Grrr the nerve of management.

[heartnurse2012]

For our 48 bed unit on the cardiovascular floor we have 2 ATLs. One is a new hire from ICU and the other has been there for 5 or so years. Whenever we will call her Mary vs real name. When Mary is there she does nothing but sit in the ATL office. Last week was the last straw with her. I had a direct admit at 1730 and she came in with resp distress, had to bump her up to 9L just to get her to 91%. RT came in with stat ABGs to do and it took 4 of them just to get blood for that. I still had to get an IV, blood cultures and lab done. I did 2 sticks and nothing. I called Mary and asked for help, she told me she was making discharge phone calls and I needed to find a buddy. Are u kidding me??? Well of course everyone else was busy and had no help. A night shift nurse came in early cause now it was 1830 and she stepped up to help me. I stayed to help her out with that pt after report to return the favor. Did I overreact? I asked an opinion from our other ATL and she said that those phone calls aren't that important and that she should of came and helped, after all it's about the patient. This has been brought to our team leaders attention which is new too, she's been a nurse on the unit for 5 years and got the position 2 months ago. Her answer is well she's been here for a long time and probably was just busy. Seriously???? Yesterday was not much better with her and was rude, cold and very insensitive with a pt passing. I like what I do but when I see her in the morning when I come in I know the day is going to be awful. I have no idea how to address this. It could turn around on me if I'm not careful.

[Star RN]

Ahhhh.....the politics! Well, yes you do need to be careful in how you approach this. Sounds like you might not have much support from at least one of the charge nurses. I'm am sure you are probably not the only one in your dept. who feels this way about this nurse. Maybe this nurse is just not happy at work either. Who knows. In my experience as frustrating as it may be, try to have some understanding with the other person and talk to them about it first. Try not to be confrontational. As silly as it may seem, document the scenarios when you feel she wasn't being a team player with details and examples of what happened.If you can't get anywhere talking to her first or you don't feel you can approach your co-worker, you can talk to the manager about it.