I feel like such a tattle-tale...

[Aneroo, LPN]

But it really irked me!

One of our traveler's was in the back, with no patients. The rest of folks had patients, I was floating. When you're in the back (our overflow area) and don't have patients, you're expected to come float. She was sitting on her butt in the back! Someone else told the charge nurse, who promptly called her up and sent her to another part of the ED to float.

This is when I decided to pipe up about what was irking me, since someone else was expressing frustration. One of our unit secretaries had been on the phone for over an hour- talking to her child or her babies daddy about where the child was gonna live. Not a nice conversation, consisted of some four letter words and a lot of whispering some stuff that shouldn't be said in public.

I just didn't have the b**ch in me tonight to be like "Would you get off the phone and do some work!?"- however, others don't. So like I said, I piped up and told the charge nurse, who promptly marched over there. I have no idea what was said, but she got off the phone.

I know she knows it was me that told- I got the cold shoulder and she was a total b**ch to me all evening. I could care less how polite she is to me, but girl needs to get a grip. She's getting paid to DO something, KWIM? And it isn't sit on her butt and talk on the phone.

[sjb2005]

Don't let it get under your skin. You did the appropriate thing by reporting it to the charge nurse and letting her/him handle it. Nursing can be very frustrating and for those who care about one another and the pt along with trying to provide the best care, it can be very difficult to hold back. Dump the work trash at the curb before you go home so it doesn't affect you personally.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

You don't have to a b***tch to speak up for yourself if you needed help, if you saw someone taking advantage of the system. You perhaps maybe shouldn't have put a story in your head that she was lazy, watching the rest of you guys work, while gossiping on the phone.

Perhaps she didn't realize you needed help, perhaps there was some sort of family crisis, maybe she forgot the rule or was thinking "they'll let me know if they need some help", etc.

Or she could just be a lazy so and so.

Bottom line is you should have had the guts to go to her face and be assertive, proactive and say it to her face if it was irking you that much. Now she's mad, you're mad, makes for a toxic atmosphere. Face to face is sometimes better than going to a charge nurse, IMO.