Nurses are not "allowed"

Nurses General Nursing

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:madface: I was just reading the reminiscing thread and one of the posts was stating something about how the nurses had to stand up when a DR. walked into the nursing station.

Welll...Get this. We have a brand new nursing unit with a nursing station. The nurses station has a long desk with approximately 5 computers. 2 are for the secretarys, one is for the charge nurse.

Behind the desk there is a thin area that houses pt. charts, med. teaching sheets, fax machine, printer. Adjacant to that is our tiny little med room with both of our omnicells. Put this way, it's a good thing noone is too large.

Anyways, then there is a room adjacant to the nurses station. A nice beautiful room, lots of shelves, at least 7 computers, nice computer space. I think you get the picture. I though we were quite lucky to have such a great room for charting. But noooo, that room there is for the "doctors", so if we are found in that room by a Dr. then we need to leave and search for a computer elsewhere.

I feel that it is really quite demeaning to the nurses and aides that work on the floor to have basically nowhere to chart. It's a thorn in my side!:madface:

At my old job they removed the charting table because pts families would see us sitting there charting, reconcilliating MARS etc and complain to the nurse manager about how lazy we were "just sitting there" so we got to do that part of our job standing up. Thank god I left. Now I work at an institution that employs doctors that find it appropriate to yell and berate nurses on a regular basis. One in particular even threw a phone at a nurse in ICU- he's still working there. They also frequently refuse to return pages when they are on call @ hs (even when your pt has a SBP of 240)

When it comes to something like that you do not go up the chain of command. You call the police immediately and have him arrested. Management won't do anything until they are forced to. I would then call a newspaper. Management hates publicity. Then you call a lawyer.

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Specializes in Acute Med, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology.
When it comes to something like that you do not go up the chain of command. You call the police immediately and have him arrested. Management won't do anything until they are forced to. I would then call a newspaper. Management hates publicity. Then you call a lawyer.

i totally agree. except i would call the lawyer before the newspaper.

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If you all let this treatment of nurses go on, well, you get what you deserve. We teach people how to treat us.

Sometimes, regardless of what we say or do as nurses will not change the way that management chooses to run their units. I do not think that this is fair nor do I believe that we "let" this treatment continue. As previous posters have stated, doctors are more of a priority than the nursing staff and are therefore treated with much higher regards.

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Specializes in Psych.

I have to say, most of this behaviour would cease instantly if even one nurse did anything constructive to end it. I have been in some situations where I have been disrespected or demeaned by doctors and it didn't happen again. I cannot, however, say the same about nurses: that is a losing battle. The passive-aggressive way nurses treat each other is horrible and inexcusable.

I was being harrassed by a resident one day and told the charge nurse (management where I worked) that I had confronted the resident once about her behaviour in the past and I was not going to tolerate it that day. She said that I should just grin and bear it and "At least they can't call us names anymore." I said "You mean to tell me that if you had a husband who used to punch you, but now only slaps you, you would find that acceptable?" She said that my analogy was a bit severe and that I should not blow things out of proportion. I told her that abuse was abuse and that maybe she was the one who had a problem with perspective. I also told her that I was trying to handle the situation professionally and had that I had confronted the resident, but that the behaviour had not stopped; I was now informing my immediate supervisor (her) and that if she chose to ignore it, then I would be happy to handle it my own way, but it would get ugly and we would all be explaining the whole thing to HR in the morning. She handled the situation and the resident was sweet as pie.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

chigap - you hit the nail on the head - and that goes for no matter who or what the adversary is. CONSTRUCTIVE

Direct communication is key - subversiveness and passive/aggressive behavior does not earn respect, or get the desired results, it only creates more resentment and hostility.

"getting even" by putting the proverbial tack in the chair does not change the behavior, it only reinforces it and escalates it.

Good job on being direct, to the point and following the chain of command. In the end, that is what gives you a means for recourse if a problem is not addressed and resolved.

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Specializes in Psych & Psych ER.
you may not believe this one but the nurses at my facility have to stand and chart in the hallway. we use the emar system, computerized everything.

so we are not allowed to even be in the nurses station except to check for new orders or pick up new meds delivered. all charting must be done either in the patients room, an impossibility, or in the hall like a stray puppy and e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e comes up and talks to you there.

can you say confidentiality issues as they read over your shoulder? oh no, you are to stop charting and hit the magic key and not chart until the person walks off. :crash_com

it seems to me that you have an excellent case for hippa violations against the facility, not to mention a risk management nightmare for potential med error with serious outcome for patient harm!

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I have to admit our docs will get out of OUR way around the nurses station. They know that if they want us to carry out their orders, they'd better move out of the way.

We even have a couple of docs that -- don't faint now -- will actually help us with 'nursing tasks'. They'll put in foleys, put on SCDs, shave a belly (emergency c-section things). One even told me to go take care of something else and she would be happy to get the patient up to the bathroom and change her bedding.

Needless to say, those are the docs we go out of our way to spoil.

That has truly got to be the best place to work!! I work the night shift and start with a new resident at the first of every month. We are lucky when we get one that wants to learn about taking care of our babies instead of just giving orders.

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