This person outranks me?!

Nurses General Nursing

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Since I started working in health care as a CNA nearly six years ago, I've had many experiences that have left me wondering how some people get into the positions they hold. I was not a youngin when I started this, I was nearly 20 years on from earning a bachelor's degree in political science and had spent more than a decade raising children at home before I began my health care career. I've worked enough to know that promoting people into leadership who shouldn't be there is not unique to health care by any means.

Lately I've a had a few interactions with a RN coworker that leave me again thinking, "How in the world does this person outrank me?"

#1 He's collecting an induced sputum sample in clinic. (I work in a public health clinic dedicated to TB testing, detection, treatment, and prevention.) He comes to me with the sputum sample tube, thankfully in a sealed specimen bag, holds it up, and says, "She vomited a little food when she coughed. Can we still use this sample?"

#2 He comes to me and says that the biohazard trash near the sputum collection rooms is full, and then asks what he should do. He's worked in this building longer than I have and knows exactly where the biohazard room is.

#3 During a case study presentation in a clinical staff meeting, in which the patient has been described as being 50 years old and 17 weeks pregnant via IVF, he asked what IVF stands for.

I just.......really?! This guy has, when you count RN prereqs I haven't taken yet, two more years of education than I do. He makes at least ten dollars more an hour than I do based on that fact. It's getting to the point where it takes all I have not to be extremely rude when he asks me these stupid questions (yes, there is such a thing).

Share your best "I can't believe s/he outranks me" stories!

Specializes in Psychiatric and Mental Health NP (PMHNP).

He is an RN and you are not. He went to school, earned a degree, and passed the NCLEX. You did not. RNs outrank CNAs. If you want to be his peer, then go to school and get an RN.

Specializes in ER.

Sometimes abbreviations are specialty-specific and if you haven't worked in that specialty, you might be clueless. While I expect that some/most nurses know what for example ASA, MAP, CVP, PSVT, PEEP, FRC, RBBB and TRALI mean, I would guess most outside of my specialty don't have a clue what I mean if I were to chart TMJ (dysfunction) or SLV.

Can we? :)

I got 7/10!

I would have guessed that the sputum would not be acceptable because of the acidity of stomach contents killing anything that had come up in the sputum. So nothing would grow, but it could still be infected.

Specializes in Gerontology.

True story.

I am checking in my assignment. I see for 1 pt CHG Vitals q shift. I think and I think and I think. What the heck are CHG vitals? I have 32 years experience. I finally ask the day charge nurse (I was working evenings) , she less experience than me. I say "what are CHG vitals?"

She looks at me and says " I have no idea"

So together, we look,thru the orders,

The order? Change vitals to q shift! Duh!

But there I was a very experienced nurses, asking a stupid question, but ask it I did.

So the moral of my story is that sometimes you just have to ask the stupid question!

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I've been a nurse 14 years and I still ask questions that some would think are

stupid. There's a TON of things I still don't know. A TON.

I would have asked about the sputum. Definitely.

Being a good nurse doesn't mean knowing everything. On the flip,

there are nurses who know a lot, who just aren't good at taking

care of people.

Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

I had to ask a CNA yesterday where to put the lab label on a urine tube. It doesn't make me dumb for not knowing. Our lab is picky about where the label goes on certain tests my CNAs are so wonderful I've never had to label the urine tubes before. It's pretty crappy to think that some people might think me an idiot for not k owing something so "simple".

OP, get over yourself. He asked a few questions that you found dumb. But no patient harm was done and these are not questions that depict what kind of nurse he is in my mind.

While I don't agree that the OP provided examples of it, I do agree that there is such thing as a stupid question...

Why? Please do be specific and don't cut your reply short because I really don't understand how you determine a question to be stupid or not.

True story.

I am checking in my assignment. I see for 1 pt CHG Vitals q shift. I think and I think and I think. What the heck are CHG vitals? I have 32 years experience. I finally ask the day charge nurse (I was working evenings) , she less experience than me. I say "what are CHG vitals?"

She looks at me and says " I have no idea"

So together, we look,thru the orders,

The order? Change vitals to q shift! Duh!

But there I was a very experienced nurses, asking a stupid question, but ask it I did.

So the moral of my story is that sometimes you just have to ask the stupid question!

Why do you say your question was stupid? Whoever wrote the order must have used an unauthorized abbreviation. And left out "to".

Specializes in hospice, LTC, public health, occupational health.
He is an RN and you are not. He went to school, earned a degree, and passed the NCLEX. You did not. RNs outrank CNAs. If you want to be his peer, then go to school and get an RN.

I am not a CNA. Reading comprehension seems to be an issue in this thread.

Anyway.....I guess you had to be there. Since this thread has become all about attacking me, I hope it dies soon. And as to the expressed concern for my workplace attitude, I'm well-liked and have been told many times that I'm a good teammate by people who have no motivation or investment in telling me things that aren't true. I answered this nurse's questions politely at work, as is required of professionals. However, we all have thoughts that cross our minds privately and this board is advertised as a safe place to share those.

Clearly, that's not entirely true. So beat this piñata further if it pleases you, but I'm done participating.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Sorry the thread didn't turn out the way you had hoped. Better luck next time!

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
I am not a CNA. Reading comprehension seems to be an issue in this thread.

Anyway.....I guess you had to be there. Since this thread has become all about attacking me, I hope it dies soon. And as to the expressed concern for my workplace attitude, I'm well-liked and have been told many times that I'm a good teammate by people who have no motivation or investment in telling me things that aren't true. I answered this nurse's questions politely at work, as is required of professionals. However, we all have thoughts that cross our minds privately and this board is advertised as a safe place to share those.

Clearly, that's not entirely true. So beat this piñata further if it pleases you, but I'm done participating.

When I first read your original post, I had a difficult time knowing how to respond.

I mean, we do have fun here... we really do. The problem I guess is that the

examples that you provided weren't found by the general population of this board

to be particularly outrageous; they seemed like kinda typical questions that

someone at work might ask another person. You found them to be

ridiculous questions and made that obvious in your post. Readers of this

board took exception to that because... they are questions that a lot

of us could see ourselves asking!

Now maybe if your examples were just a BIT more outrageous, "out

there", then maybe you would have gotten different responses.

For example... if your coworker had walked up to you with

a speci cup full of pee and asked "is this stool sample acceptable"?

Or, if they walked up to you with a bedpan in hand and asked,

"what is this and what am I supposed to do with it"?

Like klone, I'm sorry it didn't go the way you wanted it to!

I've tried starting "share your experiences" threads myself,

only to have them bomb.

Let's use a little critical thinking here. If you need a sample of pulmonary sputum for testing, and it now includes gastric contents, is that a valid sample?

I am so good at critical thinking skills, that I would call the lab and ask them.

It would be better than asking a co-worker that would judge me for asking a good question.

Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

TO THIS DAY I can never remember the right way a bed pan goes. I was a CNA at 17 and have been a nurse for 10 years. Every single time I have to ask the right way to do it. For some reason my brain just won't process it. It's embarrassing. My aides know that it is my weakness. So if I am the one placing the bed pan they will go ahead and say "Other way Poodles!" But they never make me feel stupid. The questions the nurse was asking you, weren't anything you should be making him feel bad for.

My now sister-in-law was in the CNA class with me in high school. For our certification test, I got blood pressure, she got bed pan. She failed and quit nursing all together. I thank my lucky stars I didn't get bed pan that day!

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