I'm tired of it!

DroogieRN · May 24, 2012

I'm tired of saying "Im sorry " for every thing a pt does not like to apease them.

I never say it. Never.

nursynurseRN · May 24, 2012

What is also really bad is when your own nurse manager throws you under the bus. I heard of one nurse manager who told her nurse to put a pt on 4 point restraints on a MS floor, because she said NO SITTERS because of the budget. then the CNO finds out and the nurse manager throws you under the bus and says that she didnt tell you to do that! talk about low morale!!

Palliative Care, DNP · May 24, 2012

For all of the above mentioned reasons every night I have to work I tell myself just 3 more years until I have my DNP......I am like the little engine that could chugging up the mountain away from the HELL that is bedside nursing:cheers:

Guppy1 · May 24, 2012

I have read all of the post and would like to chime in. I have been an RN for almost 14 years; I left bedside nursing 3 years ago and am currently in a PhD in Nursing program. My research area of interest is how nurses treat one another. Although most of the complaints here have been about the treatment of nurses by physicians, patients, and family members, I would like to know more about your experiences with other nurses. I would also like to know what you think the solution is to these problems. Whatever the answer is, we need to find it fast because we need good nurses working at the bedside. If we don't figure this out quickly, we will continue to experience a "hemorrhaging" of nurses leaving clinical practice.

notjustanurse · May 24, 2012

It is my fellow bedside nurses that keep me going, keep me sane (sort of). Their support and friendship are the ONLY reason I am still employed in my facility and haven't given up nursing entirely. My problem with nursing itself is the "customer service" model of care. We are expected to SERVE, not care for, the patient. And Heaven forbid if they take a dislike to us, regardless of whether the care we provided was good or not. I don't advocate being awful to patients or providing sub-standard care, but being able to set reasonable limits on my patients' and families' behavior would sure be nice.

Bortaz, MSN, RN · May 24, 2012

My fellow nurses (and other staff) are far more annoying and irritating to me than my patients or family members. If all of my coworkers did what they were supposed to do, when they were supposed to do it, without 9 pounds of BS and backstabbing and drama, I'd be a happy little camper and our babies would be better cared for.

People doing things half-assed, unsafely, or not at all...endangering my babies...causing havoc and chaos...it's almost more than a fellow can stand at times. Constant complaining (in multiple languages), harping, moaning, and I could go on and on and on.

We were not using gonadal shields when x-raying our kids. I pressed the issue and got the policy changed. The RadT's act like I pooped on the drivers seat of their new car. If I'm not watching them, they refuse to pick up the 3 oz shield, wipe it down, and place it on the nads of the babies. We've argued about it endlessly, with my retort always being "Don't do it because I'm watching...do it because it's the best thing for these babies!" I've explained and explained and explained why it's so important, but still they act offended at having to do it.

It's just inconceivable behavior, to me.

WildOne · May 25, 2012

I've only been a nurse for about 2 months working at a hospital as a float nurse. (lucky me FT)

I'm SICK AND TIRED OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS:

1. The patient that calls you everytime you enter their room (4 bed rooms)

2. Patients who are SO UNGRATEFUL- for example i was showering a pt this morning and putting on gloves after bringing cream to put on her back and she started screaming at me to help her (she was fine, water off in comode chair NOT CONFUSED.) I said im coming hun just a sec. She kept screaming it REALLY TICKED ME OFF. And everytime i gave her anything she gave me this confused face, or complained about little things i had already given her meds/solutions for.

For example told me she had a headache i gave her tylenol 2 minutes later i go in to check on someone else and she calls me and tells me the meds arent working...im like SERIOUSLY? by the end of the shift i thought i was going to go nuts on her because she started acting like I havent done anything for her the entire shift. When i explained this to her she would Jekyl and Hyde by patting my back (with the hand she used to pick her nose) and tell me how great i am.

3. Families who want YOU to answer all their questions AFTER the MD has just left

4. RUDE DOCTORS who think their above you in every day

5. Nurses who just stare at you/try to show their better than you. SERIOUSLY WE NEED TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER

6. Student nurses who dont really want to be nurses and thus are rude and messy which you need to clean up after when they go for their 2 hour lunch break

7. Inadequate-Little supplies

...I find the most annoying thing though is number 2..ungrateful demanding patients SERIOUSLY im not your maid and I dont understand why they would have this conception that there is one nurse per patient? because thats seriously how they act like it.

Savvy20RN, BSN, RN · May 25, 2012

I've only been a nurse for about 2 months working at a hospital as a float nurse. (lucky me FT)
3. Families who want YOU to answer all their questions AFTER the MD has just left
I dont understand why they would have this conception that there is one nurse per patient? because thats seriously how they act like it.

Yes, yes, yes! I dislike when patients and their families wait until after the doctor leaves and then come up with 10,000 questions they should have asked the doc before they left. They then ask you to call the doctor back to their room. I will if the doctor is still on the floor. If not then you'll simply have to wait until he/she either rounds the next morning or is on the floor later in the day. I even give my patients paper and pencils so that they can write down their questions before the doctor gets there. I may not see the doc when they round so they need to ask too. Patients STILL refuse to ask questions and when the doctors ask them if they need anything say no and then ask me why the doctor didn't change their pain medication or didn't order benadryl for their constant itching....um, because you said you didn't need anything!!!!!! Now I have to stop what I'm doing to call the doctor who was just on the floor five minutes ago. -sigh-

Also, patients please stop lying about your needs. I come in to reassess your pain or ask if you need anything. You say you're fine. I walk out of the room and five seconds later you call me back into the room complaining that you're in pain or that you need to pee...or...the list goes on and on.

Mphillipsrn · May 25, 2012

Had a doctor go into my patients room once (laughable, but that's where the story could stop and be humorous) who was receiving blood. Blood was running slow because pt was c/o being too cold. So it had been running 3 hours already. Doctor proceeds to bump it down more cause pt complaints. I ask him, are you going to write the order for that? Answer: no. I explain to him that it'll run over 4 hours and I'll get in trouble if he doesn't. He explains that he doesn't care. I said ok. Wrote a verbal order and he tells me he's not signing it. I get written up. I refuse to sign the write up and point to a nurses note I had made about the incident. Moral of story: don't be a douche because someone is taking note of it, literally.

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN · May 25, 2012

The things that I'm tired of:

1) Non-compliant drama queen/kings for patients. Won't take their BP meds, shocked when they have a stroke. Won't take their insulin/watch their diet, shocked when they have a stroke/MI/amputation. Won't monitor their fluid intake, end up in fluid overload, and the poor dialysis tech that has already been at work 15 hours gets to stay for 3 more to try to prevent them from getting flash edema -- every month for the same patient.

2) DKAs. These people make me crazy. It's one thing if you've been sick, post op, and your sugar gets out of whack, can happen to anybody. But the folks we see every 3 weeks, tell us "oh, I've been following the diet, taking my fsbs and insulin" and they've gained 5 pounds, have NO marks where they've been testing their sugar, and their a1c is 11, up from 10.5 the last time? And they act completely hateful. You don't like IVs, then treat your diabetes!

3) Family members who treat you like a dog. Million horror stories.

4) Docs who won't listen, then throw you under the bus.

5) Co-dependent families, weird families, and people who want to have sex while the patient's in the hospital. I mean, come on, that's just freaking nasty!

6) People who aren't nurses telling me how nurses need to be endlessly loving, endlessly approving, take anything without complaint because it's a calling and how wonderful my "calling" is -- well, I've got half a cup of "calling" all over my favorite shoes. It says "nurse" on my tag, not "saint."

I need a vacation. I read that NASA was putting people in isolation for 4 months with no physical human contact (email and video okay) to see what would happen if a Mars mission went bad, and only one person survived to try to come back to earth. I really, seriously thought about signing up.

wooh, BSN, RN · May 25, 2012

I read that NASA was putting people in isolation for 4 months with no physical human contact (email and video okay) to see what would happen if a Mars mission went bad, and only one person survived to try to come back to earth. I really, seriously thought about signing up.

That sounds MAGICAL. Would totally love that! (As long as you get internet.)

NO50FRANNY · May 25, 2012

I once heard one of our ICU nurses say, "the best patient is a paralysed, sedated orphan". These days I truly agree a great deal of the time.