What happened to team work?

[Nurse Shanta]

I am a nursing student(graduate 12/21/02)working at a hospital as a CNA until I graduate. Last night we had a agency person(because we are often short of help)scheduled to work who did not show....This left on two Nurse assistants for 32 partients, I work on the Med Surge Floor and the hall is divided by the isolation patients and regular patients. The other nurse assistant was working on the hall with the isolation patients(she only had 10) The charge nurse first suggestion was to divide the patients equally 16 each....the nurse assistant hollered and wined so much that she told me I would have 22 patients and she would have only 10 because her end was heavier than mine....(please explain how this is possible) I would like to know why in the world did I have to take care of 22 patients and we had five nurses working this particular night:confused: I had 15 blood sugars that had to be done twice on my shift (I had to take a total of 30 blood sugars) I did not receive an ounce of help from either nurse...their only concern was if I took their blood sugars on time. Is there a law or something against me taking care of this many patients at one time... this is ridiculous! what ever happened to team work!!!! Any suggestions on what I should do the next time this happens..I am sure they would have never given a nurse that many patients.

[Adrena]

Hey Shanta,

sorry to hear about your work experience. It sounds awful and I'm sure that it was.

I don't know about guidelines or regulations in your state but perhaps you could check out union rules (if you're in one that is) and ask nurses on the floor about them.

The only advice that I can give you is to protest next time, stating that that is an unsafe assignment for you and unfair. You could give as examples, the fact that you will not be able to do all the blood sugars on time and if you do have an assignment like that again you are going to be needing help.

Good Luck to you!

[sleepqd]

I'm beginning to wonder if team work is a concept any instructors have ever mentioned to their students. Most of the newbie nurses (or CNAs too, come to think of it) I've been inflicted with in the last few years have a "your patient, my patient" attitude. Thankfully, several of my co-workers have come up thru the ranks like me, so we work well together. Someday the stool specimen will hit the Breeze King and they will be expecting YOUR help.