Young Eating Unit Secretaries

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

At my current assignment I've noticed that both the unit secretaries are territorial, bossy, cranky, and often very testy when someone asks where something is. I was talking to a gal who just went to days, and she was commenting on how mean the unit secretary is. I responded that I think many, if not most unit secretaries are like that, that she shouldn't take it personally.

What do you think, do they learn this in unit secretary school?:clown:

Specializes in Trauma/ED.

There does seem to be a lot of cranky secretaries...I wonder if it is the stressful job with very little pay or a common character attribute that is drawn to the job.

I always say the worst job in our dept. is secretary--I wouldn't want to do it. I do have to set limits with some of ours though...you do your job the nurses will do theirs :)

Lol....I think the same thing can be said about many nurses as well:chuckle. I'm a unit secretary and will be starting nursing school in the fall. In my unit some of the secretaries act as you describe, while at the same time some of the nurses do as well. I know the nurses are under a certain amount of stress from their job, as are the unit secretaries. From what I see...if nurses are nice to the secretaries...the secretaries will be nice and helpful towards the nurses and vice versa. That's definitely how I approach things at my job.

well...

where i work, our secretary is also our scheduler.

a job you couldn't pay me enough to do.

leslie

Specializes in NICU.

Many, if not most, are like that? Thankfully not on my unit!!

Our HUCs are awesome, they do so much for us, and they're great. We have a handful that rotate different days of the week and there is only one that is rather cranky, that we're all scared of lol. But all the others are great and "territorial, bossy, cranky, and often very testy" are defnitely not words I would use to describe them.

Specializes in ICU.

i think our unit clerks are pretty great - sure they can get cranky, but they're overworked, underpaid, just like us rn's;)

Specializes in ICU.

i've only run into 1 secretary that oversteps her bounds in the 30 years i've been doing this. the great secretaries i've been priveledged to work with were the glue of the unit. they always had the big picture of what was going on. it behooves the nurses to make friends with them and respect their positions. they can make or break the day.....be nice!:up:

Specializes in Hospice, Critical Care.

I have known some very nasty unit clerks. Some very nice ones too. Oddly enough, the nasty ones I knew were *excellent* at what they did.

I'm trying to remember a quote about those with little power using and how they use it....if anyone knows the quote I'm trying to remember, I'd be grateful!

Specializes in MICU.

control - control - control

everyone needs a little (or a lot) of control

At my current assignment I've noticed that both the unit secretaries are territorial, bossy, cranky, and often very testy when someone asks where something is. I was talking to a gal who just went to days, and she was commenting on how mean the unit secretary is. I responded that I think many, if not most unit secretaries are like that, that she shouldn't take it personally.

What do you think, do they learn this in unit secretary school?:clown:

I personally think that the hospital should crack down on that.

Whether it's a unit secretary or front end staff at a physician's office...these people are the #1 reason why I change physicians. I'll never forget calling one once to cancel an appointment and her getting really snippy with me that she "didn't have time" to take down just my name to cancel my appointment. I told her that I wasn't going to call back and she said, "If you don't call back this afternoon, we are not going to cancel your appointment and you'll be charged for it." I said, "Do whatever you want and I'll take it up with the physician."

I got her name, I got the bill and I sent that plus a letter to the doctor's HOUSE (not her office). Needless to say, that secretary was no longer working there.

I would like to say these are isolated incidents, but they are not.

We have two US's on our floor...one, is an idiot. She is 27 and acts like she is 14...and has a major attitude problem. Calls herself the "pink princess", even brought a stupid crown one day to wear on her head during a shift...very, very unprofessional and childish.

The other one is only 19 years old, and I don't know what we would do without her. She is the nicest person you'll ever meet and works very, very hard every day to learn her job better...she is also a single mother and NEEDS her job....and has only been in it for about 8 months, but knows WAY more than the other one.

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Surgical ICU, Medical ICU.

Ours, for the most part, are pretty miserable people too. Our HUCs do very little. Basically they answer phones and relay messages and give us our orders. They are also the gatekeepers for families (ICU) and try to tell ME when families can come back. If its 8:59 and I tell them that family can come back to see their loved one, I get snapped at because 9:00 is when visiting hours start! We have many people who are often doing very badly and become unstable and the family may only have hours left to be with their family member and these people wanna give me crap! Also if I get a new admission and I work with the pt for the first 3 hours DURING visiting hours and it becomes 'quiet time' then they give me crap for wanting to let the family visit for a few minutes since they waited 3 HOURS! Sometimes they will flat out just tell me no, even when I give my rationale so I end up doing it myself. Families comment on how nasty they are when they call for an update or when they page people over the intercom system. Many have yelled at me IN FRONT of families. I've told management but it really doesnt do a dang thing. They are usually just surfing the net or making personal phone calls. Many times they are on THEIR phones and just let the work phone ring off the hook. When HUCs call off and we dont have one we really dont notice because we do most of this work ourselves anyway. We do have this one guy who is absolutely wonderful though and its a breath of fresh air when hes working!!! Most of em though make me want to :banghead:

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I agree with those that said they wouldn't want to do a unit secretary's job. Rule #1, imo, be extra nice to the receptionist and secretary, in any business. It just doesn't pay to be on their bad side no matter what you think about them and being kind doesn't cost anything. Well the treats I bring ours cost a little but are well worth it, lol.

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