I give in, I'm a COB

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Jul 12, 2015

What is the membership requirements for the Crusty Old Bat Society and is their a male equivalent like the Crusty Old Buzzard Society?

Libby1987 · Jul 12, 2015

Well I'm not fed up with them but they might be fed up with me, does that count?

ixchel · Jul 12, 2015

I'm crusty on the outside and gooey on the inside. ðŸ‘ðŸ¼

jojo489 · Jul 12, 2015

I don't have the years in yet to say I'm a COB, but I have had several orientees that were like that. To top it all off, an LTC I worked at started hiring a bunch of RNs because they planned to transition the one unit into being completely staffed by RNs...but no RNs to train them on the floor stuff and give them orientation - so most of the time they were paired with LPNs because that's what was available.

I am an LPN. I have absolutely no problem working with RNs, receiving constructive criticism, being delegated to, and all that whatnot. I aspire to become an RN. BUT - when you are observing me for the day, and I'm showing you the MAR, the cart, the storage areas, and giving you tips about time management, and all I hear is, "Ok...yeah, I know. I know. OK." NO, YOU DON'T KNOW. When all the floor experience you've got is clinicals from school and your shiny new license with your shiny new badge, don't tell me you know because you simply don't. And if you think you do, you're only fooling yourself and probably hurting your patients because inevitably you'll do something wrong. This particular RN, on that day, was trying to tell me how to do a procedure that I've done 100 times...didn't realize their way broke the sterility of the gloves...and ended up saying something about how I'm just an LPN and they know what they're doing because they had so much more schooling than I did.

Sorry that turned into a rant. I just remember walking into my first day of work wide eyed and feeling completely overwhelmed.....and so terrified of screwing up. I drove everyone nuts with questions. I just can't understand how these new grads of any sort (besides the LPN-RNs or persons who've practiced before) can walk in so confident and act like they know it all.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Jul 12, 2015

Not a COB...yet...but I aspire to be one...one day. Under 3 years of experience is about 15 years too short.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Jul 12, 2015

Well, I am a COB~ been doing this since 1987. I also have to deal with young, know-it-all whippersnappers! Have to work with one now, actually. A brand-new nurse, first job, recently got her license, but knows more than I do because, after all, I went to nursing school in the dark ages before she was even born!

adventure_rn, MSN, NP · Jul 12, 2015

I love the COBs--they say the most entertaining things. The crustier the better!

Can I be a proud future member? I was crusty born and I'm crusty bred, and when I die I'll be crusty dead!

allnurses Guide · Jul 12, 2015

If you identify as a COB, you are a COB as far as I'm concerned and apparently the OP of the inaugural post of the COB Society agreed. She said (among other things)

"Y'all know who you are."

....Nowhere else are gross things normal. Nowhere else can I vent about a ream of awful prima donna patients without being told I have no compassion.

Y'all know who you are. And thanks.

I found a poem by canesdukegirl that I think is share-worthy, too.

Quote

I am a crusty old batI am not afraid of things that go 'splat'!
Some may call me jaded

But many a patient I have aided.

As the years fly by

I am described as spry.

And then I think back

When I didn't know jack.

From crusty old bats I have learned much

Because they showed me the value of a nurse's touch.

Here's to crusty old bats! May we live long and not have all of our joints replaced before we retire!

nynursey_ · Jul 12, 2015

I was just thinking about this the other day. As I left my unit I wondered why I was so annoyed by the new graduates ...

And I'm only 2 years in.

But seriously. It's a hard lesson to learn but "fake it 'til you make it" is not a statement that encourages one to bypass all the safeguards and support put in place during a preceptorship. I witnessed a new graduate get absolutely laid into by a physician for holding an adjuvant chemotherapy medication as the instructions said "administer post-meal" because the patient had not eaten. The orientee had not checked with her preceptor. And he in turn had not checked his orients. And I was annoyed that she seemed to be so offput and irritated that the physician took issue with her "utilizing nursing judgement" (her words and not mine).

I may not be crusty just yet but I'm certainly browning.

noelly10 · Jul 12, 2015

I think I'm starting to brown as well. One thing that irks my nerves for whatever reason is the shiny pre-nursing students on here that pretend to either already be nurses, or nursing students. They are yet to be a nurseling, yet they all the sudden know more than me.

Okay, my miniature rant is over.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Jul 12, 2015

I may already be a nurse (LVN) but I'm not an RN. So when I graduate & get my first RN position, just because I have experience doesn't mean I will blow off my preceptor. I will listen to every bit of information he/she tells me & I will ask a bunch of questions. I have never had that scope of practice before.

As far as new grads who have never worked as a nurse period but act like it, don't even get me started. If I have to precept one that acts like that, ever, I don't know if I could. lol. I know I will be a COB one day.