How do I deal with "needy" nurses

[Xlorgguss]

So to put it into perspective I am a current nursing student and current nursing assistant. I have noticed that there are a few nurses on my floor that will ask me to do any and every little thing. My second week I was pulled off of my 30 minute break, twice to assist in cleaning up patients. I quickly learned to eat off of the unit. Another nurse asked me to fetch a new o2 sensor for his patient because he "couldn't possibly have the time to do it" even though the supply closet is right door. Mind you he had no problem taking a break to eat pizza after he already took a smoke break and a meal break. Then we have another nurse who has literally had me paged while I was doing patient care, leave that room to see what is needed, only to find out her patient needs a warm blanket or some other simple task. It is frustrating to no end because in all cases these nurses could have done these tasks themselves instead of either interupting my current list of patient care tasks or interrupting my entitled 30 minute lunch. How do I learn to say no? Now please keep in mind the majority of nurses I work with are great! It's just the few bad eggs that seriously make me want to walk off the unit.

[ProgressiveActivist, BSN, RN]

Yeah take your frustrations out on the nurse who has actual responsibility for the safety, health and well being of those patients and hasnt had a lunch break in years. Cry me a river because you were asked to get a warm blanket or change a finger sensor.

This CNA-student will be back to complain about rude, lazy, uncooperative, passive

aggressive, (pretending to be busy) nursing assistants as soon

as he starts working as a nurse.

The caliber of CNAs in most institutions leaves a lot to be desired. The good ones dont have issues and dont invent complaints about the nursing staff.

Heres a revolutionary idea: Communicate! ask the nurse if she needs help.

If you dont want to help nurses then being a nursing asistant is not for you. Please do us both a favor and find another line of work.

[NightOwl0624]

Yeah take your frustrations out on the nurse who has actual responsibility for the safety, health and well being of those patients and hasnt had a lunch break in years. Cry me a river because you were asked to get a warm blanket or change a finger sensor.

This CNA-student will be back to complain about rude, lazy, uncooperative, passive

aggressive, nursing assistants as soon as he starts working as a nurse.

If you dont want to help nurses then being a nursing asistant is not for you. Please do us both a favor and find another line of work.

Maybe you have had problems with nurse assistants in the past that makes you rather hostile???

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/excessive-smoke-breaks-636185.html

I think this nurse assistant has valid concerns if her account is accurate. Being pulled away from patient care can be dangerous. Being pulled away from your break to do something simple such as getting a new probe that is only a few steps away is inconsiderate and rude (unless, of course it is an emergency).

I know nurses like this. They somehow think that their patients are more important than any other. They expect the NA to drop everything to fulfill their every request. I, as a nurse, have a problem when a nurse assistant is doing care with my patient and is paged to do something silly that can wait for another nurse, and you can bet these nurses will run right to the manager with complaints that the nurse assistant was insubordinate to them if they do not get what they want right away. Are your warm blankets really more important than the safety of my patient? Is your patient's shower more important than getting my patient's vital signs? Many times I, the nurse, have to do much more care for my patients because one nurse thinks the assistant is only there for her. Not only do these nurses get away with it, they also drive away some darn good assistants.

I would not describe these nurses as "needy", either.

I work with a few nurse assistants that are lazy, and everyone knows who they are, but the vast majority are hard working professionals who do their very best to provide excellent patient care. The OP sounds like a good NA to me, and I think she will make an excellent nurse when she graduates.

[jena5111, ASN, RN]

I started my first RN job two weeks ago. All I can say is that nursing/CNA-ing/tech-ing jobs are ALL BUSY. As a nurse residency orientee with an awesome preceptor (glory be!), I have a 5:1 patient-nurse ratio on a crazy tele/cardiac floor. Yesterday as part of my orientation, I did "nurse leader rounding" with my unit manager.

The whole idea was to go into the patients' rooms and ask about their "stay." We ended up cleaning three incontinent patients, changing gowns/briefs/linens, and receiving report on a post-TEE patient since the primary RN was on (her well-earned) lunch. So much for the scripted questions programmed into the iPad, haha.

The tech assigned to the hall we rounded on was so HAPPY that we helped as much as we did. He's amazing but can only be one place at a time.

Also--he realizes that he was hired to do "tasks"--I reference the OP when I use that word. That's the function of the CNA/tech on a medical floor. As a nurse, I certainly jump in to ambulate/bathe/take to the bathroom my patients when time permits. But the care planning, medication administration, MD/other discipline collaboration, family conversations, procedures (IV starts, Foleys, etc), and documentation are MY job. I need my techs to be on top of their stuff.

That's not being needy; that's utilizing available resources--which, as a nurse, I am so thankful to have in the first place.

[Karou]

Yeah take your frustrations out on the nurse who has actual responsibility for the safety, health and well being of those patients and hasnt had a lunch break in years. Cry me a river because you were asked to get a warm blanket or change a finger sensor.

This CNA-student will be back to complain about rude, lazy, uncooperative, passive

aggressive, (pretending to be busy) nursing assistants as soon

as he starts working as a nurse.

The caliber of CNAs in most institutions leaves a lot to be desired. The good ones dont have issues and dont invent complaints about the nursing staff.

Heres a revolutionary idea: Communicate! ask the nurse if she needs help.

If you dont want to help nurses then being a nursing asistant is not for you. Please do us both a favor and find another line of work.

You seem to be taking the OP's post personally, maybe projecting your work situation on to her.

Have you really never worked with a needy nurse? On my unit, the RN usually has 5 patients and the PCT has 12. There are some nurses who will monopolize the PCT's time unfairly with lots of small tasks (that the nurse isn't too busy to do themselves). Meanwhile I'm left high and dry when I need assistance to turn and/or change my total care quad patient who just had another explosion of c-diff diarrhea. Because needy nurse has ten tasks for the PCT to do. I end up working twice as hard as needy nurse. Needy nurse isn't big on doing ADL's, and simple tasks (ice water, blankets, I&O's, ect) and even if NOT busy, she'll spent five minutes paging the PCT to do it when she could have done it quicker herself. I HATE when needy nurse and I have the same PCT because I know what kind of shift its going to be.

The OP is running around busy, being called for small/easy tasks while helping other patients already. She isn't hiding and playing candy crush, she is actually providing patient care.

Needy nurses DO exist. They are the same nurses bugging the charge nurse all night long, and who are somehow always too busy to verify insulin/TPN/blood, even when they have the easiest patient assignment.

I don't understand why you're acting like nurses like this don't exist, and are instead blaming the OP.

[JoJo_Mommy, BSN]

I would say ensure that you know what your role and duties entail and if they are asking you to do something that is not within your duties then politely tell them that, that is not your duty. If they are asking you to do something that you should be responsible for kindly smile and get the work done then move on to doing what you were doing previously. It comes with the job, but sorry that you feel like you are being abused.

[batrika]

The NA II / PCT can do BS checks according to their scope of practice in BON but its the facility policy that will allow or not the PCT to do this task.

[%D#2]

Yeah take your frustrations out on the nurse who has actual responsibility for the safety, health and well being of those patients and hasnt had a lunch break in years. Cry me a river because you were asked to get a warm blanket or change a finger sensor.

This CNA-student will be back to complain about rude, lazy, uncooperative, passive

aggressive, (pretending to be busy) nursing assistants as soon

as he starts working as a nurse.

The caliber of CNAs in most institutions leaves a lot to be desired. The good ones dont have issues and dont invent complaints about the nursing staff.

Heres a revolutionary idea: Communicate! ask the nurse if she needs help.

If you dont want to help nurses then being a nursing asistant is not for you. Please do us both a favor and find another line of work.

The OP wasn't complaining about helping nurses. There's a difference between being treated like a CNA and being treated like a slave.

Again, I was a CNA/PCT for 6 years before I became a nurse and I would do anything and everything for the nurses. But some were just straight up lazy and ran me ragged. As a nurse now I am a total team player and I prioritize, get things done, but get along well with my CNAs cause we're a team. That's how it should be. I don't delegate anything and everything to them just because i can. I delegate when I NEED to!

[Xlorgguss]

Well it all depends on a few things you need to think about.

Do you want to work there after you graduate?

How hard is it for new grads to get their first job in your area, a future employer may ask why you weren't hired by the unit/hospital that you work at while in nursing school.

How are you going to handle it if a needy nurse is your preceptor.

All the nursing personalities that you see and deal with now, you are going to have to deal with them down the road, needy nurses don't stop being needy just because you are working as a nurse with them as co-workers.

With being a tech in nursing school you may have to look at it as a long job trial/ interview. Use it to your advantage.

No it's not fair ,but it is what it is

I have absolutely no desire to work at this hospital as an RN. I commute close to an hour for this opportunity and only took the job to make own resume more attractive to hospitals more locals to me. I totally get that there is a bunch of different personalities. The only concern I have with getting my first RN job is that I am in an ASN program and not a BSN

[Xlorgguss]

Yeah take your frustrations out on the nurse who has actual responsibility for the safety, health and well being of those patients and hasnt had a lunch break in years. Cry me a river because you were asked to get a warm blanket or change a finger sensor.

This CNA-student will be back to complain about rude, lazy, uncooperative, passive

aggressive, (pretending to be busy) nursing assistants as soon

as he starts working as a nurse.

The caliber of CNAs in most institutions leaves a lot to be desired. The good ones dont have issues and dont invent complaints about the nursing staff.

Heres a revolutionary idea: Communicate! ask the nurse if she needs help.

If you dont want to help nurses then being a nursing asistant is not for you. Please do us both a favor and find another line of work.

If you actually read my post you would remember that my nurse was taking an ADDITIONAL meal break in ADDITION to a smoke break. Also I find it curious that you seem to feel as though this post was some sort of personal attack, because that was not the intention at all. And I am not a bad nursing assistant because I asked for advice. Like it or not our healthcare system wouldn't be able to operate without the use of techs/assistants. Nurses and assistants alike rely on each other. There should be mutual respect.

[ProgressiveActivist, BSN, RN]

Maybe you have had problems with nurse assistants in the past that makes you rather hostile???

https://allnurses.com/general-

nursing-discussion/excessive-smoke-breaks-636185.html

I think this nurse assistant has valid concerns if her account is accurate. Being pulled away from patient car

can be dangerous. Being pulled away from your break to do something simple such as getting a new probe that is only a few steps

away is inconsiderate and rude

(unless, of course it is an emergency).

I know nurses like this. They somehow think that their patients are more important than

any other.

They expect the NA to drop everything to fulfill their every request. I, as a nurse, have a problem when a nurse assista

is

doing care with my patient and is paged to do something silly that can wait for another nurse, and

you can bet these nurses will run right to the

manager with complaints that the nurse assistant was insubordinate to them if they do not get what they want right

away. Are your warm

blankets really more important than the safety of my patient? Is your patient's shower more important than getting my

patient's vital

signs? Many times I, the nurse, have to do much more care for my patients because one nurse

thinks

the assistant is only there for her. Not only do these nurses get away

with it, they also drive away some darn good assistants.

I would not describe these nurses as "needy", either.

I work with a few nurse assistants

that are lazy, and everyon

knows who they are, but the vast majority are hard working professionals who do their very best to provide excellent patient care. The OP

sounds like a good NA to me, and I think she will make an excellent nurse when she graduates

Working as a NA is a vocational occupation not a profession. The "Im going to ignore the nurses and do my own thing" mindset is what impedes teamwork, not the nurse who asks a cna to participate in meeting a patients needs.

[Karou]

Working as a NA is a vocational occupation not a profession. The "Im going to ignore the nurses and do my own thing" mindset is what impedes teamwork, not the nurse who asks a cna to participate in meeting a patients needs.

I don't know why you said the first part, was anyone debating that? It wasn't mentioned in the post you quoted. Who here said anything about ignoring a nurse and doing their own thing? You quoted that, but I can't find where it came from...

No one here is complaining about appropriate delegation... They are discussing nurses who abuse delegation.

Again, no one is complaining about or debating appropriate delegation.

My patients will not be receiving optimal care if I have no one to help me turn them, because nurse Needy is having the PCT (who is also assigned to my patients) walk a patient while nurse Needy gossips at the nurses station. Nurse Needy can walk the patient or help me turn my patient, but she won't because she delegates most ADL's. She has about ten other tasks for the PCT after the walking that she considers STAT. So I'm left without help. Does that make sense? Because it does happen. There are crappy nurses just like there are crappy PCT's. It's not fair to me, or my patients that I have to work twice as hard because another nurse is monopolizing the PCT's time and running them ragged.

Can you not acknowledge that there are needy nurses who will unnecessarily monopolize a PCT's time?

[graceephil]

In my country,we do not say "no".We obey and watch them grow obese.......