night nurse who leaves everything undone..

bethem · Apr 21, 2007

Apart from the catheterisation topic, I also work with a night nurse who leaves things undone. She is night staff by choice, but every time I come on to a morning shift following one of her nights, she starts whinging about how she hates working nights and she doesn't want to come back in, it's so haaaaaaaaaaaard and she doesn't think it's faaaaaaair that she actually has to do some work during her shift!

Our night staff are asked to do vitals at 0600. My ward B is quite teeny-tiny, with only 9 patients in the whole area, so we only have one nurse there at night (we borrow staff from ward A to do 2-person transfers or to sign out DDs). So, only 9 sets of vitals to do, with automatic machines. Not this nurse. EVERY morning she has some excuse about why she didn't do them, and makes huge speeches about how she doesn't think it should be her responsibility to do them.

I personally would rather know that I finished my shift with all my patients alive and stable, and to ensure that I had pertinent data to hand over.

Not to mention it is rather discouraging to start a shift on such a negative note!

banditrn · Apr 22, 2007

Apart from the catheterisation topic, I also work with a night nurse who leaves things undone. She is night staff by choice, but every time I come on to a morning shift following one of her nights, she starts whinging about how she hates working nights and she doesn't want to come back in, it's so haaaaaaaaaaaard and she doesn't think it's faaaaaaair that she actually has to do some work during her shift!
Our night staff are asked to do vitals at 0600. My ward B is quite teeny-tiny, with only 9 patients in the whole area, so we only have one nurse there at night (we borrow staff from ward A to do 2-person transfers or to sign out DDs). So, only 9 sets of vitals to do, with automatic machines. Not this nurse. EVERY morning she has some excuse about why she didn't do them, and makes huge speeches about how she doesn't think it should be her responsibility to do them.
I personally would rather know that I finished my shift with all my patients alive and stable, and to ensure that I had pertinent data to hand over.
Not to mention it is rather discouraging to start a shift on such a negative note!

Beth - that sounds like a problem - but I have to say that as a night nurse, I get really tired of the other shifts thinking I do nothing my whole shift. Good grief.

My shift ends at 6 - I'm not supposed to wake anyone for meds or treatments before 5 - so that only gives me one hour to do my meds and treatments for 40 people. One particular day nurse will reschedule as many things as she can for 6 a.m. so that she doesn't have to give them - so that now it's taking me longer and longer to do my morning stuff and more and more, I'm there late.

I realize that they're very busy - but we also have a lot to do, plus we work under time constraints that they might not have.

myrlpie · Apr 23, 2007

Speaking of night shift nurse who leaves things undone, last night one of our resident's catheter came out. The night shift nurse said she didn't know how to put a catheter in, since she had only been a nurse for two years.

jill48, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2007

Speaking of night shift nurse who leaves things undone, last night one of our resident's catheter came out. The night shift nurse said she didn't know how to put a catheter in, since she had only been a nurse for two years.

:angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

nightmare, RN · Apr 23, 2007

When I trained female nurses did not get taught how to catheterise a male and to this day I have never catheterised a male! I would be a bit wary of attempting to catheterise some of our old men due to underlying prostate or related problems.

tatgirl · Apr 23, 2007

We have a resident who is straigt cathed q 6 hrs. He is supposed to be cathed at 12a and 6a by the night nurse. she has excuse after excuse why she couldnt do both. She will cath him at 4am and that is it. I worked the night shift last week ( I pulled a double from 3p-7a) and I found the time to cath him both times. We have the hour before and hour after rule. Labs are not being done, so when I give her report, I tell her who is going to need labs in the a.m. so that way I know that she knows.

Wendy

LPN

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Apr 23, 2007

When I trained female nurses did not get taught how to catheterise a male and to this day I have never catheterised a male! I would be a bit wary of attempting to catheterise some of our old men due to underlying prostate or related problems.

Nightmare- No offense, but you must be OLD!!! :lol2: I went to school in the 1980's and we learned to cath men as well as women.

nightmare, RN · Apr 23, 2007

Cheers CCM! :lol2: I'm actually 3 years older than you but I trained at the beginning of the 70's.I was watching a program tonight about student nurses and they were taking bloods in their second year,something else I never got to do,Yes I do feel old! :nurse:

psalm, RN · Apr 24, 2007

Does your facility have I&O's done on each shift? Check to see if what is going in is coming out when you cath...bladder scans? Sometimes after a void we check with the bladder scanner any residual and then cath residual over dr. perimeters.

I&O might be the answer in catching fraud/false documentation.

Twix · Jun 17, 2007

I work the nigth shift, I now have 36 patients, pass meds, do skilled notes, blood sugars, and drgs changes, calibrate the cbg machines, check the temp. on the refrig, do vital signs, collect urine samples, get the lab.paper work ready,do my documents, do the pt/inr, phew, not to mention my reg. task, i like working this shift, but WHAT I DON'T LIKE is the other shift thinking that WE do not do NOTHING.......oh and yes my shift is designated to do all the monthly cath.changes,:flamesonb assessments for the skilled notes, monthly summaries,pain assessment, ALL bec. the other shift think we do nothing, funny thing is, a day nurse worked that shift 1 time, and did not get done and stayed 2 hours more,and still I have to pick up what she did not get done.to all night nurses, horay to us.

linzz · Jun 17, 2007

Excellent point Twix, I think that there are always two sides to every story, so thanks for giving the other side of the story.

BoopetteRN · Jun 17, 2007

I also worked nightshift for many years and I too would get upset when people said I did not do anything. I was the house supervisor and did an entire unit. The acuity got so heavy that the DON finally gave me a partner. All the treatments, weekly skin checks and assessments, all cath changes, monthly summaries, weekly infection control assessments, staff evaluations, and the 0600 med pass which took just about 2 hours to complete ( and that was rushing it – with all the accucheks for the day shift). To make matters even more interesting there was a doc who returned all his faxes at 0530 – they came on nocs so nights had to follow through with them. As far as the nurse who you feel did not do the cath, talk to her as a peer, if that fails, go down your chain of command. Document what you did –your assessment and intervention cover yourself. If the nurse is not doing her job, then talk to the powers to be, no resident should ever have to suffer because of poor nursing care.:smiley_ab