Published Aug 19, 2008
stilltrying
64 Posts
First I want to say we all have been new nurses, But no one can ever say I was a STUPID nurse. I am an LPN we do buddie nursing on my job. That is not a problem because we are to work together and assist if the other needs it. I work with this Nurse who has been an RN for a little over a year now. The LORD him self is my wittiness along with everybody I work with, this is the stupidest nurse I have Ever seen in my life. The only thing she can do on her own is pass medication. If the Dr. write an order she wants to know who to take it off. One of the cna came to her at about 12:45 and told her a patient had not voided all day. The first thing she says is well charge nurse what shall I do. I said what do you think RN. Her replies was well I guess we should do her vitals first. I told her to call the Dr. and see if he would give an order to st.cath after the vitals were done. First of all she says I don't know how to do that. Will you help me? of course I said yes, after I asked her if she ever tried. I told her let me know when you are ready. @ 3:15 after I thought about the fact she never came back. I went to her and asked did you call the Dr. yet. No the supv. told me to do something else. I asked what was it. She tells me write a note,I told her she should have call the Dr first. Of course she got mad. The supv did not know she needed to call the Dr. The straw that broke the camels back was this when she call the supv. and asked how what position the bed needs to be in when the patient is in it. Their are many other examples but I can't take any more:bluecry1:
Chantilly
150 Posts
Okay I am so not going to take sides here. I can totally see where you are comming from and it would be very frustrating!! But I think that maybe it could have a lot to do with her being a new nurse, maybe she is not confident in her skills or her knowledge and it causes her to doubt herself and seem like she is lost. I think the best thing that you can do is just to help her when she needs it (which it seems as though you already do that). Hopefully you will see her confidence grow, and you never know maybe she just needs one person to have faith in her and she will be able to perform her job better. I am really hoping that she doesn't do anything that would compromise the saftey of your patients, and if in fact she does I think you would have no choice but to report your concerns to your supervisor.
I hope your situation gets better, I know how hard it is to work with people that are kind of clueless.
MB37
1,714 Posts
I don't know this nurse, and she may well be an idiot...but just FYI, I'm a recent grad, and I'll have to ask for help if I straight cath someone. I've done it exactly once, in Fundamentals last November or so. Now, I do know that it's generally the next step after encouraging pt to try and void in various ways. I don't imagine that writing a note takes 2.5 hours either...I'd like to encourage you to give her the benefit of the doubt and try to educate her instead of dismissing her as an idiot, but since I don't know either of you I don't know if she's the type who can be taught.
I am very respectful of my all of my co-workers. This lady is 50 years old and do not like it when you tell her how to do anything. If she is doing it wrong she would rather you just do it the right way,and she is not ashame to say I do not have time for all that. Just do and I will learn later because I don't want to stay late tonight. I feel that I am being very patient with her. This is not her first nursing job. She left the hospital because she said the nurses were too mean. I wonder why. The lady was in orientation for almost 2 months we work in long term care. Come on their comes a time when you need to say I just can not do this!
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
i am very respectful of my all of my co-workers. . .i feel that i am being very patient with her.
this is what you posted. . .i am an lpn. . .this is the stupidest nurse i have ever seen in my life. . .she says is well charge nurse what shall i do. i said what do you think rn. her replies was well i guess we should do her vitals first. i told her to call the dr. and see if he would give an order to st.cath after the vitals were done. first of all she says i don't know how to do that. will you help me? of course i said yes, after i asked her if she ever tried. i told her let me know when you are ready. @ 3:15 after i thought about the fact she never came back. i went to her and asked did you call the dr. yet. no the supv. told me to do something else. i asked what was it. she tells me write a note,i told her she should have call the dr first. of course she got mad.
i'd get upset too. you were acting like a supervisor not a co-worker. lpns can't supervise the nursing of rns. why didn't you just report this to the don?
We work together on our units it does not matter if you are an LPN or RN. If you know how to do something.We do not run to our DON for every thing. Their is a unit mang. on the floor. She tell us to help the new nurses. Most of the RN's in our building are not even IV cert. because they came from other state were it was not apart of the program. So that means if the lab has already come we the LPN has to draw the blood. I'm an RN student now and I pray that I don't be STUCK on those letters like can't nobody tell me anything because I see that is how some RN feel.
suzy253, RN
3,815 Posts
Sounds to me like she's very uncomfortable in her skills.
And your post said 'she tell us to help the new nurses'........so this nurse is new and perhaps you should be helping her become comfortable with her surroundings. Hey...I didn't get IV certified in my 3-year nursing program...never inserted an IV until new RN orientation...two years ago.
She is very nervous with everything she does. But when we try to let her do thing on her own she feels we are not willing to help. She is from Calf. she says they had very little clinicls of course I don't know that because we are not in that state now. But I'm going to try realllllllllllly hard to stay patient with her. Their are only 2 IV cert nurses on our unit, and we work opposite days. That's not a big deal the big deal is as nurses their are simple things we should know that she just can't get. no one should have to call the supv 4x in 15 min. for stupid stuff. We all have weak and strong points. She said she was really smart in school. I have to study really hard.
sbyramRN
304 Posts
I had no idea an RN had to be "IV certified". I am a nursing student and I can start IV's...where are you located that a nurse has to be "IV certified". I think your information is wrong on that one.
LOL I'm in Florida. And if you were to even touch a IV in FL and someone reported you to the FBON you will not be able to site boards. You will be fined for practicing with a license. Fl is one of the strictest states about every little thing. I don't know why that is, but we had to go to a board hearing when I was in school. That was one of the scariest things I had ever seen NO compassion what so ever.
Sit boards oops
OldShoesRock
14 Posts
Wow. I am a senior in an accelerated RN program now. I have NEVER heard of a RN having to be "certified" and I just moved from California to Mississippi, and am familiar with many other state's nursing practices. As an RN, we are licensed...and we ARE instructed on it... LPN's are not allowed unless they have been trained and certified. Your language and spelling errors make you seem to be the stupid one. I am sorry, but you should at least use spell check when posting. Your attitude is poor, and you should be more worried about the patients instead of complaining about your coworkers. Why would you not wish to take this person under your wing instead of berating her, and most likely causing her more insecurity? It is easy to whine and complain, but it takes a GREAT nurse to rise above and think about the "team". We have all had difficult coworkers. Why make the situation worse?