Nurses that don't ask for help then cry when they don't get it...

[lberryj]

This is a topic that has come up a few times within the past week. Why is it that some nurses believe that other nurses should be monitoring them to see if and when they get behind, to volunteer and help them? I love to help other nurses but how am I supposed to know that you have just finished passing your 9pm meds at 1am? That breaks my heart at the same time I had no idea what your situation was. I see it like this. If you don't ask for help don't expect help...

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

I think people make a lot of token offers to help. It's easy to tell when a co-worker is drowning and easy to find things that need to be done. We shouldn't make each other beg.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Yes, what Ruby Vee said! It's not an either-or. In your case OP, no I don't think she was being reasonable to turn down help and then complain about not getting any. In general though, I don't think it's fair to put the onus completely on the drowning nurse to ask for help. If it's not offered, sure s/he needs to ask; recently I had one of those nights where I was really busy with a bunch of tasky things--post tPA neuro checks (q 15 min x2 hours, q 30 min x6 hours--that was my shift. The q 1 hours started when I left), MRI run, q 30-40 min stooling -- no rectal tube since these were the first BMs in nearly a week.

I did ask for and get help. However, being so busy myself, I was oblivious for a while, that the nurse across the hall had 2 pts in traction and needed 3 staff for every reposition. So I wasn't in a position to offer help, although I was willing to help.

Now if someone has one stepdown pt and no admission on the horizon and has time to read a book...they should be aware of their surroundings enough to step in and help a colleague--whether s/he asks or not.