How do you deal with ICU superiority complex?

Mulan · Mar 5, 2007

I don't float to ICU so can't help you there, but find the same attitude exists with certain people on medsurg floors, as far as asking for another opinion. Nursing, same stuff, different place.

RN BSN 2009 · Mar 5, 2007

I don't float to ICU so can't help you there, but find the same attitude exists with certain people on medsurg floors, as far as asking for another opinion. Nursing, same stuff, different place.

Ditto, it's all over the place

GardenDove · Mar 5, 2007

There is an elitist attitude on the part of certain ICU nurses. I'm not sure if you can do anything about it. I know that they don't like to float to other units either where I work, and look down on some of the med-surg nurses.

CRNI-ICU20 · Mar 5, 2007

I am always so thankful that there's another set of hands and a willing heart to help me out.....so I don't have to take a third or fourth patient....believe me....that whole attitude is just the person....not the norm....I have a great group I work with....and they do appreciate the RN's willing to float to our unit....so...tell ya what....you can come and 'play in our sand box any old time'.....the other day, I did charge nurse and took three patients....one was bleeding actively from his trach.....one was a post thyroidectomy still vented....swollen and totally awake....lots of emotional support needed....and a 90 year old granny who only spoke Russian with a subdural....and did charge....golly, I would have gladly accepted your help....

Just blow it off....she's a putz! If she can't see help standing right in front of her little beady eyes....obviously she's really operating from a diminished self esteem, or she wouldn't have to put others down in order to feel 'elevated' above them....

Just another form of adult bullying. Just remind yourself that you are not defined as a nurse by what one person thinks or says....and you know you are good enough to be there....whether she does or not....

Gee I hate hearing this about my profession.....it sickens me.

jamonit · Mar 5, 2007

i just think icu nurses are better, especially picu nurses. we know it all. even as new grads. just kidding. :bugeyes:

CritterLover, BSN, RN · Mar 5, 2007

i am always so thankful that there's another set of hands and a willing heart to help me out.....so i don't have to take a third or fourth patient....believe me....that whole attitude is just the person....not the norm....i have a great group i work with....and they do appreciate the rn's willing to float to our unit....so...tell ya what....you can come and 'play in our sand box any old time'.....the other day, i did charge nurse and took three patients....one was bleeding actively from his trach.....one was a post thyroidectomy still vented....swollen and totally awake....lots of emotional support needed....and a 90 year old granny who only spoke russian with a subdural....and did charge....golly, i would have gladly accepted your help....
just blow it off....she's a putz! if she can't see help standing right in front of her little beady eyes....obviously she's really operating from a diminished self esteem, or she wouldn't have to put others down in order to feel 'elevated' above them....
just another form of adult bullying. just remind yourself that you are not defined as a nurse by what one person thinks or says....and you know you are good enough to be there....whether she does or not....
gee i hate hearing this about my profession.....it sickens me.

i agree.

unless you are planning on pulling a recliner into an empty room and curling up with a blanket (how hard can two patients be??? sounds like nap time????), you'll get not attitude from me.

i don't care how many times i have to show you were stuff is in the supply room. i have seen some of my collegues be not-so-nice, but i encounter plenty of attitude when i go to m/s floors, too, so it isn't just an icu thing. some people are just nasty.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Mar 5, 2007

i'm an icu nurse, and every time i float to the floors i have to deal with their nasty attitudes. i swear they give me the six worst patients, and they take the easy ones. i have to walk all over their three long hallways -- couldn't even give me six patients near one another so that i can see the call lights of each of my rooms from the same spot! and every time i ask a question, (like "where do you guys keep your iv solutions?") i get the rolled eyes and the smart comebacks like "you don't know that?! in the med room, of course.") we keep ours in the supply pyxis, and theirs are in the med room in a locked cupboard for which i don't have the keys, at knee level where i would never think to look.

i floated to the renal floor one time -- i was told i was going to be a sitter for a confused patient. ok. when i get down there, i'm told "you're the rn, you'll do all the care." ok. i can do that. "and we're going to give you another patient down the hall." i protested -- a sitter is a sitter. they stay with the patient at all times. i can't do that if i'm caring for another patient down the hall. i'll be the sitter or i'll take care of two patients on dialysis, but i can't do both. the charge nurse refused to speak to me for the rest of the shift. i was the sitter, but i was also the patient's rn. no one would watch the patient so i could eat lunch, go to the bathroom or even walk down the hall to the med room to get her meds. and then they complained that *i* had a "superior attitude."

nasty attitudes exist everywhere. it's not just icu nurses or renal nurses or charge nurses. anyone can have one. i swear to the heavens that i'm perfect in every way -- except occaisionally i have a nasty attitude that leaks through no matter how hard i try to hide it. unless you're someone who has been nasty to me repeatedly, it's not personal. i had a hellacious attitude the day my dog died, the day my father told me my mother had alzheimer's and the day i caught my husband cheating on me. try not to take it personally, and learn to deal with nasty attitudes. they're everywhere.

GardenDove · Mar 5, 2007

Ruby,

I think these interdepartmental hostilities are common. When I float to Med-Surg now that I've moved to ICU, there are certain people who seem to like to prove that I'm incompetant, I've noticed. I've never acted superior, but they seem to resent that I've moved on. :rolleyes:

Imafloat, BSN, RN · Mar 5, 2007

I have to float to ICU occasionally and I just don't jive with the put - downs even if they are not said to me directly. I know the put downs exist when the shift leader gives me my assignment and then wispers an aside remark, something to the nurse to her left. How do you deal with this superiority culture of we're ICU and anyone who floats here is a second class citizen? I feel it is hard enough to float, but it is one thing to be thinking should I ask so and so's opinion about my giving this med or should I not because I'll look more like an idiot in his/her eyes? Seriously, total mind trips, I just want to be supported that's all, not given the 'snub.'

I am sorry that you feel this way and had this experience. My advice is don't accept it! Also, how do you know that the whispered comment was about you?

I think that other departments in the hospital sometimes think that critical care nurses think they are better than the rest of the hospital without having a basis for saying that. Maybe one person had a bad experience, or maybe they read on all nurses that critical care nurses think they are superior.

I have only been an official RN since December, but I have learned a lot about nursing politics while in school and out of school. In a profession where members snark about degrees among themselves how can we expect different departments to get along. It seems like in nursing there is always someone feeling superior/inferior because of theirs/someone elses degree/department. Pick whichever choices float your boat, it goes all 6 ways!!!

Having seen this alive and well, even being the victim of such stereotyping (during my second week of orientation someone in the cafeteria said how are those NICU bi%#es treating you) I have learned to be the change I wish to see. I make it a point to say hello to floats and thank them for floating. We can never get over all this back biting in our profession until we refuse to accept it.

TrudyRN · Mar 5, 2007

i'm an icu nurse, and every time i float to the floors i have to deal with their nasty attitudes. i swear they give me the six worst patients, and they take the easy ones. i have to walk all over their three long hallways -- couldn't even give me six patients near one another so that i can see the call lights of each of my rooms from the same spot! and every time i ask a question, (like "where do you guys keep your iv solutions?") i get the rolled eyes and the smart comebacks like "you don't know that?! in the med room, of course.") we keep ours in the supply pyxis, and theirs are in the med room in a locked cupboard for which i don't have the keys, at knee level where i would never think to look.
i floated to the renal floor one time -- i was told i was going to be a sitter for a confused patient. ok. when i get down there, i'm told "you're the rn, you'll do all the care." ok. i can do that. "and we're going to give you another patient down the hall." i protested -- a sitter is a sitter. they stay with the patient at all times. i can't do that if i'm caring for another patient down the hall. i'll be the sitter or i'll take care of two patients on dialysis, but i can't do both. the charge nurse refused to speak to me for the rest of the shift. i was the sitter, but i was also the patient's rn. no one would watch the patient so i could eat lunch, go to the bathroom or even walk down the hall to the med room to get her meds. and then they complained that *i* had a "superior attitude."
nasty attitudes exist everywhere. it's not just icu nurses or renal nurses or charge nurses. anyone can have one. i swear to the heavens that i'm perfect in every way -- except occaisionally i have a nasty attitude that leaks through no matter how hard i try to hide it. unless you're someone who has been nasty to me repeatedly, it's not personal. i had a hellacious attitude the day my dog died, the day my father told me my mother had alzheimer's and the day i caught my husband cheating on me. try not to take it personally, and learn to deal with nasty attitudes. they're everywhere.

i hope you reported to your boss and theirs that they would not relieve you for potty, meal, med-getting, etc. i think you should refuse to go back to that floor ever again and tell them why. that is so cruel and stupid of them.

TrudyRN · Mar 5, 2007

I am sorry that you feel this way and had this experience. My advice is don't accept it! Also, how do you know that the whispered comment was about you?
I think that other departments in the hospital sometimes think that critical care nurses think they are better than the rest of the hospital without having a basis for saying that. Maybe one person had a bad experience, or maybe they read on all nurses that critical care nurses think they are superior.
I have only been an official RN since December, but I have learned a lot about nursing politics while in school and out of school. In a profession where members snark about degrees among themselves how can we expect different departments to get along. It seems like in nursing there is always someone feeling superior/inferior because of theirs/someone elses degree/department. Pick whichever choices float your boat, it goes all 6 ways!!!
Having seen this alive and well, even being the victim of such stereotyping (during my second week of orientation someone in the cafeteria said how are those NICU bi%#es treating you) I have learned to be the change I wish to see. I make it a point to say hello to floats and thank them for floating. We can never get over all this back biting in our profession until we refuse to accept it.

:yeahthat: