Nurses and Physical Therapists!! Help, Question and Rant!

[grinnurse, RN]

Had an encounter with a PT yesterday and was wanting to poke pencils in his eyes. We had orders for at least 2 days for PT to come and get these patients up to begin walking them and they both needed trapezes on their beds. The day before was when the evals were to have been done but he had to leave early to go have his furniture moved into his apartment after having been gone for 3 weeks at Christmas............AAARGH. When he got to the floor he was in a rush and began asking me where the heck his walker was? I told him that I had no idea, but I had seen one in a pts room the day before and to look there b/c it was there when I left the night before. He couldn't find it in the room so again, he asks me where it is and I told him the same thing again. He proceeds to go off on me and I told him he would have to find it himself!! He proceeds to get another pts personal walker and take it from room to room to do what he needs to do!! Of course, I asked him if he was sanitizing it between use? Of course his answer was yes, but that was a lie b/c I was watching him. He proceeds to go to one of the patients rooms that has MRSA and I told him no..............you can't do that and possibly spread the MRSA through the hospital and to my other pts:angryfire . Well, I made sure that he had virexed b/f returning it to the original pts room before he could take it into the MRSA pts room. I have already scheduled a conference with his manager-who just happens to be my nurse manager for Monday afternoon. I would like to have some kind of solution so it doesn't seem like just a "gripe" session!!

Anyway, I had to keep on him to put the trapeze up on one of my pts beds. So just b/f he leaves, he comes up to me and begins to rub my shoulders and tells me that next time I need to put the traps up for my pts!! I told him no, that it was for PT to do and not the nurses. He proceeds to tell me, in a very condescending way that he would teach me how it is done!!!!!!!:angryfire :angryfire :angryfire I am not one who says "That's not my job", but, it's gotta stop somewhere. We now have to order our own supplies and stock them too!! We, as nurses at our facility, already have more than we can handle!!

Here's my question--is it the nurses job to do that at your facility or PT?? We don't have a P&P on it, but, being a therapy tech, for the same hospital, prior to RN, the PTs always put them up for whom ever needed it!! We take on average 7 pts and work with out aides on a regular basis, how are we supposed to fit this into our time too!!! How should I handle this PT in the future??? I need a statement to express to him that under no uncertain terms is he going to talk to me in that manner and that if he ever touches me again, I will file sexual harrassment charges on him!! I need to do it in a "Politically correct" manner!! Any suggestions for me?

[huffmans98]

Nursing is responsible for putting up trapezes in the hospital I work at. It may be 3 days post-op before we get a chance, but I have never seen PT do it. We carry all the equipment on our floor, so it just takes the time to actually do it. It's a shame, b/c pt's really can benefit from them. Good luck!

[BKRN]

The transporters put them up for our patients. I could not imagine having to do this along with the Million other things we are responsible for!

Had an encounter with a PT yesterday and was wanting to poke pencils in his eyes. We had orders for at least 2 days for PT to come and get these patients up to begin walking them and they both needed trapezes on their beds. The day before was when the evals were to have been done but he had to leave early to go have his furniture moved into his apartment after having been gone for 3 weeks at Christmas............AAARGH. When he got to the floor he was in a rush and began asking me where the heck his walker was? I told him that I had no idea, but I had seen one in a pts room the day before and to look there b/c it was there when I left the night before. He couldn't find it in the room so again, he asks me where it is and I told him the same thing again. He proceeds to go off on me and I told him he would have to find it himself!! He proceeds to get another pts personal walker and take it from room to room to do what he needs to do!! Of course, I asked him if he was sanitizing it between use? Of course his answer was yes, but that was a lie b/c I was watching him. He proceeds to go to one of the patients rooms that has MRSA and I told him no..............you can't do that and possibly spread the MRSA through the hospital and to my other pts:angryfire . Well, I made sure that he had virexed b/f returning it to the original pts room before he could take it into the MRSA pts room. I have already scheduled a conference with his manager-who just happens to be my nurse manager for Monday afternoon. I would like to have some kind of solution so it doesn't seem like just a "gripe" session!!

Anyway, I had to keep on him to put the trapeze up on one of my pts beds. So just b/f he leaves, he comes up to me and begins to rub my shoulders and tells me that next time I need to put the traps up for my pts!! I told him no, that it was for PT to do and not the nurses. He proceeds to tell me, in a very condescending way that he would teach me how it is done!!!!!!!:angryfire :angryfire :angryfire I am not one who says "That's not my job", but, it's gotta stop somewhere. We now have to order our own supplies and stock them too!! We, as nurses at our facility, already have more than we can handle!!

Here's my question--is it the nurses job to do that at your facility or PT?? We don't have a P&P on it, but, being a therapy tech, for the same hospital, prior to RN, the PTs always put them up for whom ever needed it!! We take on average 7 pts and work with out aides on a regular basis, how are we supposed to fit this into our time too!!! How should I handle this PT in the future??? I need a statement to express to him that under no uncertain terms is he going to talk to me in that manner and that if he ever touches me again, I will file sexual harrassment charges on him!! I need to do it in a "Politically correct" manner!! Any suggestions for me?

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

I would have no idea how to put a trapeze up. If I have to know that, please give me a private lesson lol.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Nursing, usually techs are responsible for putting up trapezes. Usually, we just find a bed with one on that a patient doesn't need then transfer it over intact. It's a pain to build one from scracth but I've done it lots of times.

[grinnurse, RN]

The transporters put them up for our patients. I could not imagine having to do this along with the Million other things we are responsible for!

I know where you are coming from on that end!!

[SharonH, RN]

It varies between hospitals. At the last place I worked, we had ortho techs who would put the ortho frame on the bed and they would usually put on the trapeze at that time, but if I had a patient in a bed with a frame already, I would do it myself. At another hospital where I worked, the ortho residents were responsible for that. But at the VA hospital where I had some of my clinicals, there was no ortho tech and the nursing staff had to do their own Buck's traction, traps, etc.

[StNeotser, ASN, RN]

It is PT's job at our facility (as is finding walkers). It seems as if like most other disciplines, dietary, resp therapy, housekeeping want the things they don't want to do to fall to nursing.

We will never find a physical therapist doing it though, normally a PT assistant.

[TrudyRN]

I think you said it pretty well. Just say it calmly, without anger.

Do NOT do his work. He sounds pretty lazy, arrogant, manipulative, and disorganized. And anyone who gets 3 weeks off at Christmas can just dang well stay at work and get his furniture delivered some other time.