Nurses who tell you what you need to do!! vent!

[mskate]

There are few things as annoying to me as other nurses telling me what to do with my patients. I have a break nurse tonight who, when i went on my break (after getting 2 new admits within an hour) - wrote a to-do list for me to come back to!!!!! Proceeded to explain unit routines to me, told me I needed to call the doctor to have the patients aline removed "because his blood pressure is fine!", and told me when and how to give my PRNs!!

Granted, I'm not staff on this unit - but I am an In-house float, cross trained to all ICUs and Step Downs - and have been in this hospital for 4 years! I am NOT new! But just because you do not recognize a nurse does not give you a right to boss her around and write her a to-do list! Why not say "I haven't seen you here before? Are you new or..?" and I would have told you I have spent 3.5 years on dayshift and just recently decided to go to nights but have been working here for a long time.

As the break nurse, watch my patients while I go to eat! I left her a brief report and said "All I need you to do is check a blood sugar for me, and I'm good!" - Then she argued about how that patient shouldn't be on blood sugars, etc... (And he should be!) But instead of just doing the blood sugar, she decided to review all of my charting, review the charts and write a to-do list! I'm SSOOOOO peeved!!! Of COURSE i have not done a med reconsilation yet - I JUST GOT THE PATIENTS, but my assessments are in, linen changed, vitals done and meds up to date on everyone, so cut me some slack!!!

Sigh. What drives you nuts? :)

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

my pet peeve is when a cna rudly tell me what I need to do. I'm an adult and have a little education I think we should respect eachother !

[ROLO]

I could see how this would be irritating. It has irritated me before. I think I told the nurse who was "helping" me that there was a small list of things that I "NEEDED" to do: eat, breathe, pay taxes, die, and make waste (only I may not have said "waste," or even BM).

I am curious: did you consider why your "break nurse" is the way she is? Sometimes that can diffuse a situation. Maybe she was really trying to help?

Also, infusing some humor into the situation may have been helpful for both of you. Maybe saying something like, "Hey, thanks for the list.... You know, I am going to Kroger to do a little grocery shopping after work... if you could put together a little grocery list for me, I would greatly appreciate it!"

Finally, what kind of self-analysis did you do? There are some people who subscribe to the "OTHER people don't make us mad or upset....WE allow ourselves to get mad or upset" thinking.

I totally feel you though...

[belgarion]

I had a coworker once who thought it part of her job to tell everyone else what, when, how, and where to do their jobs. It wasn't. She started in on me one particularly hectic day and I just turned around, pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and pretended to read it. I then said "No, your name isn't on it." She asked what I was talking about and I said (yes, I really did) "This is the list of people I'm supposed to take @#$% off of and your name isn't on it!" Her mouth dropped open, her face turned red, and she took off like her tail was on fire. I fugured I would hear about it from management but apparently her antics had worn thin there too. I did get a few offers from other employees to buy my lunch, a coke at break, etc.

[AOx1]

Kind of makes you want to ask him/her how many of those things they accomplished while you were on break :)

[nursel56]

It is amazing how many of these people turn tail and run once someone basically says, there's the line right there, and you aren't going to cross it anymore. I love it when I get to that point, because I do have a long fuse. I actually get peace of mind from that, because I know I'm done second-guessing myself, trying to decipher intent, back and forth, one more chance yada yada-- all of that is so exhausting!!

[sparketteinok]

You have a break nurse?

Wow. That would be awesome. No matter how crappy she was. I would be grateful I had one. I just have to hope and pray, that while I;m trying not to aspirate on whatever lunch I can inhale in 10 minutes (on the floor with the door open) that nothing happens to my patients and that the other nurses on the floor who are supposed to be "covering" actually give a hoot if something did happen.

But, I hear ya, to quote the scarecrow...

"some people without brains do an awful lot of talking..."