Nurse Practitioner Abuse

[CritCareAPP1, BSN, MSN, APRN]

I have been a nurse for 20 years, the last 6 as an APP. In the last year I have noticed an uptick in blatant disrespect in my unit and hospital by RNs. Hanging up on us, trash talking us in patient rooms, telling other departments (radiology, RT, etc) we don't know what we are doing simply because we aren't giving them what they think they need.... When we try to educate them on why we have made a decision then they report us for bullying and making them feel stupid. We don't feel comfortable going onto the unit alone and feel like we always need a witness so that our words aren't turned around. It's impeding patient care and making some of us look for other jobs. The majority of these nurses have a year or less experience. How do we deal with this? Because when we try to have a meeting or a discussion, they pull the "patient advocate" card. 

[offlabel]

Bedside RN's making sure you know who's the boss is incredibly frustrating. The irony is a lot of them have aspirations to enter advanced practice at one point but no one has clued them in that they haven't yet. You're 6 years in and probably just now hitting a real groove  in terms of knowledge and experience (my general observation of others and my own experience). This is where hospital administration either shows up to support you or they don't. This is a medical staff issue, imo, and should be handled by them toward nursing administration. In the mean time, ignoring them or at least dispassionate, matter of fact communication with a take it or leave it affect is effective. If someone hangs up on me, he or she is declaring that my assistance is not needed and that ends my involvement in the matter with appropriate documentation/notification of appropriate persons. Bottom line is if the  hospital does not have your back, decide if you like the job enough to hang around or stick around and play power games until you win...which is actually kind of satisfying.

[JKL33]

Opinion here.

Stay on the high ground. Personally I would ignore anything that can be ignored. I wouldn't care what they tell their buddy the rad tech or their petty trash talk amongst themselves, in fact I would try hard not to have any idea what kind of trash talk they are doing.

I would engage them as little as possible. Do your assessments, enter your orders in the EMR, if they call you about something and you're listening appropriately to their patient-related concern but aren't able to "give them what they want," oh well. If they are not the type to be willing to hear your educational explanations, let it go. You will know who wants to learn something from you and who doesn't. Your explanations are for their edification anyway, not something that is owed to them; if they don't want to learn anything that's on them.

The more you entertain any of this the worse its going to get, as it sounds like you are now finding out. You need to use your own supervisory channels to do a basic report of what's going on and in a professional manner give your supervisor notice that you are not going to keep engaging the poor behavior and trying to defend yourself against ridiculous accusations. I hate to use this comparison but I haven't met too many doctors who would give much ear to this type of pettiness; they would go on about their work.

If your own chain of command does not support you in extricating yourselves from this that's a huge problem bigger than the first--and IMHO would  be a reason to seek other employment.

Hope you can work it out.

 

[MarkMyWords]

 Basic psychology suggests that the nurses are resentful that you have a better job and are  above them.  Younger workers might feel  they do not need your information or advice.  I have seen this occur in other jobs. They feel a bit superior and don't need another "nurse" to make them better nurses, perhaps. Over confidence. Your style of communicating and teaching might be the issue. I can't give you advice, but at least rephrase your suggestions.  This insolence is common in the workplace of many occupations.