New nurse blues.

[epiphany]

I have been working as an extern, and am due to start officially in a month in this unit after my nclex. This puts me in the fortunate position of observing the floor before I take the job. But something is happening that is really disheartening. MD's (mostly residents) have very poor patient communication skills. For example, many get very rude and visibly annoyed at the patients for not holding still during a painful procedure - like taking arterial blood. I watch them blaming the patients for screwing up their "work" simple because they flinch when the needle goes in - "look what you've done!" As part of my gofer/extern duties it's my job to calm down the patients and it usually does the trick when I empathize with their pain, warn them about what will happen, and ask them nicely to hold still.

Anyhooo, my point is, what are your experiences regarding this? Isn't there a general protocol for patient's pain be a primary concern? Is this a particularly unsympathetic place I am going to be working at, or does this happen else where? How do you deal with this? Any insights? I do wonder if it has anything to do with the patients being poor and many being new immigrants who don't speak much English - because in my clinicals in richer hospitals, patients would not put up with this. I want to work in community hospitals such as this, and I am willing to put up with lack of resources, but it seems like I'm going to have to put up with poor care - what with the bad attitudes and interns who won't be teaching me anything. So, it gives me gratification to work with people who are really in need, but will this sort of thing turn me bitter and disillusioned?

Oy vey...

[Happy-ER-RN, RN]

I have seen a lot of the same things. I am shocked at how cruel nurses and doctors are to some patients. I guess they just get sick of dealing with the same kinds of people over the years. Tonight we had a suicidal "overdose" and the nurse was so rude to the poor guy it made me sick. Yeah, the guy probably just did it for attention, but he's a human being who is so desparate for some kind of attention he is willing to take negative attention. He's suicidal for a reason and a nurse treating him like dirt is only reaffirming his belief that the world is horrible and not worth living in. I just don't understand why you would choose to work a job where you are supposed to help people--and then get irritated at the people because they need help.

:angryfire

[epiphany]

I just don't understand why you would choose to work a job where you are supposed to help people--and then get irritated at the people because they need help.

:angryfire

Well said. This is how I am thinking: with nasty nurses, I am going to try to ignore them (not the ideal, but what can I do?) because I work autonomously with my own patients. You can't ignore the doctors when they are behaving badly with the pts, because I am going to feel protective of my pts, so how do I deal with this? I suppose I will find a way, but I really need to vent.