I supervise 2 nurses that I really feel are past their prime. These two nurses are older and have a lot of experience(none of which they would share with a new nurse today:cry:) But I think that 25 years ago, they were just as mean and nasty as they are today.
One nurse is the RN 11p-7a supervisor( I dscribe her as "Sour and bitter" and the other is a 3-11p direct patitent nurse. I am old enough to be their daughter or granddaughter. And in the past they have been very disrespectful to previous DON's and ADON's. I have spoken to each about improving patient care, internal and external customer service. These are also long time employees of the company. I do believe that they are valued employees but they are very resistant to change.
I hold all nurses accountable for their work and in the past they were not held to any standards. OLD habits are very hard to break but I have to think about quality patient care(Which can become poor or lacking when not checked).
I am very mindful about the nasty nurse types and I want to do what I can to get rid of that stereo type. But are some nurses just past their prime?
Does anyone work with nurses that are simply just Grumpy and Nasty ALL of THE TIME!
How do we help these nurses? Are they beyond help? We have begun progressive dicipline actions and re education with all nurses. I believe in rewarding those that are a team players. I just don't want the negative attitude to continue to spread.:typing
boy, you're on a roll here -- first ageism and now the equally offensive "i know nurses eat their young! i'd advise you to check your attitudes before you start attempting to correct someone else's!
I hold all nurses accountable for their work and in the past they were not held to any standards. OLD habits are very hard to break. How do we help these nurses? Are they beyond help?
:rckn: My next-door neighbor is an RN, she is older, she is a grandmother, but I tell you she has to be one of the wisest, kindest, most compassionate nurses that I know.
She has told me about nursing used to be and they had very strict standards so I think you're way off base. I work with alot of nurses, young and older. There are young nurses who are not always in the best of moods. I don't think it has anything to do with age. Experience is the best teacher
Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.
I have read this thread with a great deal of interest. In August, I will be 63 years old. I have been unable to work, due to injures, since 1988. I started my initial nursing education, in 1964, in a diploma program, finishing it, in 1971, in an associate program. I went on to obtain my BSN and an MS in Hospital Administration. With the exception of OB and Peds, I have worked in every area of nursing, learning new skills. In 1996 I returned to graduate school to see if I could earn an MSN. Illness in my parents prevented me from doing so. But, 2000 saw me enrolled in a graduate program full time. I have thought about returning to work full time but have hesitated. The only positions available are twelve hour ones. I have a reservations about working twelve hour shifts, given the handicaps my old injures have placed on me. But I wonder why, someone with my experience, even my old experience, would be put down by so many of my peers. My brain is still fully functional, even if my body is not.
To the original poster, you seem to be somewhat opinionated. You complain of two 'old' nurses, but say they were likely the way they were when they were young. I have worked with and been taken care of, by nurses of different ages. And they all came across as either compassionate or self centered and bored. What I want in a nurse, regardless of her/his age, is someone who knows what they are doing, who has empathy, who is not opinionated and who does not treat me like I do not have one think brain cell left.
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
woody62 with all of your experience, knowledge and good common sense, and now with your education, have you thought about working in the administrative end of nursing?? Our CNO only works from 9a-4p,Mon-Fri, he is a RN with a BSN....I wondered the same thing about why all this conflict between our younger peers....I too, want the same things in a nurse that takes care of me, especially compassion and one who is not so opinionated...Old and young have health related issues and as you have done, when you are unable to work in one capacity you search for another one where you can...
Specializes in Gyn Onc, OB, L&D, HH/Hospice/Palliative.
I don't think age has anything to do with it, there are nurses who are 25 yrs old and are "past their prime" at least where their committment and compassion are concerned, many are burnt right off the bat or shouldn't even BE nurses,
I know many nurses with 20/30 yrs who run their asses off and circles around "young nurses", don't dump all of us into past our prime , it's highly offensive .
Each person is an individual, sometimes us old timers have higher standards and work ethic than the young ones..how about a thread on young nurses being lazy?? { I don't think that is true }, just a different spin/descrimination/prejudice based on age, just wrong...
Nursing schools back in the 50's and even into the 60's...nursing students maintained a regimine that most of us would not be able to touch today.
You lived at the hospital, you paid very little for school and books, but it was in exchange for labor, meals, uniforms, and a place to stay. You were required to live in the dorms at the hospital, you usually had 1 to 2 roommates, and you could not be married while in school. You had a curfew to observe nightly, even on the weekends.
My aunt went to the Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Virginia. I called her today to ask her how her schedule was back then. It was a 3-year program. She is now 77 years old.
*You took a bath the night before because there were too many girls getting up in the morning getting ready. Plus, it was usually too cold.
*Rooms were not air-conditioned in the summer...radiator heat only.
*Uniforms were furnished, they were washed, pressed, and heavily starched by the hospital. You learned to keep it clean.
*Your personal laundry had to be HAND washed by you...there were no laundry facilities for student's personal laundry.
*You had to be at breakfast at 6:00 a.m. and classes started at 7:00 a.m. and ran until 11:00 a.m.
*Clinical shifts then ran from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at night. You ate dinner after the main cafeteria has served the rast of the staff, patients, and guests of the hospital...if they didn't have enough help to shut down the kitchen, you had to help.
*Lights were out by 10:00. Guess how they taught anatomy? They had a rotating list of girls that were woke up if a body was brought in the middle of the night. Autopsies were done around the clock because lack of refrigerated space. Some students would be up all night with the pathologist. If you had to attend an autopsy you STILL had to be at classes early the next morning, but you got to leave your clinicals at 5:00 p.m. instead of 8:00.
Students were used for any type of labor. From cleaning syringes (yes, these were the days when they were made of glass and re-used and sterilized), test tubes, very, very little was made of plastic back then. Nurses just flat out didn't use gloves back then..infection control was simply washing your hands before and after a task...no matter what the task.
Your only days off was on Saturday and Sunday. These were the days when the girls did their laundry and caught up on reading assignments, etc.
There were no such things as CNA's back then. Nurses did it all. They did have "orderlies" which were basically men that functioned as labor to move patients, restrain them, or other tasks the ladies were not physically able to do...but do bedpans they did not.
My schedule?
I have an online pharmacology class and exams.
I attend class 6 hours a week on two different days.
Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.
woody62 with all of your experience, knowledge and good common sense, and now with your education, have you thought about working in the administrative end of nursing?? Our CNO only works from 9a-4p,Mon-Fri, he is a RN with a BSN....I wondered the same thing about why all this conflict between our younger peers....I too, want the same things in a nurse that takes care of me, especially compassion and one who is not so opinionated...Old and young have health related issues and as you have done, when you are unable to work in one capacity you search for another one where you can...
Upon receiving my MS, I went to work for the NYS Department of Health, for two years, then the Department of Education, as an administrative assistant, at Downstate. My previous experience, in adminstration, as been in hosputal, rather then nursing. I honestly think I could ever survive in nursing administration. I would have problems with the hospital administration and their policies regarding nursing. And I would have problems with nursing because of the tendency of most to fall under the knuckle of their administrator. I would love to go back into some type of nursing. I have toyed with home health but the only one here is a for profit. And to be honest, I have problems with for-profit agencies and facilities. I am going to have to put more thought into just what I can do.
old is a relative term, my grandchildren think that anyone over the age of 30 is in their dotage, but i think that 'past their prime' is a demeaning term,op does not give her age or the age of the nurses that she is uncomfortable with
maybe these nurses are more worn out from being held accountable for changes that they were not told
maybe they have oriented a steady stream of nurses that left as soon as they felt comfortable in their own skins to move on
exact did the op want to do when she took the job..what changes did she want to implement, were these changes discussed and input received from the day nurses? some of these do not have any idea of what goes on the other shift and they really believe that evening/night nurses sleep and eat and are available for any added duties that someone can think of..
i hope that the op and those nurses can implement changes that will be beneficial for patients
people are people, some a f some m; some old some young but all are people
grandee3
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