How do you work with the "SUPERNURSE"!!!

Nurses General Nursing

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Have any of you ever worked with someone who feels like they do everything and everyone else is lazy? I work with a great bunch of nurses. We just have one that thinks she is the only one that works, she's the fastest, everyoe else is lazy, she's the best IV starter, etc., etc.. She has been a nurse for sometime, I would say about 15 + years and tells me (I've only been a nurse sine 06') and another nurse (who has been a nurse just over a year) how lucky we are to be working in our department. We work in the surgery department. She tells us that they rarely hire new grads to the department and we should be grateful to be there. She normally only works the pre op area and gets mad if she does have to float down to post op (which rarely happens) she says she can't stand being in endo (it's gross: per her), the PACU nurses have cake jobs because they only have one pt at a time, I have never seen her do a procedure (chest tube, bone marrow bx, etc.) until the other day when she was made to go in to see how to assist in a chest tube placement. She is really bringing everyone down. We have tried to go to management and they did pull the pre op, post op, PACU, and endo nurses together for a meeting so we could all vent our concerns. We have not seen anything come of the meeting yet and its going on three weeks now. She like to go to our department manager alone and voice her concerns. She can turn the tears on at the drop of a dime. The sad part is that I have really liked her up until the last couple of months. She is always saying she needs a new job...I say GO! I have told myself to just avoid her and only have a working relationship with her but her rude remarks and how she treats us is getting crazy. What to do?

Specializes in ER/Trauma.
I think God strategically plants these individuals around the planet so that we all come into contact with at least one in our lifetimes......:D
GodSprinklesJerks.jpg

cheers,

took me awhile to learn how to ignore these folks, but i do.

when you fail to pay attention to them, which is sadly what they seek, they get bored and move on to the next potential victim.

a good nurse doesnt brag about what she/he does or put down others to make her/himself look better.

they just do what theyre supposed to do

Over compensation - borne out of lack of security and faith in oneself.

Often found to be living in an oppressive domestic violence situation at home.

Or is the abuser themselves, because they act that way around their spouses and children as well.

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
I would try to go with this nurse everytime i could. Follow her and ask her questions about the right way to do procedures. I would stay in her back pocket until the point where she would get tired of you, or she would know that you are very competent in what you do. I feel that many nurses do this also due to their inadequacies and their self esteem that they feel about themselves as nurses. Is she well liked in the area that she works or does she drive others away? Just show her the respect she wants, and then she will leave her "supernurse" at the door when she arrives to work with you

I agree. Our SUPERNURSE is also a pita in some ways but she is a valuable resource in others. She knows every single policy and procedure at our facility, she busts her butt to keep her self-appointed SN title and does a lot of work that isn't even her responsibility. If there are errors in the charts, MAR etc. she ferrets them out which I think is important. It is a known fact that she is in everyone's business and trash talks us all at some point so no one really pays attention to her comments. She does more than her job and our pts love her so thats the most important thing imo.

Specializes in LTC, Surgery.

Funny you should say that...about a month ago she showed up to work with a black eye, said her son elbowed her. That one cleared up and she came to work with another one! This time she said her daughter and her were messing around and she got hit. Another nurse told her one more time and we were going to have to start thinking she was lieing to us. She hasn't had one in a couple weeks now.

Everyone has or will work with a "supernurse" or two during their career. I have crossed paths with many, been one myself a time or two, but that is another story. I can honestly say, most supernurses trip themselves up in the long haul. NO ONE is perfect on a continuing basis. The one everyone is dealing with now may have finally tripped herself up recently in a bad way. The rude attitude towards regular staff when the boss is not around is getting old and there are many more complaints regarding her attitude than ever. Guess she will either shape up or be shipped out. I have the tendancy to just do my job, not gossip, and try to keep the unit running in a smoothe manner during my shift. I do not like drama and attempt to avoid it. Protect your back, do your job, don't gossip, and report the errors. That is all any of us can do. Good luck, but rest assured, "supernurse" will have a downfall.

Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.

I know exactly what you mean. When I was a CNA, I worked with someone like this.

She "got in" with management right out of school. She did a very good job FOR A NEW NURSE when she went the her first job on a M/S unit (where I knew her). She got a highly aclaimed award from the hospital, worked with students a lot, precepted new nurses and everything.

Now, if the story ended here, nothing wrong. But, as time went on, she became more interested in keeping up her image than in keeping her patients happy/well. She became overconfident, started barking orders at veteran nurses and was very mouthy with other staff. People kept up their false pretenses with her because, well.......se WAS a management favorite. She became one of those "God talks through me, using my wisdom and skills to save lives" types.

I remember working under her on a couple midnights and she'd not go in a pt. room more than once during a tweelve hour shift. Too bussy gossiping at the nurses station and making sure her paperwork (the stuff most of us do after report) was perfected. I was a student nurse at the time and did A LOT of care for her (oral care, emotional support......anything that could be safely fluffed off onto a CNA).

When I graduated and left that hospital, I understand from fellow students who went to that unit that she got worse. Flipped out on patients who hit the call bell for things she didnt like, told management she wanted a special title/position or she was leaving. She was unbearable. Didnt get the assistant manager position she wanted (one of her friends she gossiped about all the vet. nurses with backstabbed her to get it lol) and left. Dont know what happened after that.

"Supernurses" such as these are why people are so cautious to give anyone in the nursing field their deserved credit. People like this take a pat on the back and get delusional.

Specializes in Psych, ER, Resp/Med, LTC, Education.

I have found that frankly managers just don't deal with this stuff no matter where I have worked. You make complaints and they go no where. To me this is a huge problem--management just has no clue how to deal with these nurses either so they just don't. I think they are intimidated by them too--lol Hell I have a doc where I am now that has all of staff hating her in both hospitals she works in --I have worked in both of them-- try complaining about a doc!! That doesn't get addressed either!! I really wish that all these "nurse managers" would actually ummmm......oh maybe MANAGE!!! and GET A BACK BONE!!! That "nurses eat their young" mentality will never end until people do something to stop it....and that starts with the managers!!!

Specializes in Acute post op ortho.

The one I worked with criticized me or printing, instead of writing longhand.....:bluecry1:

I got pulled to the floor she had transferred from and discovered that they threw a 'gone' away party.........after she left.

They extended their condolences to our nursing staff, but refused to take her back (a cruel non-return policy on their part).

Some years later I heard that 'little miss perfect' tried to poison her husband & when he got sick, she panicked..... dumped the poisoned stew over the fence.... her neighbors dog ate it & died.....where is the 'shocked' emocon when you need it?

What do people do about just the opposite nurse? I have 3 on my weekend in which everything is an emergency. One shouts from the room....usually for a 4x4 or a towel. ( My BP goes up) One runs around in circles and on the busiest of days is filling out a page 2, transfer sheet.......on a patient that isn't hers. Another checks up on all of us, all of the alarms and if we don't jump like she does then we are a piece of ****. I go crazy every time I have to work my weekend. I like to be calm and collected but if I don't get chaotic, which I usually don't, I feel like an outsider.

To post #18, In my hospital we have a current manager that worked her way up with her management connections. I was opposed to her all along the way because to me I saw her as a nurse that did not take good care of her patients, did not help her co-workers and would not stand up for what was right. She became manager anyway. But along the way she was dangerous, myself and another nurse were falsely accused of doing a procedure on an alzheimer's patient that she did not want. Her HCP, a nurse was with us at the bedside and agreed to what we were doing. The brown nose did not realize that. To this day I know she cannot out perform me at the bedside. And I will never be management because I can't kiss ***.

I have a couple on my unit. One is hilarious, and truly non-harmful to anyone but herself. She jumps out of chairs so fast when the telemetry alarm goes off that she has fallen, even broken her ankle once. One spends so much time running her mouth that it gives you a headache. I have learned that she talks so much, very little actually gets contemplated in her head. when she's charge, she nonstop talks about how difficult it is (not really, I'm charge too sometimes) and how nobody is as competent as her (yes they are) etc etc etc. While she's running her mouth, I'll inconspicuously drop little subliminal messages to her: "Wonder what Mr White's potassium is, lots of PVCs up there". And five minutes later I'll hear her, "OhMYGOD, Mr Watson's potassium is 2.1, I swear I'm glad I'm on the ball because these docs sure aren't! Am I the only person who looks at these labs anyway?"

lol.

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