Insensitive Nurses

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I guess it is because I am new to the critical care field, but I don't understand how some nurses can be so insensitive to patients. I know some patients bring their issues upon themselves due to lifestyle or being non compliant with a disease, but they still are people. When I was giving report at the end of my shift saying the patient failed another wean trial, the nurse interrupted me and pretended to wipe away fake tears and say boohoo while she was laughing with my preceptor! This isn't the first time I have seen this type of behavior, so I was wondering if it is common place? Let me know what you think. Thanks.

I guess my problem with it was she was extremely loud about it as another patient's family was passing by and after another nurse asked her to quiet down since she was on the phone. I understand humor and know when to use it, but I feel she was overly obnoxious. Plus the fact she was interrupting my report to be obnoxious. Thanks for the comments.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

The ICU is a rough place, you are still in the "honeymoon" phase of your career and it's just about time for that "turmoil" phase to set in.

Sigh...is that the name of the phase I'm in right now? What's next on the list? Is there a phase after turmoil? :o

(Said sarcastically, yet realistically....)

Boy, if it weren't for my ability to share dark humor with my coworkers, then I don't know what I'd do.

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Specializes in NICU.
Boy, if it weren't for my ability to share dark humor with my coworkers, then I don't know what I'd do.

Same here.

No one else understands it like your co-workers. No matter how sympathic other people are, they just don't get it, you can try to explain it as much as you want ..... but it's impossible.

Laughing really is good medicine.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
Sigh...is that the name of the phase I'm in right now? What's next on the list? Is there a phase after turmoil? :o

(Said sarcastically, yet realistically....)

Boy, if it weren't for my ability to share dark humor with my coworkers, then I don't know what I'd do.

Hmmm, what could be next? Maybe the boredom stage? Then you change departments and start all over again!:lol2:

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Hmmm, what could be next? Maybe the boredom stage? Then you change departments and start all over again!:lol2:

nah.

after turmoil, comes the innovative stage.

during this time, we learn how to deal with nasty colleagues, families, doctors.

we learn which battles to fight.

we learn to laugh at the absurd:

and learn to defy the impossible.

we learn to pioneer and progress.

we are vanguards in an overwhelmingly mainstream setting.

after this long and struggling stage, is boredom...

or, burn out.

this is when many of us leave the profession.

but not to worry.

we're churning them out q 2 yrs.

not to worry...

leslie

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Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.

I think Jimmy Buffett said it best.

"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane."

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

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There is a point in nursing, where all the medical patient cliches' become real, and every thing has been sucked out of you as a nurse. And you have to laugh, to not cry. The humor can be very dark and bizarre. It is a way of coping, and better than some of the alternatives.

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Lol...oh man...you just described several recent patients of mine to a tee.

The other cliche I'd like to add is that people like that are more often than not allergic to NSAIDS, codeine, demerol, vicodin, and morphine (so all that's left is Oxy/Dilaudid). I actually pointed this out to one of my coworkers with many more years of experience than I have, and she was like, "Wow that's crazy I never really looked at it like that!"

The other thing I want to throw in is this time that I had a patient kick me square in the face. He was mad because I was trying to put his shoes on him in bed instead of letting him dangle his legs off to get his shoes on (unsteady old dude, I was afraid he'd fall off the edge). Anyways, knocked my glasses off onto the floor. I was stunned for a second. Then my brain started working, and I thought, "Here I am, at 4 o clock in the morning, getting my ass whupped by someone's grandpa...I prolly have this dude's footprint on my face now. why the hell aren't I in bed sleeping?" The whole absurdity of the whole situation just hit me. I cracked a smile and suppressed the urge to laugh, "heeheehee," right? Then I looked over at him and he looked like a 4 year old throwing a temper tantrum, and I left the room before I started laughing harder, "Hahahhaha!"

He probably thought he hurt my feelings or something, but really the whole thing was funny to me.

I guess that's pretty insensitive, but whatever. Wait till you get kicked in the face a few times, punched, choked, scratched, lose a patient or two, deal with humans in misery day in and day out. You deal with it or let it eat away at you. Personally I laugh it off and move on with my life. Laughter is a defense mechanism, and according to my old psychology professor it's perfectly healthy. My coping mechanisms allow me to face each patient with a fresh face each night...to go home at the end of the day and forget about work, even if it's for 12 hours until I get back on the merry-go-round.

The nurse that did that "wah wah" thing was kind of being a jerk, but then again she was probably just joking around.

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I have a sarcastic sense of humor. You have to joke around to lighten things up. The bottom line is how that nurse or any nurse cares for her patient. It's one thing to joke, even make nasty remarks. It's another issue when this comes out in their care of their patient.

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