Lazy nurse or what

RNsRNotOutORN · Aug 18, 2012

Charting and flowsheets are preventing quality care from happening. I can't count all the flowsheets we have plus our 8 page ICU flowsheet. Everything you do for a pt is charted somewhere and heaven forbid if you forget to chart it in one of the boxes and your nursing notes. OP, its all the other stuff that make nursing harder than it has to be. Everything comes down on the nurse one way or another. Dietary messed up and brought the wrong jello, the room is too hot or cold, PT didn't get the pt OOB, the doc didn't write for a certain pain med the pt wanted, cable doesn't have enough channels; yep yep, it all comes down on the nurse. Why, because we are there 24/7. Either way, I love it and don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

This hit home to me. You can't chart something in just one place. I find myself having to write the same thing down in three or four different places while there's really a patient down the hall that needs some help. But heaven forbid I help the patient because I have to chart it or it wasn't done. That is the biggest myth in healthcare. Forget that I actually took care of my patient, just put it down in ink and it's done regardless.

Nursing is hard. Why? Because you have such a high level of accountability due to dealing with people's health. The expectation of performance has grown exponentially with the advances in healthcare and technology. So you learn and adapt.

I will never work in healthcare management. I won't shove down someone's throat what I see happening every day. Don't take offense anyone. Plus, the heart of healthcare is at the bedside and that's where I'll stay as long as I'm a nurse. The nurses and aides that I've respected most were those who never complained. They kept their head low and if they had a complaint they took it to the right person at the right time at the right place.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Aug 19, 2012

Let me just say that I have no experience in the healthcare field so this post is base off of everyday life. I am entering the nursing program this fall so i guess i will find out in the near future.....but
Are the nurses who complain just plain lazy or are these hospitals/being a nurse... just that hard?
Throughout my years of working, i find that most of the work is manageable, yet you always have people complain on how hard the job is and how much work they have to do.
Are the complaints of being overworked/overloaded indicative of the life of a typical nurse?

Ouch! Welcome to allnurses.com. But what a negative, insulting post!

Aeterna, BSN, RN · Aug 19, 2012

There are a select few who will complain no matter what. I work with a couple of people who, every day at work, they complain how horrible their shift is going...but, it's hard to take them seriously when they complain as often as they do (and often in long tirades at the nursing station, when they could be spending their time actually working!)

However, I can say that the vast majority of nurses are extremely hard working, sacrificing bathroom and meal breaks to do just a little bit extra for their patients or putting out unexpected "fires". As someone else mentioned, there is always something to do, even things that are not typical nursing duties. I can't count the number of times I've had to chase after pharmacy for meds, dietary staff for wrong meal orders/trays, empty overflowing linen bags and trash cans, getting patients up and walking because physio couldn't get to them, stamping and thinning charts for ward clerks, fixing broken TVs or telephones...and this is on top of everything else I must do as a nurse - assessments, meds (including chemotherapy, which is a beast in and of itself),administering blood products, dressings, toileting patients/cleaning incontinent patients, feeding patients, giving emotional support or education to patients and families, discharges and admissions, processing doctor's orders, and doing your own charting. And then, of course, there are the unexpected things, like a patient becoming critically ill, who suddenly needs your undivided attention (while, perhaps, you have other people calling for your attention!).

There are sometimes good days, there are sometimes decent days, and then there are the days from hell, where you just want to curl up into a corner and cry or maybe just punch a wall a few times. But, as someone else said, you'll only really hear about the shifts from hell over here on AllNurses because those are the times we need to vent the most.

Maevish, ASN, RN · Aug 22, 2012

Wow.....