The other day I was hopping. Manic as ever, from room to room making sure everyone who was post up was in a chair using their IS making certain their diet had arrived on the cart and giving pain meds, really no big deal. However, a patient who was not mine (post op) adjacent to one of my patient's bed was in bed in the morning, in bed in the afternoon and very sleepy indeed, in fact I suspect that the nurse that had her purposely knocked her out with as much Percocet, Vicodin, or Dilauded as was ordered just so she could be sitting at the nurses station chillen with her coworkers.
Understand, this is my personal objective observation, please don't infer that I believe everything I see as being the "truth." Don't get me wrong, this nurse knows her stuff. Has her certificate from the ONS to treat any cancer patient under the sun (well educated).
However I do note, that more than enough times I'll observe her just kicken it, chatting about all her new technical toys, her favorite cologne, her favorite musical group with others. It really shouldn't bother me. Everyone loves her.
She is a popular personality on the floor. In fact, since she is per diem: a shift leader hoped she could sign on to be a permanent staffer.
And heaven forbid you're given her assignment midshift; you might find yourself catching up with things ordered or things that should have been documented not documented such as blood sugars.
Anyone else seen this and questioned in their heart that if it was right? What would you do? Anyone else bothered by the popular personality who seems to get away with not doing the work of nursing?
How many days post oP? what kind of surgery? all of these things make a difference. To assume that they knocked the pt out is different than if they just ignore the pt all together and just don't assist them at getting up or push along the recovery. Either way, they should be doing their job and not slacking. However, you should never ASSuME.
Yes- I am aware of these things. One doesn't have to be a nurse to understand these concepts :) Essentially what I am asking is- did the OP check to make sure that these things *weren't* already done? Just because they did not SEE the patient OOB, doesn't mean the patient hasn't *been* OOB. Ya know? If they know that the nurse IS in fact neglecting these things- OK. But to assume because they hadn't seen it?
The OP clearly stated in her first post:
Understand, this is my personal objective observation, please don't infer that I believe everything I see as being the "truth."
Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
I came on to shift one night and one of the techs walked up to me and said "Did so and so in 714 die?". I stated "I am not sure, I just got here."
Come to find out, when I walked in the room and saw his cool blue lips that the patient was a fresh post-op to the floor, and was at 4 respirations per minute in the room from a PCA/post op Morphine overdose. He survived, thankfully to a close eye during reports and walking rounds.
When I see someone who isn't fussing, even a little bit after surgery I don't have a qualm in the world about stepping in, and watching respirations for a second. If the nurse fusses at me, you can always say they dropped their remote!
Nursing is teamwork, snowing a patient isn't safe. I don't care of they are the official deemed "Angel sent straight from the heavens above to protect all the patients". Everyone messes up.
I get the gist of the OPs suggestion. I see this alot on LTC setting. Yes these people have prns ordered and on occasion they need them, but not every night certain people work so that the next day the resident is zonked out.
I worked with a nurse like this in ICU. She was always the "life of the party" and most people loved her, though if she didn't like you she could make life pure heck! Despite this I really liked her, she just had the type of personality the compelled people to like her. She could be lazy, though, and definitely could leave a lot undone while she flitted around decorating the unit or joking. What was worse was that she was the charge nurse. Whenever I had to take her patients, I always pulled her into the rooms with me to look over the patient, drips, and IV sites. Many times I've found the patients wet, drips empty, IV sites infiltrated, dressing soiled or falling off, etc. So, when we "found" these things together, we would work together to clean things up or fix any minor issues. She would always help out to fix whatever issues I found, so I learned to check those patients before she left the unit.
Actually, I was in the room dealing with the neighbor patient nearly every hour. So, you can come to your own conclusions.
That wasn't specified in the original post- you just said "in bed in the morning, in bed in the afternoon..." so that information- that you were present every hour- does make a difference IMO. My questions were to get clarification- because from the original post- you could have meant anything from you poking your head in for a moment once in the am and once in the afternoon to as you say- being in every hour. Thank you.
I thought the OP was quite clear. Anyway, I agree this does seem to happen a lot. I have seen it mostly, as someone mentioned above, in LTC and it seems that it happens at night when certain nurses work. I worked nights and on my nights off it seemed that every PRN was pulled out and poured down residents throats then the charting for the next day was that the residents were still quite tired and guess what? They stayed awake all night when I had them.
My questions were to get clarification- because from the original post- you could have meant anything from you poking your head in for a moment once in the am and once in the afternoon to as you say- being in every hour. Thank you.
MN BigJ
119 Posts
How many days post oP? what kind of surgery? all of these things make a difference. To assume that they knocked the pt out is different than if they just ignore the pt all together and just don't assist them at getting up or push along the recovery. Either way, they should be doing their job and not slacking. However, you should never ASSuME.