Just be professional, period.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

I am a second career nurse, so while I'm not the most experienced in my unit, I'm one of the older ones, which apparently means I'm expected to automatically want to lead/mother everyone. I do love to teach and help anyone, and many times I'm learning still right along with someone while we're working through a situation. We have some younger nurses that are fantastic and some are not, and some my age or older that are about as lazy as they come, some are great. All of a sudden, according to my manager, it's apparently becoming my job (because I'm the charge nurse), to give everyone feedback about not being on their phones so much, not taking selfies at work, and basically being a professional. I'm busy enough doing my own stuff, I don't have the time or desire to police the activities of my coworkers. Not that I never address things, I've had numerous conversations with coworkers skirting the line between positive and constructive feedback. It's just a way for management to pawn off the responsibility for having "courageous conversations", because I'm told that I should address it real time, not let the manager wait and do it. The other day we were slamming busy and the next night I come in and multiple coworkers show me a selfie posted during the shift by a coworker that took the time to label it "emergency procedure" while giving a thumbs up. Um, what?!?! Our manager decided to address it by putting a line in our weekly wrap up that social media use should be limited. That's it. I've got enough adult responsibilities in the rest of my life, I don't need to be the only adult at work. I wish that people would just be professional. Thanks for reading my rant.

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Specializes in OB.

Yuck, how annoying! Rant away. Your manager sounds like a real peach.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

Good title, JBMom.

I feel your pain- If only more people could focus on the moment and not have to be entertained or distracted, our jobs would be so much more fulfilling.

At times I feel as though I am babysitting my coworkers.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
53 minutes ago, LibraSunCNM said:

Yuck, how annoying! Rant away. Your manager sounds like a real peach.

Thanks. Really nice person, but not everyone should be in management. Oh well.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
43 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

Good title, JBMom.

I feel your pain- If only more people could focus on the moment and not have to be entertained or distracted, our jobs would be so much more fulfilling.

At times I feel as though I am babysitting my coworkers.

Yes, maybe we should petition to have a babysitting differential! I've heard that babysitters in my area can get $20 and hour. Better than the extra $1 an hour charge pay. I grew up when your job was your job, not an extension of your social time. If I ever called my parents/friends at work, there better be someone dead or on fire. These days everyone needs to be reachable in case of "emergency", like what outfit to where when they go out. Ugh.

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Absolutely not the job of a charge nurse to change the culture of the unit. You are already leading by example. Compliance with basic standards is not your job, but it does not surprise me that management would love it if you would just fix these problems.

Good luck.

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Specializes in OB.
51 minutes ago, JBMmom said:

Thanks. Really nice person, but not everyone should be in management. Oh well.

In my experience, the people who have the best personality traits to be good managers don't actually want to touch the job with a ten foot pole, and the people who don't are often the ones who end up there.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

Management at Wrongway Regional Medical Center (WRMC) often makes across the board rules and/or creates more documentation and intermittently follows up with the evaluation process when a few staff members do not fulfill the responsibility of their job.

Case in point: MN staff members who primarily work the floor on the geriatric psych unit- LPNs & techs- complained of two charge RNs who rarely or never left the nursing station to help with direct patient care, behaviors, and medical concerns. Instead of meeting with these two RNs and making them accountable, management instituted extra documentation for all charge RNs, on all the psych units, to document that they make patient rounds every two hours.

In a sense, WRMC's management is enabling incompetence and punishing competence. The two RNs aren't any more helpful than they were before and other RNs have to do more documentation!

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
4 hours ago, JBMmom said:

Yes, maybe we should petition to have a babysitting differential! I've heard that babysitters in my area can get $20 and hour. Better than the extra $1 an hour charge pay. I grew up when your job was your job, not an extension of your social time. If I ever called my parents/friends at work, there better be someone dead or on fire. These days everyone needs to be reachable in case of "emergency", like what outfit to where when they go out. Ugh.

My mother used to say - we don't bother you father at work unless the cows are loose or somebody's hair is on fire.

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Just don't do it. The Manager is paid to manage. These ridiculously immature goings-on on the part of professional nurses at work are not your responsibility, unless they are jeopardizing patient care/privacy.

The boss needs to grow up.

Good luck. Oh, and you are not your coworkers' mother.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

The places I have worked, Charge is generally considered the on-staff supervisor for that shift and as such takes on leadership responsibilities. Perhaps this is how your employer sees it as well?

I agree that I would not want that particular part of the job. It puts you in an awkward place of being charged with enacting change with no actual authority to do so. Unless you are the ANM, it sounds like a recipe for resentment all the way around.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
11 hours ago, not.done.yet said:

The places I have worked, Charge is generally considered the on-staff supervisor for that shift and as such takes on leadership responsibilities. Perhaps this is how your employer sees it as well?

I agree that I would not want that particular part of the job. It puts you in an awkward place of being charged with enacting change with no actual authority to do so. Unless you are the ANM, it sounds like a recipe for resentment all the way around.

You're right, and I completely understand that aspect of the role, and I've address MANY staff issues over the course of the past year. I've had to call people out for sleeping at the desk, wearing headphones while on the floor, using appropriate language, etc. Some coworkers thought it was all coming just from me personally, but I've got a thick enough skin that if I'm right I can ignore whatever resentment I get. I'm just getting tired of it. Especially when I address something and then get no backup or follow up from my manager. I am happy to be a clinical resource and to exemplify what I consider to be professional behavior so that I model what I expect. This is just getting to be ridiculous.

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