I'm sick to my eyeballs of incompetent agency nurses.

[bulletproofbarb]

:angryfire

I am sick and tired of having to work with incompetent agency nurses. Ones that have no clue what to do but take the shift anyway because it's money.

I'm sick of having to teach them stuff, I am not there to teach them, I am happy to teach our own nurses but not agency nurses. If they feel they are suitable enough for agency, then it is their responsibility to make sure they have the skills not mine.

I'm sick of having to pick up the pieces and listen to complaints from relatives about them. I have had a gutful.

I'd rather work shortstaffed that watch someone do the bear minimum or nothing yet getting paid better. It really irritates me.

I hate it.I have had a gutful. I am ready to crack up.

I think that standards to become an agency nurse need to be raised. I've recently bumped into someone who has been out of the hospital system for 7 years and has come back through agency. She ended up on our ward and couldn't cope. Tonights idiot didn't know he had to empty the catheter bag of the bladderwashout and it burst. Considering they hold 4 litres, you can imagine the mess. He didn't know how to get a patient ready for theatre and a patient who was in pain was told by him to wait for another 2 hours until the medication was due again. Didn't know how to do a NJJ feed. It's appauling.

So I spoke to the manager who said he'd make a note to say he wasn't suitable, but I know from past experience it won't happen.

Then the agency nurse got offended when I told him he shouldn't take placements on a surgical ward if he doesn't normally work surgical. He said he worked medical. I don't bloody care if he is offended, that is his problem not mine.

[bloviate]

You conveniently left out the entire first paragraph of my post: You singled out the first sentence only:

Yes and I just singled it out again. This is not okay. Attitudes like this are disrespectful and have no place on the job.

"Unfortunately I have seen the "lazy" and one of the worst ones I encountered happened to be male."

[SmilingBluEyes]

Hot topic, to be sure. Just asking everyone to keep his or her cool and maybe, step away, think and then send any posts we have before posting them. Take just a few minutes to be sure what you say is what you mean----and that you refrain from flaming others in doing so. Like Wolfie says, it's ok to disagree, as long as we are respectful when we are doing it!

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Personally, I doubt it about that being an honest observation. I think it was a biased & disrespectful observation. I said what I meant to say and I stand by it.

Just as disrespectful and biased as those that claim females are catty or that nurses eat their young.

[steelcityrn, RN]

I Had A Pretty Good Run At A Hospital Who Used Me In Ccu,telemetry, Onc, Er And Heck I Even Worked Med Surg For Them. The Nursing Director Would Call Me At Home. My Pays Were Over 50 Hours A Week. Then Their Finances Became A Huge Issue,and Out The Door We All Went. I Was The Last To Go. In Over One Year Never A Complaint. Now While I Was There,seen Quite A Few Incompetent Agency Nurses, Eventially They Were Reported To Our Agency And Not Allowed Back. I Think Some Of Them Float From Agency To Agency, Leave When Something Bad Happens To Protect Their License. No One Seems To Get These Folks Off The Market, They Just Let Them Loose.

[MarySunshine]

The intent here is to point out that it's not okay to disrespect people and certainly not okay to do it on the basis of race sex religion etc etc.

Well, then we're in agreement.

[JustaMaleRN]

That's alright, I am tired of coming in to work an agency shift, and have to deal with family members who are pissed at the staff, and take it out on me. I love being a nurse, so much so, that I am continueing my education as a nurse, and also teach at the local college. I am tired of dealing with "Refrigerator" or "Vacation" Nurses, who are only there to pick up their paycheck so they can buy that new fridge or pay for the next vacation. I see these kinds of nurses both as staff and agency. Both are totally useless. First to complain about their workload, last to lend a hand when everything is hitting the fan.

Ah, got to love it!

[kcatwoman22]

I worked as an agency nurse for three years. Not once has anyone ever treated me rudely or acted as if I am incompetent. They were always ready to help me in any way they could. So what if they are new to the floor. Remember that you were once a new nurse on a floor and asked questions. Did anyone treat you rudely or tell you how incompetent you were? Probably not. A good nurse is one that offers help wherever needed,even if it is another nurse. Remember everyone starts somewhere and may not know everything. You should be grateful that you had help. If not you would be complaining about being short staffed. A good nurse is one that has compassion and is willing to help others, be it a patient or staff member. Maybe you should reflect on the time you were a new grad and thrown onto a floor for the first time. Wasn't it new? Didn't you have lots of questions? Didn't someone offer you help and answered your questions?

[nursekare]

[color=sienna]i've felt the same way about some agency nurses. they make much more than most of the hospital staff; and, many times they require more supervision than the regular staff. however, i've worked with many agency nurses who knew considerably more than i and had much more experience from whom i've learned much.

the real problem in most hospitals, as i see it, is when the staff nurses are incompetent and don't want you questioning their care of the patient.

for instance, i worked with a staff nurse who had a patient walking the hall bent over in pain and the nurse was ignoring the situation. i asked the patient, "what's wrong?" the patient replied, "i'm having this terrible pain in my side and my medicine doesn't seem to be helping. i had hoped that my doctor would have increased my pain medicine this afternoon but since i was asleep, from lack of sleep the nite before, i didn't get the chance to ask him."

so, i went to his staff nurse and asked her, "your patient in room 65 is in the hall bent over in pain, would you mind if i called the doctor after i examine him?" the staff nurse replied with her head rocking to and fro and with much sarcasm, "uh, yeah!!" so, since this was the 3rd time that the patient was in the hall exhibiting signs and symptoms of pain, i said to his nurse, "well the patient is in the hallway and appears to be in pain. what's going on with the patient?" the staff nurse responded, "he wants more pain medicine." i stated, "well, i'm concerned that the patient might make a complaint about having to wait until the morning for anyone to address his problem." the nurse became very irrate, so, i walked away. this staff nurse then changed the assignment and put her pain ridden patient on my assignment list. i told the nurse, "no thanks, the patient is yours." she responded, "well, if you think that you're going to do my job, then do it."

my only concern was for this chronically ill patient, who seemed to be having immense pain that wasn't being controlled by the medication that the patient was recieving and that the nurse might get in trouble if a formal complaint was made, thereby making the night shift staff look bad.

if the nurse had already addressed the problem, all the nurse had to do was say so.

if not, what was the harm of calling the m.d.? the worst that might happen is that the physician would chew me out and not prescribe anything further for the patient.

as a patient advocate, i thought that was the purpose of a nurse, to ensure adequate care of the patient.

i reported the incident to my nurse manager.

imho, nurses who have issues with questions concerning their patient care are trying to cover up their own incompetence, be it laziness or outright lack of skill.

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the patients name was witheld and the patients accurate room number, gender, actual conversation, and diagnosis was changed to protect the right to privacy.

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nursekare

[KatieBell]

You know, I just do not like working with incompetent nurses. Currently I work with one from Agency. She has a bad attitude and she makes dangerous mistakes. I also, however, work with about 3 people on the staff who I define as just as incompetent.

I don't really care if they are agency or not. They annoy me to no end.

[Lynnelle]

:) :) :redpinkhe We love you!!! Being an agency nurse (yes I am) is hard. We get to go onto floors, not because we have asked, but because we are assigned by supervisors within your facilities. I cannot count the number of times I have been asked to go onto a floor I know nothing about because they need a body.:uhoh21: Scary yes I have done it once and will never do it again. There are tons of assignments that are offered and not safe for anyone involved. There are also the hospitals and floors we go to that give us the hardest assignments, the assignments they don't want because the assignments are difficult or tedious. Then to top it off the regular staff won't help. Nice.

Which makes me wonder....if you are sick and tire of us does it show? And if it shows would a nurse feel comfortable coming up to you and ask for help? If your angry and upset because agency is there it does not help us do our job any better because our only resource is angry because she has to interact with us. Each hospital has it's own policies that dicatate practice it is difficult for nurses who do not work agency to understand not all hospitals do the same thing the same way with the same equipment.

Best of luck to you.

[chackett]

I just had to respond to the "up to my eyeballs with agency nurses"..I am an agency nurse (I'm an LPN) and understand that there are incompetent nurses out there, but I have been to several facilities where their own staff stick it to you.. They give you the hardest assignments and any other wrok theat they don't feel like doing that day..I take pride itn what I do..I come from a long line of nurses and every place that I have worked in for the agency has offered me to come aboard as one of there own employees so I must be doing something right!! There have been several instances where dressing changes haven't been done in days by there own nurses (date and initials on the tape)..Last evening I was working at a facility an was doing an HS med pass, the MAR stated the dose was 300mg and the med they had in the cart was for 450mg..It had been given that way for 5 days BID, and I (one of those incompetent agency nurses ) was the one who found it (doing my checks that I learned in nursing school)...But anyway the real point is that if you have a reputable agency they not only check to find out what areas you have experience with, but also make you fill out an extensive "skills" checklist where you hace to let them know what skills you have and which you don't.That way they can match your skill level with the facilities needs..I'm sorry that you have had a bad experience with agency nurses, but we are not all incompetent, the facilities that I go to sing my praises because I go and bust my butt..And because I am a smart, competent AGENCY NURSE!!!

[fergus51]

Update on this one, we got an agency nurse last night in the NICU who just didn't seem to know what she was doing. Her regular job: adult home health (no previous NICU experience, though she had done some peds). She was sent home. It is scary that some people don't recognize their limits.