How much is enough

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jul 1, 2016

Your coworkers should be following policy/procedure on reporting errors. Speak with the DON to determine if any errors are correctly addressed.

As a new nurse, you may be interpreting redirection as rudeness. The patient may have had anxiety, group therapy may have been the treatment. Would it be better to throw a Valium at them.. and let them out of cognitive therapy?

Sit back and observe.

dishes, BSN, RN · Jul 1, 2016

Agree with been there done that, sit back and observe (in a non-judgemental way) so that you can adapt to the workplace culture.

Chrissygraduatenurse, LPN · Jul 1, 2016

Your coworkers should be following policy/procedure on reporting errors. Speak with the DON to determine if any errors are correctly addressed.
As a new nurse, you may be interpreting redirection as rudeness. The patient may have had anxiety, group therapy may have been the treatment. Would it be better to throw a Valium at them.. and let them out of cognitive therapy?
Sit back and observe.

I understand, They've been doing this for 2mos. I'm just wondering how does a patient go to group with anxiety?

dishes, BSN, RN · Jul 1, 2016

It's ok to redirect a patient to go to group even when they are feeling anxiety, others in the group are often understanding and treat each other with respect. North American culture encourages group participation from early childhood on, if you watch young children being dropped off at daycare, you see some have separation anxiety and are tearful, but experienced childcare providers know the solution is to distract them and get them involved in a group activity.

heron, ASN, RN · Jul 1, 2016

Not to invalidate what you're saying, OP, I do have to second the advice of previous posters to sit back and observe and see if you can discern what's really going on here. My main concern from what you've written is staff-splitting ... playing the good nurse-bad nurse game. Addicts learn very early in their disease how to manipulate people into helping their addiction.

One of the goals, as I understand it, of treating addicts is to help them to find other ways of dealing with feeling lousy than dropping a mood-altering chemical. Going to group with anxiety may very well be exactly what the patient needs.

As for "attitude" ... I don't know how to address that except to say that experienced addictions nurses are trained to hold people accountable for mistakes rather than fix things for them. It may be that their work leads them to be somewhat more blunt about it than most of us are used to.

Addictions nursing, like any psych specialty, is a tough row to hoe. The addictions nurse is essentially trying to change deeply rooted responses to distress. Their only real tool is their own behavior. That requires a very high level of self-awareness and ability to check their own automatic impulses to make it better right now.

Chrissygraduatenurse, LPN · Jul 2, 2016

Not to invalidate what you're saying, OP, I do have to second the advice of previous posters to sit back and observe and see if you can discern what's really going on here. My main concern from what you've written is staff-splitting ... playing the good nurse-bad nurse game. Addicts learn very early in their disease how to manipulate people into helping their addiction.
One of the goals, as I understand it, of treating addicts is to help them to find other ways of dealing with feeling lousy than dropping a mood-altering chemical. Going to group with anxiety may very well be exactly what the patient needs.
As for "attitude" ... I don't know how to address that except to say that experienced addictions nurses are trained to hold people accountable for mistakes rather than fix things for them. It may be that their work leads them to be somewhat more blunt about it than most of us are used to.
Addictions nursing, like any psych specialty, is a tough row to hoe. The addictions nurse is essentially trying to change deeply rooted responses to distress. Their only real tool is their own behavior. That requires a very high level of self-awareness and ability to check their own automatic impulses to make it better right now.

This makes sense. I never looked at it this way. Thanks I appreciate your post and I like it alot