Okay, so I have admitted in the past to having slight anger management issues. I'm one of these people that, when I get angry, frustrated, upset, whatever... it just tends to come OUT. I've worked on this and I've taken anti-anxiety meds, which have helped. I just have a temper, plain and simple.
Like I said though, I've tried to work on doing more constructive things when I get really angry. If at all possible, if someone/something really ticks me off, I excuse myself and go sit in the bathroom for ten minutes and cool off.
ALL OF THAT having been said... I still really have to vent every now and then. Let me give you the most recent example. This is my third 12 hour shift this week. These three nights, I've had the same hallway. I have a pancreatitis patient, a patient with excrutiating left flank pain of unknown etiology, a patient who just had his gallbladder out but also has severe pain/pain control issues and WAY elevated liver enzymes. A very large lady with a fractured fibula. A small bowel obstruction. And a couple more patients. Several of these patients are also diabetic. Several of them have IV fluids running VERY fast. And, this week two-three of them have had blood pressure issues. This has all translated into LOTS of pain medicine passes, lots of changing of IV bags, lots of finger sticks, lots of early morning meds... just a BUSY BUSY hallway. And what has really been even more frustrating... the other hallway has been CAKE, all week, for the most part. The patients down the other hallway don't even call out all night long. The nurse who had that hallway two nights ago, had a 6am IV flush to do at the end of the shift, and that was IT.
It's been somewhat frustrating, and I'm just TIRED. I don't walk into patient rooms and just start hollering at them "WHY do you keep calling out for pain medicine??? Dammit!!!!" :chuckle, but the last patient that called out for pain medicine a few minutes ago... well, *I* wasn't even the first to complain, my tech was. She was like, "That north hall!!!" and shook her head. I then said something to the effect of "I know! They've just been crazy like that all week!!!" Well, the unit clerk piped up, "Cathy! (me), you know that these patients have NEEDS, and they can't help it!" She says things like this all the time. I realize that they have needs. But I have been run RAGGED this week, and I've been lucky to get a few minutes to sit down at any given time and do much of anything other than some charting. This person is rather judgemental anyway, and lately I feel like any time I say ANYTHING, she's looking at me and scoffing at me and judging me to be this horrible person.
A lot of times I just feel like I'm working in an environment where I'm expected to be Miss Merry Sunshine every minute of the night, and I'm just not like that. In fact, I am a rather negative person and know that I need to perhaps work on that. There are people that work here who also get frustrated and vent and such, but then there are a lot of people who have the above attitude. I think the more that I have sunshine shoved up my butt, the more I'm likely to turn the other way and be negative.
I'm just trying to do my job the best I can and take care of these patients. I could just totally be ignoring them, or taking 30-45 minutes to respond to their pain medicine requests, like I've seen other nurses do in the past.
*sigh* I don't know. I guess I'm just Scrooge. :icon_evil
Wednesday night (when I made the original post) I had had the "middle load" from 7pm-11pm. Meaning I had part of north and part of south. No patients on the west hall. Well, there were three nurses then. At 11pm we went down to two nurses. At that time, I was either going to have to give up part of my patient load and then pick UP more patients than I would normall have to, so that one nurse (me) would have one hall and one nurse would have the other hall AND, no one would have to walk. OR... and this is what I really wanted to do... keep the patients that I had and divide up the rest of the floor as easily and fairly as possible, realizing that the second nurse that was going to be coming in at 11, would have to walk. But, leave it to that same unit clerk... I complained about having to give up some of my patients at 11 and take on mostly new patients so that the floor would be cut evenly in half. Her comment: "Well... I just don't see why anyone should have to WALK". Grrrrr...... yes, it is unfortunate that the 11 o clock nurse would have to do some walking, but really, this situation has happened BEFORE. Anyway, I went ahead and redivided the patient load to cut the floor evenly in half, and went ahead and took the busy north hall that I'd had all week, because I know the patients.
I dunno... normally it seems like the halls are pretty even as far as acuity, but when it gets uneven like it did this week... it's unfair. People who assign the rooms should be making sure to assign them by acuity and take into account how acute the rest of one hall is, or take into account how accute a nurse's load is.
This is my third 12 hour shift this week. These three nights, I've had the same hallway. I have a pancreatitis patient, a patient with excrutiating left flank pain of unknown etiology, a patient who just had his gallbladder out but also has severe pain/pain control issues and WAY elevated liver enzymes. A very large lady with a fractured fibula. A small bowel obstruction. And a couple more patients. Several of these patients are also diabetic. Several of them have IV fluids running VERY fast. And, this week two-three of them have had blood pressure issues. This has all translated into LOTS of pain medicine passes, lots of changing of IV bags, lots of finger sticks, lots of early morning meds... just a BUSY BUSY hallway. And what has really been even more frustrating... the other hallway has been CAKE, all week, for the most part. The patients down the other hallway don't even call out all night long. The nurse who had that hallway two nights ago, had a 6am IV flush to do at the end of the shift, and that was IT. 
NurseCard, ADN
2,850 Posts
I appreciate all of your replies! Everyone is just so great here! :blushkiss
This is how our floors are shaped:
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north hall i south hall
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i
i
i
i
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i
Wednesday night (when I made the original post) I had had the "middle load" from 7pm-11pm. Meaning I had part of north and part of south. No patients on the west hall. Well, there were three nurses then. At 11pm we went down to two nurses. At that time, I was either going to have to give up part of my patient load and then pick UP more patients than I would normall have to, so that one nurse (me) would have one hall and one nurse would have the other hall AND, no one would have to walk. OR... and this is what I really wanted to do... keep the patients that I had and divide up the rest of the floor as easily and fairly as possible, realizing that the second nurse that was going to be coming in at 11, would have to walk. But, leave it to that same unit clerk... I complained about having to give up some of my patients at 11 and take on mostly new patients so that the floor would be cut evenly in half. Her comment: "Well... I just don't see why anyone should have to WALK". Grrrrr...... yes, it is unfortunate that the 11 o clock nurse would have to do some walking, but really, this situation has happened BEFORE. Anyway, I went ahead and redivided the patient load to cut the floor evenly in half, and went ahead and took the busy north hall that I'd had all week, because I know the patients.
I dunno... normally it seems like the halls are pretty even as far as acuity, but when it gets uneven like it did this week... it's unfair. People who assign the rooms should be making sure to assign them by acuity and take into account how acute the rest of one hall is, or take into account how accute a nurse's load is.
Ah well.