position you don't neccesarily want to be in. I do understand about lazy people who work under you too but it's on a different level... sometimes the techs where I work slack... I go into a room and the bed is still unmade and it's 2:00 pm or another will report to me a diaper that was found not to have been changed all of the shift before,(they have to initial, date and time them) and yes it is frustrating. On this level I don't even think about write ups as I believe there are more productive ways to take care of a problem and usually it's not the same people who omit something and it's not life threatening potentially but it is extremely annoying. If they are still in the building I will take them with me and help them complete whatever task it was and they really don't like that because if I help then that bed is going to be MADE and not thrown together in 5 seconds! Anyway I have to get ready for work but I was concerned about how you were feeling and yes, people do misinterpret what we, (I) say all the time. It is a good thread because we all do work with people like that and it's good to vent about it and maybe we all just need to think about how we can make a difference with them?

Specializes in Med-Surg.

Hapeewendy, I hope my post wasn't taken as a personal attack. I understand clearly what you meant in your original post.

My point was that even though "they" are doing the whining, the person in charge gets stuck managing their problem and attitude. Chronic whining and moaning drags down the whole unit. ...and who gets stuck with all the problems whining attitudes create????? ....the person in charge.

We are supposed to be working with adults?.. professionals? How can you tell them to grow up, get the job done, make it right, or move on?

I feel whining is an attempt to dump all the responsability for problem solving on someone else. It's different than someone telling you they are beyond coping with their problem and need help.

The charge nurse needs tools, skills, policies, (authority?) to cope with this behavior. That comes from management above the charge nurse level.

Don't give up on us Hapeewendy!

Specializes in ER,Neurology, Endocrinology, Pulmonology.

Happywendee, I think u are right.

I'm not a nurse yet, but some days I have to take care of 18 patients, some days I have the whole unit to take care of, so can relate to stress. On one of those days, a nurse said something inappropriate to me and a patient flipped out, because I had to take his vital signs.

work is tough and that's the way it is. I never complain at work, because everyone has it hard, not just me (patients included).

However, some people NEED to complain in order to function accordingly. for some it releives stress and makes them feel like you hear them, that u understand them.

I think if someone is comfortable enough to come to you and express their concerns/whines, instead of going behind your back and saying " geez, what a b**ch this one is", it shows that u have a good team.

Not every complaint needs to get action from you, just listen and show u care.

jmo

Fedupnurse- i know what you are saying about those who b**** and complain day in and day out, but don't say anything about it to the actual management at staff meetings. staff meetings are the ONE time where our complaints should be heard, and this is when nobody does it. they all just sit there like there is nothing wrong in the world.

i think the only way to make change, if any, is by complaining to the actual management. think about it...what kind of "changing" power do your peers have? absolutely zip. so what is the point to complain to them? that is what i am saying.

personally, i think the people that are justifying whining on this thread, are merely the whiners themselves! i'll duck now...

becky

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