2 questions in one day... but my job is driving me nuts. Other than staff exposing staff to covid, our hospital is trying to suspend our ratios so we can take as many covid pts as they want. Yesterday my covid pt crashed and I had to transfer her to ICU and help stabilize. Took me almost an hour and a half. My 2 other covid pts left unattended. Most of other staff helping me with sick pt.
One nurse is known to do this, and yesterday did it again. He answers call lights and is usually helpful. But with covid pts he answers, says your nurse will be with you soon, doesn't check what they need or if it's urgent. Then doesn't mention to the covid nurse that they called. Yesterday it happened while I was with the ICU pt. My covid pt called for help, he told her I'd be there soon, didn't check on her, didn't tell me when I got back. She was mad and scared no one will come if she has an emergency. Had to smooth things over. He did it to another nurse when her young pt needed help to commode because dizzy and so many wires. She ended up being incontinent and crying. The primary nurse always has to explain and smooth things over.
I feel unprofessional telling pts I was with another pt who was having an emergency and that I wasn't informed they called, but what is the alternative? Them thinking I'm ignoring them and not trusting me? I apologize and try extra hard to make it up. But I'm so frustrated. I want to talk to this nurse soon. I hardly get upset but yesterday I was rude and impatient with everyone. I feel this stress is changing me. Plus they're talking about training this guy for charge. He has less than a year on our floor and I have 3. My coworkers want me to do it but not my boss. Insulting. I have a new job in outpatient PACU and planning to stay per diem here. But now I want to quit. But scared outpatient stuff will shut down because the surge in CA is bad. We brag about being liberal and believing in science, yet I see people having parties and going to Vegas and our state is one of the worst in the US now. What do you think? thank you if you read this whole thing! Sometimes I feel we're worse than the "anti-maskers" because it feels fake and hypocritical for people to look down on those people and talk about how they're doing their part while simultaneously having huge thanksgiving parties and causing covid nurses to suffer. Nurses work holidays every year to care for you, you can skip the holidays ONCE to care for us.
Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.
53 minutes ago, RealNurseMom said:
Any other floor nurse could of listened out for you patients, no matter how busy it was on your unit.You should never leave the unit without giving someone report on your patients. Doesn’t need to be a full report but should include basics (ex. 503b - Full code, 2L oxygen, chest tube to water seal, needs walker to get OOB..)
Trust me, I never leave the unit without notifying someone and a brief handoff. But in this situation we were so short staffed that all the other nurses were in their own covid rooms while my pt desaturated to 71% on max high flow with a nonrebreather on top. If I took the time to take off PPE and go knock on the door of another room to give report my pt would have died. I think I did my best =( Short staffed covid units are just really tough, and patient care suffers, it's not safe for patients or staff. I totally understand I'm not the only one going through this though, so if anyone else needs to "covid vent" feel free to add to the thread or message me for support ?
Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
First- you should ask questions whenever you need to. That's the whole point of a forum like this.
For your situation, obviously COVID is putting people into situations that they are unlikely to experience in "normal" times. Sounds like there were a bunch of points where things could have gone better in this case. It sounds like this patient should have triggered you to call a rapid response if they were that unstable. That "should" get you some resources in responding nurses and therapists. It's nearly impossible for a floor to absorb the loss of a nurse for that long of a period of time. Wasn't there a supervisor around? Why were you the only one transporting this patient? As an ICU nurse that receives upgraded patients, in my experience the previous nurse, (not being an ICU nurse), returns to their unit as soon as the patient is transferred. You are not responsible for care in the ICU. If that nurse couldn't take care of the patient, he or she should have called a rapid response and got the support needed, not roped you into staying that long.
I think your question was more related to the coworker that "answered" your lights. Things like that are going to happen. Not everyone steps up like they should. Did you ask your coworker why they didn't go in the room, or immediately tell you your patient needed something? Did the patient never ring again? Most patients do understand that you have a full assignment and emergencies happen. I usually just apologize for the delay and move on, if pressed by the patient I might add minimal information about an emergency.
The charge issue is a whole separate ballgame. Good luck with deciding your job situation, I don't really have any specific advice.
Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.
9 hours ago, JBMmom said:
First- you should ask questions whenever you need to. That's the whole point of a forum like this.
For your situation, obviously COVID is putting people into situations that they are unlikely to experience in "normal" times. Sounds like there were a bunch of points where things could have gone better in this case. It sounds like this patient should have triggered you to call a rapid response if they were that unstable. That "should" get you some resources in responding nurses and therapists. It's nearly impossible for a floor to absorb the loss of a nurse for that long of a period of time. Wasn't there a supervisor around? Why were you the only one transporting this patient? As an ICU nurse that receives upgraded patients, in my experience the previous nurse, (not being an ICU nurse), returns to their unit as soon as the patient is transferred. You are not responsible for care in the ICU. If that nurse couldn't take care of the patient, he or she should have called a rapid response and got the support needed, not roped you into staying that long.
I think your question was more related to the coworker that "answered" your lights. Things like that are going to happen. Not everyone steps up like they should. Did you ask your coworker why they didn't go in the room, or immediately tell you your patient needed something? Did the patient never ring again? Most patients do understand that you have a full assignment and emergencies happen. I usually just apologize for the delay and move on, if pressed by the patient I might add minimal information about an emergency.
The charge issue is a whole separate ballgame. Good luck with deciding your job situation, I don't really have any specific advice.
Thanks! Unfortunately, we are the rapid response team (Stepdown nurses). ICU is the code blue team. Basically both units are just so overrun with covid that we are starting to kind of do team nursing, Stepdown nurses taking care of ICU pts under direction from ICU team until an ICU nurse can take over. It's getting worse so we may have to do full on team nursing soon, as in all of us Stepdown nurses take ICU patients but work under the ICU nurses, so we do everything except vents and certain drips. Scary! I agree these are unprecedented times, and most (alert and oriented) pts seem to see how busy everyone is and be understanding, thank God ?
LibraNurse27, BSN, RN
972 Posts
Trust me, I never leave the unit without notifying someone and a brief handoff. But in this situation we were so short staffed that all the other nurses were in their own covid rooms while my pt desaturated to 71% on max high flow with a nonrebreather on top. If I took the time to take off PPE and go knock on the door of another room to give report my pt would have died. I think I did my best =( Short staffed covid units are just really tough, and patient care suffers, it's not safe for patients or staff. I totally understand I'm not the only one going through this though, so if anyone else needs to "covid vent" feel free to add to the thread or message me for support ?