I'm a little upset about something I read on Facebook tonight. Let me start by saying, I usually take things with a grain of salt when it comes to Facebook, but something about this has rubbed me the wrong way. This post comes from an "experienced" nurse and self-proclaimed DON. My issue is not with the care the pts loved one received, but how this nurse vented her feelings towards all new nurses.
Let's all save ourselves the aggravation and debate and agree that what happened to the patient is wrong, and does not work in a culture where Zero Harm should be the goal; however, to say "New nurses are coming out with an insufferable, know-it-all attitude, and overconfident in their skills. New nurses, you're pissing this veteran off". Wait what did just read??? Surely ALL new nurses do not fit this mold, and to assume all new nurses are this way is just wrong.
She also goes on to say "You're the reason I won't hire a nurse with less than three years in the field. I would have fired you for this, and the two nurses before you for patient negligence. I've fired people over less. I hold my nurses to my personal standard, and that bar is set high, ladies and gentlemen. Shame on this nurse. I am embarrassed to call her a member of my noble profession. "
I get it, she's upset, her family member was hurt, but to say that she won't hire new nurses and that these three nurses should be embarrassed to nurses is WRONG. She has forgotten what it is like to go to work everyday terrified that because she is a new nurse she might kill someone. WE ARE ALL HUMAN, mistakes will be made; however, we need the experienced nurses to teach, and to guide and mentor the next generation. Maybe that is what is wrong with that ICU unit is that there isn't a good training program. This is not what I want the public to think about nurses. We should be team members, build each other up, because if one of us falls we all should. Shame on her... I am embarrassed to call her a member of my noble profession.
I've had loved ones in the hospital a lot - especially my mother - and I tend to give the staff the benefit of the doubt and have explained to other family members what can be going on behind the scenes. My mother is pretty familiar with what could be happening after listening to me vent about difficult pts and situations.
If something egregious is done (or NOT done) or something totally inappropriate said, I will advocate for my family no problem.
But overall trying to make the best out of a hospital stay is about impossible when pts and families come in almost trying to have an adversarial tone.
This seems especially true with a few nurses I've had as pts or their families. Fortunately I have also had many nure-pts and nurse - family members who were great and we could all work together on the same team to get the pt back to their best health possible.
While I know that as a new nurse I will make mistakes that perhaps would not have been made by an experienced nurse, her comment about not hiring anyone with less that 3 years experience really got to me. Let's just pretend for a minute that everything happened as claimed. If that nurse didn't regularly perform complete assessments on patients then I doubt that they would suddenly start doing complete assessments, simply because they now have a few years experience. Bad habits like that would not go away unless there had been some sentinel event or something.
I, sorry for the details, peed in my new Banana Republic pants laughing reading the original FB post.
I'd seen so, so many of them. Here comes Her Highest Majesty The Best Nurse priding herself immensely upon her unfailing skill of having bandage scissors with her at all times, and not having the slightest idea that in ICU they are needed rarely, if ever at all. But it just doesn't fit in Her Majesty's picture of reality, so she gets out proudly bashing her ignorance for the whole world to see.
So, if I carry everything Her Highest Majesty apparently does plus tourniquet, flashes, 50 cc NS bag, IV start kit, Koban roll, ECG pads, IllumiVein, 3M sticks, pieces of WoundVac film, 8 pens, 2 lights and Micromedex running on my smartphone, does it mean that I just must be that many times better nurse, or just a born pack rat with too many pockets too big? Honestly suspect the second... am I right?
I love this. This is way better than the original FB post!
nursinpg education has changed from the seventies, when I graduated from my diploma hospital program at 11am, and reported to work at same hospital as charge nurse in CCU, on the 3-11 shift...
Wow! That sounds intense. I would have been terrified!
It wasn't too difficult to find the original post with a little digging.
While she does make a valid point about the pressure dressing being left in place for too long, and the BP cuff covering it (BP cuffs slip- this doesn't mean it was intentional), I think she is being extremely overdramatic, and this rant is divisive and unproductive. It demonstrates poor judgment and poor leadership.
This is way better than the original FB post!
TheCommuter, BSN, RN
102 Articles; 27,612 Posts
The last thing the nursing profession needs is an out-of-touch nurse manager with a dramatic flair and a penchant for throwing staff under the bus.