New nurse getting yelled at by supervisor nurse

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As a new nurse of 3 months, how do I deal with supervisor nurse yelling at me?

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Listen to what she is complaining about behind the anger. Make necessary changes and there should be less yelling as time goes on. If she is not yelling about something concrete, but simply losing emotional control, then you will really have a problem. Realize that you can not necessarily cause her to change her behavior, you can only control how you react to her.

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Ok as being a new nurse in a skilled Bering facility I was yelled at because I did not call hospice and get a new order for morphine q hr when client was active dying. She told me I was making client feel worse. This were her words.

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I was never informed of proper procedure for hospice care. My point is, yellling at me and making me feel like I'm contributing to patient suffering was wrong. As a new nurse, I'm still learning.

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Raising her voice is what is causing me anxiety. Several other nurses are very supportive of the fact that I am new. I can't handle someone raising their voice at me. It's not the first time she has done this.

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"Yelling" should not be occurring in a professional environment. Where I work it can cause an immediate suspension.

A meeting to discuss what happened and what is expected should take place, but there's a constructive way to go about it.

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Yes, I totally agree! Thank you.

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Specializes in Case Manager/Administrator.

Was she yelling or did she raise her concerned voice. Is this her routine communication? As many years of manager experience I have been firm fair and consistent. My voice is already big as evidenced by not needing a microphone in a group of say a class room they can hear me in the back very well.

Yelling should never occur and this is a form of verbal abuse in the work environment (when my kids were younger teens this was a different story).

After the situation I would want to have a one to one conversation with the person and say I thank you for wanting to ensure I am doing what is right and teaching me but wow you really raised your voice until it felt like you were yelling at me and when I get yelled at it makes me feel uncomfortable and perhaps a little discouraged. Next time you see me doing something that needs to be improved can you talk to me without yelling I would feel more comfortable and more than likely remember to do the task your way, rather than just remember you yelling.

Lastly when you say I was never informed of the proper Hospice procedure may I suggest in a normal voice you should always review, a nursing task before you actually do a task, if you do not know the proper procedure. I get nervous when nurses tell me they did not know the procedure. It is your responsibility to know what to do with your patient and if you do not know ask before you work with your patient and their intervention needs. It is your license on the line you have worked hard for it...with my first job as a nurse way long time ago I asked what are the top 10 procedures we do on a daily basis and made copies of those 10 procedures, at the end of the month I knew each and everyone of those procedures inside and out.

Good Luck to you.

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Specializes in PICU.

OP:

When you say yelling, I imagine someone is screaming at you versus someone in a stern voice correcting behaviors. Your supervisor could have chosen other words other than "you are making the patient feel worse", but it sounds like you may not have known what to do, and the supervisor was frustrated that you did not know what to do. Not every supervisor has the gift to calmly explain things, nor does everything need to be explained in a nice way. I too am sensitive, especially when I could have done things better, but errors and actions do need to be noted so as to improve and be corrected.

Raising voices does not equal screaming. Had the supervisor tried to talk to y0ou before? Was there anything else going on at the time? I think you should try and talk to your supervisor and state in a calm normal voice tone.....

I noted that you seemed to raise your voice during the situation, what are ways that I could improve for the next time? Then you should try and state, I realize I should have known what to do, but when you raised your voice it only increased my anxiety. I would like to improve, what are ways I can do this

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Tell her "Ma'am, it is inappropriate and unprofessional for you to be speaking to me in this aggressive manner. I am requesting that you stop immediately."

Ensure that you have a reliable witness when this convo occurs. Be willing to speak to her supervisor if she refuses to act right. Document everything in case she "has it out for you".

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Was she yelling or did she raise her concerned voice. Is this her routine communication? As many years of manager experience I have been firm fair and consistent. My voice is already big as evidenced by not needing a microphone in a group of say a class room they can hear me in the back very well.

Yelling should never occur and this is a form of verbal abuse in the work environment (when my kids were younger teens this was a different story).

After the situation I would want to have a one to one conversation with the person and say I thank you for wanting to ensure I am doing what is right and teaching me but wow you really raised your voice until it felt like you were yelling at me and when I get yelled at it makes me feel uncomfortable and perhaps a little discouraged. Next time you see me doing something that needs to be improved can you talk to me without yelling I would feel more comfortable and more than likely remember to do the task your way, rather than just remember you yelling.

Lastly when you say I was never informed of the proper Hospice procedure may I suggest in a normal voice you should always review, a nursing task before you actually do a task, if you do not know the proper procedure. I get nervous when nurses tell me they did not know the procedure. It is your responsibility to know what to do with your patient and if you do not know ask before you work with your patient and their intervention needs. It is your license on the line you have worked hard for it...with my first job as a nurse way long time ago I asked what are the top 10 procedures we do on a daily basis and made copies of those 10 procedures, at the end of the month I knew each and everyone of those procedures inside and out.

Good Luck to you.

She didn't know to call Hospice for MSO4 renewal. How can she review what she doesn't know she doesn't know? Otherwise, right on about the yelling.

OP, just calmly tell the yeller that you would like her to not yell at you, just calmly and quietly and courteously tell you what you did wrong (through no fault of your own in this case) and how to fix it.

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