Looking for truly honest answers

[karen230]

Hi All,

I currently work full-time and am hoping to make a career change to Nursing. I have applied for a position that isn't exactly suitable for me now but would be perfect once I attend school full-time. Anyway, it is clerical support in a Psyc Center and I am just wondering how well the staff nurses get along with their clerical support at your facilities. I have seen threads on the Student Nurse board or some even on the First Yr Nurse board that talk about Nurses being very nasty to the new kid on the block. I have also heard stories of how the docs yell at the nurses alot for dumb stuff and was just wondering what it is like for the clerical staff. I worked at a healthcare facility once as a receptionist and the job (based on where I was sitting and the duties) was clearly the bottom of the barrel in the place. I can remember that most of the Nurses in the place wouldn't even look my way when they walked by. I unfortunately am the type to say hello or good morning and believe very strongly in common curtesy. But sometimes I get the impression that some nurses get on their high horse and look down their nose at the little people. Maybe this isn't the right place to ask this question and I hope I don't offend anyone by asking it, but I would really like to have an opportunity to stay in my current position and just have to go to a different location and work less hours. Right now I don't work with any nurses. There is even a nurse a my GP's office that I can't stand, she is the type to look down her nose at you. I saw her in the grocery store once and didn't approach her just smiled and she turned her head away as if she couldn't be bothered. Later I saw her again and she would only look in my direction with her eyes. Like I said before, I strongly believe in common curtesy and a simple smile was all the hello I needed.

Maybe some of you will feel that possibly I have chosen the wrong career. But I truly love to help others and nursing is a thankless job. I don't care if a patient doesn't say thank you but I feel that co-workers should have common curtesy towards each other and the staff they work with. Can anyone give me an honest answer as to how the nurses and clerical staff get along? Do they seem to work as a team or are the nurses always complaining about what the secretary did?

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

Like anything anywhere, it all depends on the facility. What the mindset is above impacts and trickles down below. I am very sorry that that work environment is so caustic where staff have and demonstrate so little respect for each other. If so, then another facility may eventually need to be sought out for your own sanity. So, No...this does not exist everywhere. In my experience, the clerical staff are very well respected...with doctors respecting them the most, then the nurses. No...this nurse you describe has real personality issues of her own. Do not judge nursing as a whole on a few bad apples...nor judge the type of work you provide by it. Give this particular nurse little of your energy and personal time. Focus instead on your work and on the love of your service that you provide. Just like this nurse can certainly choose her own happiness, she can also choose her own misery...as well as attempt to make it miserable for others in her company. Do not give her that power. Seek it instead in yourself.

My best to you

Wolfie

[buttercup99]

I agree

It really does depend on the individual workplace. If you think about it you'll realise that you can't generalise among nurses or workplaces.

The nurse you are speaking of is not representative of normal society and has huge problems of her own! Good luck in your career change, are you planning to go into psych nursing?

[karen230]

I agree

It really does depend on the individual workplace. If you think about it you'll realise that you can't generalise among nurses or workplaces.

The nurse you are speaking of is not representative of normal society and has huge problems of her own! Good luck in your career change, are you planning to go into psych nursing?

I am truly not sure. I currently work at a job where there are several places I can work without losing my retirement seniority and with only a couple years left before I am vested for retirement, I would prefer to try and find something within the current system. An affliated facility happens to by a Psyc Center. They have a part-time position (which will be beneficial to me once I have to attend NS full-time). The job is clerical in nature which is what I currently do and it is 2 10 hour days on Sat. and Sun only which frees me up for NS during the week. The only problem is that I wasn't planning on working part-time until it got closer to full-time school and right now that is still at least 9 months away (I'm hoping to go in the Fall, I'm on a waiting list for my last pre-req for the Spring semester). So it is a difficult decision to make for me right now. Financially I'm not ready to go part-time but part-time at my current employer (especially with these ideal hours) are not that easy to get. So I'm basically at a loss on whether I take an early financial hit and go part-time now or wait for the next opportunity to come along and hope that the days/hours will be NS friendly.

[karen230]

Thanks for both your replies ladies. I wanted to believe that clerical support staff and nursing staff could co-habitate together but from what little I have been exposed to so far, it didn't look very promising.

[elkpark]

Was your previous work experience with unpleasant nurses in a psychiatric setting? I've worked in lots of different healthcare settings over the years, and have found (in general, there is always the exception! :)) that people in psych settings tend to be pretty mellow and get along with each other. I've also found psychiatrists to be more mellow and to get along better with the other staff than docs in other areas (again, there's always an exception somewhere!)

[karen230]

Was your previous work experience with unpleasant nurses in a psychiatric setting? I've worked in lots of different healthcare settings over the years, and have found (in general, there is always the exception! :)) that people in psych settings tend to be pretty mellow and get along with each other. I've also found psychiatrists to be more mellow and to get along better with the other staff than docs in other areas (again, there's always an exception somewhere!)

No it wasn't at a Psych Center but I do have an interview at one next week . It is for a Unit Secretary position, 2 10-hour days (Sat. and Sun.), hopefully it will seem like a good place to work and I will want the position. I'm not ready to go part-time yet but since part-time jobs as a secretary (at least where I work) are hard to get so I guess I take what I can get WHEN I can get it.