I have been a nurse for about 6 months (still so much to learn) on a 66-bed Med/Surg/Oncology unit at a community hospital (it's hard work, but I believe it's God's work). We have team nursing-10 patients with 2 RN's and a Patient Care Tech or Nursing Assistant. I work nights. There are several techs that we work with that are just plain lazy! Often they "disappear" off the floor without telling us. They sit around and gossip. They act "put out" when I politely ask for their assistance. Some just "skip" 2 am vitals signs. One of them makes up vital signs even (I know, because I suspected a patient was running a fever- this tech documented a normal temp and when I followed behind her 5 minutes later, the patient had a fever of 101). I have even had a Tech question my nursing decision to put a patient on fall precautions!
So this morning, at 6 am, there are 4 techs sitting around at the nurse's station (doing nothing!) while we were scrambling to not only get our final charting done, morning meds passed and our other morning tasks done, but also giving baths and making beds! And I don't mind giving baths (Great time for skin assessment and skin care), but this morning I had a pre-op patient, 2 patients having pain issues and I was awaiting a call from an MD.
I am a passive person anyway (yes, I need to work on that) and I've never had to delegate tasks before becoming an RN. I haven't said anything to the techs (none of us have) because we're under-staffed for techs as well as RN's. We feel like we have to handle our assistive personnel with "kid gloves" because we are under-staffed. Nursing is difficult enough dealing with patients, families, catty co-workers, and MD's....please don't tell me I must also deal with lazy techs!
We have some very lazy techs on our unit. Yesterday I "discovered" just what this one tech was doing with all the dirty linen ... she was tossing it in patients' bathtubs and closing the shower curtain in an attempt to hide it! This was going on for nearly a week before I wondered where the smell was coming from and opened the shower curtain to find tub-fulls of linen in every room.
This is the same tech who I assisted in cleaning a badly soiled patient while in the middle of giving morning meds and doing assessments ... yet later when I asked her to help assist someone to the bathroom, she said "I can't I'm busy" and walked away to go flirt with the male tech on our unit!
Specializes in OB, ortho/neuro, home care, office.
The way I see it, if you are handling them with 'kid gloves' and they aren't doing anything anyway - then who cares if they are gone. you're doing the same job, with or without them there. Someone needs to fire them. NOW. Especially the one falsifying the documentation. That is grounds for immediate termination in any place of employment, not just hospitals!
I work on a 32 bed ICU unit and we have 2 aides! 2 for the entire floor! Mostly if I need help it will be the other nurses that help me bc the aides are far too busy. The aides, or PCTs as we call them have quite a few more skills than I remember when I took the nurses aide course. They can draw labs, change CSF bags, scrub for insertion of EVDs....dressing changes...normally I just do everything myself and if i'm lucky the aide will have time to grab my trash and linens in the morning..which is a huge help..dosent sound like much but it does make the difference.
So far i get along with all the PCTs. Now there is one who is a bit overbearing for my taste. She buts into my conversation with other nurses and tries to tell me what is best for my pt. or what I should be doing. For example, during report another RN asked me to follow up on something for our pt. I asked the MD to perform the task while he was on rounds and he said no prob. I went to get his supplies and she in a very sarcastic tone said to another RN in the supply room (whom I was aksing a question of): NO thats not what she wants, she has no idea what he is talking about. Then to me she says: its never going to get done, the doc wont do it and you have the wrong supplies. I politely responded to her, well he said he was and these supplies are exactly what he asked for. I was just annoyed that she took it upon herself to embarass me in a conversation that she wasnt even in! She has also taken it upon herself to go and talk to the family of my pt. even before I had the chance to explain to them what was going on...I think that was overstepping her boundries. I said to her, I will talk to the family and she says: no thats ok, ill take care of it and was gone before i could protest. I mean, she didnt admit the pt. shes doesnt know what the doc told me....
During a swan insertion she even interrupted the MD when he was teaching us something to say, no I think you want to do it this way Dr. X. I was dumbfounded. I havent said anything to her, I just let it roll off my back. My co workers say that you just have to remind her that you are the nurse. I respect her knowledge and i'll take whatever help i can get but i feel that she over steps her boundries when I work with her. From now on i have decided when I work with her to do all my tasks myself and not ask for her help. Eventually, hopefully we can find some common ground.
I honestly can't wait until you are a nurse. I was a tech for 10 years in a very busy ICU where we were allowed to do lots of skills (phlebotomy, foleys, ACTs, dressing changes). I thought a lot of the things that you do. Why can't the nurse help me with this, now that she's a nurse she doesn't want to do grunt work... I can tell you now from experience that being a tech was a walk in the park compared to nursing. I honestly laugh at myself for ever thinking it was even remotely comparable to nursing.
When you see a nurse, and it looks like she is doing nothing, please keep in mind that you don't know or understand what she is doing. You won't until you actually get out there as a nurse and feel that awesome responsibility. You don't get that in nursing school, and you don't get that as a tech. I do agree with you that a little courtesy goes a long way. Techs don't like to get orders barked at them.
BTW, congrats of being a tech, because that experience in invaluable to your future in nursing. As a result, I have no problems working in an all RN ICU, with no tech support. When the day comes that I work with techs, any help that they provide for the patient will be great!
NurseKittyAtlanta
73 Posts
We have some very lazy techs on our unit. Yesterday I "discovered" just what this one tech was doing with all the dirty linen ... she was tossing it in patients' bathtubs and closing the shower curtain in an attempt to hide it! This was going on for nearly a week before I wondered where the smell was coming from and opened the shower curtain to find tub-fulls of linen in every room.
This is the same tech who I assisted in cleaning a badly soiled patient while in the middle of giving morning meds and doing assessments ... yet later when I asked her to help assist someone to the bathroom, she said "I can't I'm busy" and walked away to go flirt with the male tech on our unit!