How the Battle Axe is Born

[Plato]

Let's face it, some nurses are battle axes. They're mean, negative, condescending, uncaring, self-centered, lazy, neglectful incompetents. But where do they come from?

#1 The Authoritarian Personality

These are the ones who were treated like dirt in nursing school (and elsewhere in life) and because they were made to fee like dirt, they decided that was what real power was--the ability to make someone feel like dirt. So, they brown-nose anyone they consider their "superior" and treat anyone they consider their inferior like dirt. Nursing students and new nurses often catch the brunt of this.

#2 The Burn Out

This person is not a nurse, he or she is a hotel maid dressed up like a nurse. They never really loved anyone, they just wanted the pay, and now the years of "having" to care for others has taken it's toll. Because they're angry and hate their "servile" station in life as a nurse, they become mean. They never smile. They may even deliberately withold pain medication by making it their last priority when a patient asks for it. Subconsciously, they are getting even with the patient. This nurse judges everyone and everything. If a patient has a broken leg, then they shouldn't have been so stupid. If they have cancer then they shouldn't have smoked, and now they damn well aren't coming to the hospital and getting addicted to their pain medication--not on this battle axe's shift anyway! Patients often bear the brunt of this wretch in white.

#3 The Stripper on the Side

This one is immoral at best and nauseating at worst. She hits on all the doctors and male nurses and ex-convict transporters. She constantly has a sexual joke to tell and talks about what patients look like when they're naked. She likes to socialize and when her call lights are going off you can bet she's somewhere else. The patients are the last thing on her mind. Why she isn't working at Hooter's is anyone's guess.

#4 Tammy Faye, RN

This is the religious one. She goes to church every sunday and for some reason everyone knows this. She usually pins up some Halmark greeting card prayer on the bulletin board, and has some anti-vampire symbol around her neck. But in the patient's room she turns into a battle axe. She yells at the demented; she argues with the anxiety ridden, and has a good reason for every uncaring thing she ever does. Her patients foley bags are so full they've become a legal restraint, and under the fold of an old woman's breast you may very well find one of her needle caps or alcohol pad packets. When the nursing student asks about the PRN MSO4 that could be given ("Right, I mean we can give him that, right, right, please....please!) The moralistic reply comes across in the smoothest caring fashion--"Oh deary, didn't you know? He's a drug-seeker." This battle axe hypocrite is going to burn in hell for sure, but until then your medicare tax dollars are keeping her on the floor.

All good nurses must make a stand and commit themselves to never becoming a battle axe. Be to work on time. Fake being happy if you have to for the sake of others. Answer your call lights. And care for your patients as if they were you--don't separate yourself from them.

[sharann, BSN, RN]

Yep. Have worked with Types 1-4 at some point.

[grouchy]

I just read this and your comments on "The Dungeon" in the Atrium Plaza case, and I thought "Wow. A star is born!" You are a terrific writer, with the soul of a Hebrew prophet (and, I mean that metaphorically in the sense of "A person gifted with profound moral insight and exceptional powers of expression. ", or someone who challenges the members of their own community to live up to their own professed moral and ethical beliefs.)

I wasn't sure why you chose the screen name Plato, but it made me think of the anecdote about Plato's teacher Socrates, who challenged the morality and complacency of the Athenians. I've found an account of this online, which I've appended here.

"Twenty-four hundred years ago, Socrates walked the streets of Athens making a pest of himself. He told his fellow citizens that their unexamined lives weren't worth living, and challenged them to investigate with him, the question, "What was the Good Life?" Curiously, Socrates never answered his own question, he said he didn't know. But he found when he asked others, they didn't really know either. Instead they walked around with various unexamined assumptions about life which when examined logically, often turned out to be confused or contradictory. These unexamined background assumptions about life are what Joko has called our core beliefs, and what psychoanalysts sometimes refer to as invariant organizing principles. And like Socrates, our practice is to make these unexamined assumptions explicit, to look at where we got our ideas about the nature of a good life and the nature of the self. And in meditation we might be said to go yet another step further, to challenge our unspoken identification of our self with our thoughts. As we observe and label our thoughts, settle into our bodies, settle into the silence behind our thoughts, who we are takes on a new meaning.

When I said that Socrates went around making a pest of himself, I was actually using his own metaphor for what he did. When he was on trial for his life, he told the Athenian assembly that their city was like a thoroughbred horse that had gotten fat and lazy, so the gods sent him to act like a horsefly, to bite and goad the city out of its torpor and into self-awareness. That's certainly one function of a teacher..."

[Rustyhammer]

I'm glad I didn't make the list.

Ex-hippie nurse:

Even though it's not as long as it used to be he still wears his beard (note the touch of grey in there?). He hasn't been able to get rid of that braid hanging down his back either. He is unconventional in many ways and why he has stayed in nursing for 18 years is anyones guess. He is inappropriate in the LTC setting as he is always hugging his pts and families have to bribe him to take good care of their loved ones (they seem to bring him cookies all the time!).

-R

[proud2basn]

Quote

Originally posted by Rustyhammer

Even though it's not as long as it used to be he still wears his beard (note the touch of grey in there?). He hasn't been able to get rid of that braid hanging down his back either. He is unconventional in many ways and why he has stayed in nursing for 18 years is anyones guess. He is inappropriate in the LTC setting as he is always hugging his pts and families have to bribe him to take good care of their loved ones (they seem to bring him cookies all the time!).

in a LTC facility I used to work in as a CNA there was a guy just like this. the hippie part anyway. he had long gray hair & beard and he always wore a sweatband around his head with two pens sticking up on each side like devil's horns. 

[pappyRN]

The LTC where my Mom is unfirtunately a resident has an RN just like Rustyhammer's exhippie nurse description. The only exception being his hair isn't long but looks like it was inflated with air and sprayed to stay in that big poof.

He flat out DOESN'T take care of the patients unless it can be done from his chair in the nurse's station. All the new nurses get notes from him that this or that wasn't done and if it isn't there will be people getting written up. He never helps the day nurse with anything. He sits in his chair and jopkes with the pts who are with it but moves or has moved by the cna's the pts who are disruptive or making any type of noise regardless if it is involuntary and can't be helped by the pt. He has the cna's take the other annoying pts all the way to the lobby and point them towards another division. This way it takes forever for them to wheel themselves back to the division. Personally, I think that is just plain cruel and proves what an a$$hole he is.

He makes fun of me and says I think I am a doctor. What an insult! I told him I wasn't going to play stupid just for him. I know what I know and am proud of it. He is so threatened by anyone with more knowledge than him. Mom's PCP can't stand him because of his laziness and his failures to notify him of changes before they become extremely serious or life threatening situations. He went crazy when my Mom's PCP told him he should listen to me because I was a great nurse and really knew my stuff. He even suggested that he have me work with him for a few days so he could learn from me!Talk about rubbing the crap under his nose!lol This doctor is no longer on his list of favorites to say the least.

This nurse got a part time in the ICU at a local teaching hospital but left after two weeks because it was too demanding. That's what he told the nurse who works with him on the day shift! "I ran my legs off!"

There's so much more I could say but I will spare you and stop here.

All of these descriptions about Types 1-4 and the ex hippie nurses are cause for some deep introspection..They are cause for any nurse to stop and think if these descriptions even partially describe themselves. If they do, time for some R&R or a change of location.

Warm personal regards,

PappyRN

[fab4fan]

He has the cna's take the other annoying pts all the way to the lobby and point them towards another division

This is so cruel it's sickening...one can only hope he's treated to a nurse just like himself when he is old and sick.

Psst...Pappy (((((Pappy)))))

[fab4fan]

He makes fun of me and says I think I am a doctor.

What a stupid thing to say; you're way too smart to be a doctor! :chuckle

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

I have worked with all these types, as well.

Especially the "Tammy Fay" and the "Burn-out"

Just like Rusty, I didn't make the list either-

-The Disillusioned Idealist-

This nurse entered the profession full of optimism and excitement at all the great potential there is in nursing.

After years of trying to do the "right" thing by her pts, and struggling against all the obstacles in her way to give the very best care she can, this nurse is exhausted and disillusioned. She has often gotten on the bad side of mgmt by speaking up about situations and pt needs that must be addressed, but that mgmt would rather ignore.

She goes home and rants and raves to her husband and on the internet about the "system" and the injustice of it all. This nurse feels she is experiencing what was predicted by her nurse-hero, Laura Gasparis-Vonfrolio; "The wholesale dismantling of the nursing profession." She has become cynical, suspiscious and experiences job-related depression. This nurse was becoming a"martyr", but she saw what was happening to her. She stopped working through all of her lunches and breaks, she stopped buying things for pts with her own money that ADM needed to be buying. She used to even clock-out and go back to the unit and finish working. She now knows that this was a mistake. It won't change the situation and only serves to help mgmt in their "Nurse Abuse."

But even now, a sincere "thank you" and a hug from a pt can reduce her to tears.

PS. Rusty's "ex-hippy nurse" is a good nurse! It's him!

[grouchy]

The other awful thing about these abusive nurses is that they increase the burden on and lower the morale of those who are actually trying to do a good job, thereby increasing the risk that they too will crack, and stop trying to meet their patient's needs.

They are like a virus that infects the healthy staff.

I really hate the ones that specialize in making new people feel lousy. Inevitably, they are the last ones who should be throwing stones. Typically, the nurse or aide who gets picked on is actually eager and conscientious, visibly afraid of making a mistake, or regarded as a pain in the rear for asking too many questions. Know-it-all loves to fry fresh meat like this when they make some minor mistake. Usually, they've violated some protocal, and haven't actually neglected or harmed a patient. But, they will be made to feel like they killed someone.

I have told more than one nervous newbie that I would rather work with somebody who knows absolutely nothing, but who has a good attitude, doesn't mind working hard, and genuinely wants to take good care of their patients than the most experienced nurse in the world who doesn't give a d%^n. If you don't know something, you can learn it. Most minor mistakes can be corrected. But, there's no solution for not caring.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by grouchy

If you don't know something, you can learn it. Most minor mistakes can be corrected. But, there's no solution for not caring.

Ain't it the truth.

[KMSRN]

I must be very fortunate not to have encountered these "battle axe" nurses. In work in oncology and palliative care with many nurses, Christian and otherwise, who are compassionate and caring, who advocate for the patient, and are not afraid to give adequate pain control. Usually nurses who don't give adequate care lack education and/or experience and both can be remedied.