Nurse with a condescending attitude - rant

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Most of the nurses I speak with are nice. A few are kind of rude, but not enough for me to really care.

Today, the ED was beyond busy. I don't ever expect the nurses to chat with me or anything. I ask them simple questions(Can so-and-so have a visitor?), only when necessary. I also don't expect them to be chipper or anything. Just answer my question as good as you can. That's all I ask.

However, this extended triage nurse was just flat out rude. We (the ED visitor services employee and I) went into the extended triage area to try and locate a patient. This was only after 1 hour, and his family had been up every 15 minutes. They really wanted to know where he was or what was going on. Understandable.

Typically, patients don't get visitors in the extended triage. We wait until they get a room. But considering how busy we were, there was a good chance they weren't getting a room. Their triage room was going to be there room. So the nurses had been letting us bring visitors.

We never ask a nurse questions when they are with a patient, we wait until they are out of the room. We ask this nurse if they knew where Mr. Jones was. She goes, "What do you mean? Is he in triage? Is he in minor care?" My co-worker states that he was in triage, not minor care. She says, "Well I don't know. Are you sure he isn't in minor care?" She just had this real snarky tone. Just flat out attitude. Condescending and rude. She was clearly talking down to my co-worker as if my co-worker didn't know anything. My co-worker has been there for years. She knows what she is doing. We walked away. I know it's hard to see an attitude through text, but she was just beyond rude and nasty. I don't know how else to put it.

My co-worker is so sweet and beyond polite to this chick. The funny thing is, we were in the room next to this nurse before we asked her the question, and she was so polite to the patient, yet she talks down to us.

So my co-worker says that nurse is like that all the time. What the heck. Isn't there someone she can be reported to? I'm sorry, I just don't think it's acceptable to talk down to a co-worker. Ever. I don't think employees should have to put up with that crap. I don't care that we aren't nurses. We're all on the same team here.

How would you approach someone like that and what would you say to let them know you will not accept their condescending attitude? I think she needs to be approached before being reported. What would you do in this situation? It's obviously going to keep happening. She isn't going anywhere, and neither am I, nor my co-worker. She needs to act like a professional, not a b****.

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She needs to act like a professional, not a b****.

Take your own advice. Triage is extraordinarily stressful. Are you unable to locate a patient without this "*****'s" assistance?

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Take your own advice. Triage is extraordinarily stressful. Are you unable to locate a patient without this "*****'s" assistance?

Since the other nurses were in patients room, at that time, no. At other times, maybe, but maybe not. I go find who isn't in a patients room, only as a last resort.

I understand triage is stressful, but NONE of the other triage nurses have acted like her. None. Neither have any in the entire ED. She is the only one I have met with this kind of attitude.

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So what exactly do you want other nurses to tell you?

This is a professional issue that needs to be handled professionally.

Talk to her about it, and if she responds less than professionally, take it either her boss or your boss. Easy.

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I hate to say it but you will get a personality or two like this wherever you work. If you can't avoid her, you could try telling her that you don't appreciate her condescending tone. There's a chance she doesn't realize she's coming off that way to others if she's always stressed. If that doesn't work, report it to the manager and let them deal with it.

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So what exactly do you want other nurses to tell you?

This is a professional issue that needs to be handled professionally.

Talk to her about it, and if she responds less than professionally, take it either her boss or your boss. Easy.

I'm not sure what you mean by what I want the other nurses to tell me.

Thank you for your advice.

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i would not be surprized if the place you work at is in georgia

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Specializes in ICU.

Is there not an easier way to figure out what patient is in what room? A whiteboard or a computer system or a log book? I'd think after an hour of being back there, there would be some location associated with the patient. How does lab and radiology and RT and other allied people find patients? Do they all always just grab a nurse and ask? Is every nurse supposed to know who is in what room at what time?

Maybe I'm missing something, but that sounds like a confusing system and I could understand a nurse being upset at questions like that, especially if they get asked it often.

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nope, Ohio

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Specializes in CVICU, Obs/Gyn, Derm, NICU.

She sounds as if she was really busy.

Your question was a reasonable one ...she was likely a bit short because she was concerned with more important stuff.

Really ...when the nurses are this busy...you need to be asking the clerk about these sort of questions. I would have politely directed you to ask the clerk.

We have a couple of volunteers that irritate the hell out of us.

When p'ts are waiting a long time to see the Dr on very busy days ... these volunteers come tell us the p't is ansty as they are STILL waiting to see the Dr...they do this every 10 mins.

Yes we know that ... our chest pain/CVA/bleeding etc are being taken care of ....those are our less ill p'ts complaining.

Before reporting her, pls consider how difficult her job is.

Is it really the end of the world if an overworked core medical worker is a little short with you? Flip it around .... how unhappy would you be if a nurse reported you for asking a silly question and wasting her time? Is your demeanour 100% perfect all the time?

Also pls reflect a little here ... if this were a doctor, would you consider reporting he/him?

Is this person an easier target because she is a nurse? I bet she is.

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i had a row of bad experience in my past employments i had to switch twice until i finaly found a place i really love to work at. at my past workplaces they were rude to patients and also to me verbal and physical abuse against me.

i start to think that this is the mentality here. of coorifice there are some good ones but ithink they are pretty rare here.

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Is there not an easier way to figure out what patient is in what room? A whiteboard or a computer system or a log book? I'd think after an hour of being back there, there would be some location associated with the patient. How does lab and radiology and RT and other allied people find patients? Do they all always just grab a nurse and ask? Is every nurse supposed to know who is in what room at what time?

Maybe I'm missing something, but that sounds like a confusing system and I could understand a nurse being upset at questions like that, especially if they get asked it often.

Actually, we have a computer system that tells us where they are. But we have to call back (hospital policy) and ask the nurse if they are permitted visitors after they have been in there at least 20 minutes. If we cannot get ahold of a nurse on the phone, we have to go back there and check.

There is a also a whiteboard that assigns rooms to nurses, but not in triage. No whiteboard. So we ask the first available nurse we see. It's a simple question. All they have to say is no. Not talk down to us.

However, when they are in triage, we typically do not go back there. But today was a really busy day and they were using the triage rooms as regular rooms as well.

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