LAZY NURSES

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Mar 11, 2011

Did you ask why it took 2 hours to get there? Was she sitting around doing nothing. Or could it be that there were other pts she had to see. Maybe an emergency happened. Hell just the other day we had a pt die before the nurse even came to asses them for the morning. Things happen that can draw attention away from the other rooms. So either say she was sitting on her butt doing nothing or get off your high horse.

HardworkeRN1234 · Mar 11, 2011

I have a feeling that once we enter the real working world we are all going to get lazier... especially after several years. Some of the nurses I work with at clinical seem kind of lazy (and easily PO'd) but they've been doing this a while and have a right imo as long as they get everything done and the pts are cared for. We're all going to lose our initial spark and youth too for that matter... and when we do will slow down.

FLmomof5 · Mar 11, 2011

Rude awaking coming for OP one day.

morningland · Mar 11, 2011

I think the OP is an example of the type of nurse you DON'T want to be... quick to judge and focusing on things that don't make a freakin' difference. Who gives a crap if it is a low molecular weight Heparin (lovenox)... how does that make any difference to the patients situation?

Here is a little pointer... not everyone can be Florance Nightengale like you bud

Maybe the nurse was having a bad day? Maybe she had 3 other high acuity patients that took PRIORITY over that patient?

The OP has just really come off sounding like an arrongant jerk ("she waddled into the room"... dude where is your class towards your coworkers?). You are gonna have a rude awaking one day to what truly is and how hard it is.

Our teachers always warned us about the cocky students... in the end they make the most dangerous nurses.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 13, 2011

We have a new instructor at our school, she was a clinical instructor and now is teaching too. She is WONDERFUL, never heard a student say a bad thing about her as a CI just how wonderful she is. She has been a nurse for 20 years and is still a current nurse in the ICU. She was done ED, Trauma, Med/Surg and ICU for many many years, this lady is SMART and knows her stuff. Cardiac is one of her specialties, she is a patient advocate and teaches her students to do the same.

We had another wonderful teacher retire and it is his class she is taking over. She looked at our Med/Surg final we had the previous semester. It is the class she is now teaching. She look at the final we took and said that she couldn't answer half the stuff on it and that she was going to be changing a lot on it.

My point, Nurses in the "real world" learn what information is important to retain. As students we are crammed with all this new information, overloaded with learning it all in a quick amount of time. There is no way to remember it all. Unless maybe you are Rainman. I will hear a drug and know the name is familiar but can't remember what it is because I haven't seen it since pharm class 1st semester. It doesn't mean I am stupid. I don't know if this nurse was actually lazy, but I am guessing although she might not have remembered that particular heparin was called "Low molecular weight" heparin. She knew what it did and the precautions that need to be made with it and truly that is what is important.

I have been in clinical plenty of times when the nurse might not have gotten to one of their 5 patients until 2 hrs into the shift. That patient was a very stable patient and the other patients were higher acuity, a lot of meds and other things that took priority. If this patient was a 1:1 than even better, that means someone is in the room and surely if something went wrong you as the sitter in the room would know to push the staff alert button to notify of an urgent matter. The patient obviously still needs meds and to be assessed and what not, but it wasn't as if the patient was alone at the moment and doesn't sound like the patient was emergent.

Also the nurses I have been with might not get right into the patient rooms right away because they are also very active in patient care. Not even because they "have" to be as their were CNA's on the floor doing patient care. But my nurses I was with saw something needed to be taken care of and so they did it. They didn't page the aide, they did it themselves. I can't tell you how many nurses I have helped with a bed change, or a code brown and so on when their was an aide at the nurses station currently not with a patient. It was because the nurse WANTED to do it themselves, so yes it might take more time with them being with the patient, and it might take a little longer to move on to the next patient. But it surely wasn't because they were lazy or uncaring.

Just the way I see it.

Seth O Scope · Mar 13, 2011

As seems the norm on these forums everyone pounces on the OP for being judgemental and a jerk yada yada yada. Then they start making judgements on the OP, very ironic and hypocritical. Then they, who were not there at the time start coming up with excuses for the nurse about which the OP made the observation, very heroic coming to the aid of the damsel in distress. I will not speculate whether or not that nurse is lazy or dumb; however, the OP is not the first to say that some nurses are lazy this has been said by patients, family of patients, doctors, other nurses and so on. The point is some nurses are lazy some are not, who are you posters to go and defend a nurse that you did not see in action. Maybe the OP was quick to judge or maybe not, but I unlike you can see the point of the post and not fixate on one sentence and start going off on the OP.

anonymousstudent · Mar 13, 2011

Retract your flame guns people, venting is permitted on this forum. If you don't like it shut your mouth and move on.

morningland · Mar 13, 2011

As seems the norm on these forums everyone pounces on the OP for being judgemental and a jerk yada yada yada. Then they start making judgements on the OP, very ironic and hypocritical. Then they, who were not there at the time start coming up with excuses for the nurse about which the OP made the observation, very heroic coming to the aid of the damsel in distress. I will not speculate whether or not that nurse is lazy or dumb; however, the OP is not the first to say that some nurses are lazy this has been said by patients, family of patients, doctors, other nurses and so on. The point is some nurses are lazy some are not, who are you posters to go and defend a nurse that you did not see in action. Maybe the OP was quick to judge or maybe not, ut I unlike you can see the point of the post and not fixate on one sentence and start going off on the OP.

I see your point but the OP didn't just state an opinion but insulted a nurse that he only saw for a day. He called her for her weight and made called her stupid for a very unfair reason. I personally take great personal offence to this as it promotes the toxic notion that nurses eat their young and I myself feel stupid at work and hate people make me feed that fire. I personally don't like an attitude that thinks others are stupid just because they are not on their own knowledge level. Furthermore, I feel that knowledge is a very small part of nursing and isn't a good judge on how one stands as a nurse.

I can acknowledge my own fault for my reaction but I guess I am just as passionate about my response as the OP is about his. I guess it comes down to the fact that I just don't like people who come off as know it alls... but that is just me. It's not that I am right and he is wrong... I just don't like his attitude and would hate to work around someone like that in the field.

morningland · Mar 13, 2011

Retract your flame guns people, venting is permitted on this forum. If you don't like it shut your mouth and move on.

But if he can vent, why can't I? I am just dishing out the same dish he served to someone else :)

DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN · Mar 13, 2011

This is the OP's perception/opinion. I think he/she is entitled to it.

I have a family member who is in hospital a lot. Their comments are illuminating. I also spend a great deal of time with this family member in hospital. There are some nurses who are either dim or are not interested in the details. I cannot tell which -- although with some it seems obvious. What I also know is that med/surg is not ICU -- completely different nursing required.

I have observed many nurses who do not get in to do a shift assessment very quickly. Even as long as four hours. Personally, I would feel very twitchy if I did not assess my patients' baselines MUCH earlier than that. Stuff happens though. I don't know that I can judge a nurse on something like that when I observe it only once.

I will say that I gather this nurse was overweight from your remark "waddled". I find that quite an unpleasant remark. Make sure you don't mistake overweight for lazy.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 13, 2011

As seems the norm on these forums everyone pounces on the OP for being judgemental and a jerk yada yada yada. Then they start making judgements on the OP, very ironic and hypocritical. Then they, who were not there at the time start coming up with excuses for the nurse about which the OP made the observation, very heroic coming to the aid of the damsel in distress. I will not speculate whether or not that nurse is lazy or dumb; however, the OP is not the first to say that some nurses are lazy this has been said by patients, family of patients, doctors, other nurses and so on. The point is some nurses are lazy some are not, who are you posters to go and defend a nurse that you did not see in action. Maybe the OP was quick to judge or maybe not, but I unlike you can see the point of the post and not fixate on one sentence and start going off on the OP.

I am fully aware their are bad nurses out their, I always make a mental note when I see one of what not to do. I would have to go and recheck but I am pretty sure the OP said that all the nurses on the floor they are at are dumb or stupid or something along those lines. Seems they also made a lot of assumptions about the nurses on their floor and how they feel about their patients.

If you are going to come to a nursing board, trash all the nurses on your floor, come off sounding a little full of yourself and you are not even a nurse yet to know what fully goes into being a nurse, on your own. You have to expect that is going to ruffle some feathers.