Had a very crazy shift the other night. I had 8 patients, fresh post-ops, most of whom were trainwrecks. One very confused gentlemen who was stripping naked, trying to get out of bed (very unsteady) and constantly unhooking his mediport ALL night long. Was in the room almost every 5 minutes trying to calm him down, couldn't get a sitter from the doc ending up having to put him in mittens. Pts. with BP issues, output issues, just multiple multiple issues all night. I never sat down once. I ran like crazy. 2 float techs who were overwhelmed with our floor and unable to complete I's/O's, blood sugars etc. A bad, bad night.
So i stay 20 minutes over my shift and left a few things undone. 1 pt. who needed an iv restart and an NG dropped, another who needed some supplies I could not find on NOC's despite calling every one under the sun in the hospital I could think of. I apologized to oncoming shift. The response I got was its ok we understand you had 8 patients (they have 4). Another of my coworkers took my sheet to copy while I was giving report to another RN, when I was ready to give report to her she said, I got what I need off your sheets, go home. I gave her a few things I learned form the small amount of time I had to go through his chart (admitted from SI, extubated that day etc. etc.)
Finish report, go to my locker, realize I left my jacket at desk. As I am walking back I overhear 2 of the dayshift RN's complaining about all the "crap" I had left them and now they have to deal with it, etc. etc. I pretend like I didn't hear them, grab my coat and walk back to my locker almost in tears.
Friend of mine was in that night, getting report from the RN who just copied my sheets and said she didn't need anything else. She goes to give my friend report and says " I got a really ******* report on this pt. today from the NOC RN. Then tells her he has some skin issues but she didnt really look at him, just got it from his chart.
I got that pt. at 2400 (not my admit) I did not do a complete skin assessment on him because admitting RN said she did and no issues. Now our unit gets credit for undocumented pressure ulcers and I am feeling quite bad right now. Apparently this is my fault. The dayshift RN admitted to my friend that she didn't really look at this guys skin either. This was one of the patients who was having issues for me and quite frankly skin was not my top priority as he was not very stable when I got him.
My feelings are a little hurt because one of the complaining RN's was my preceptor for a while and someone I felt I could go to and trust. The one who complained about my crappy report is notorious on our unit for giving horrible reports and leaving out necessary info. In fact it is pretty much my practice to get report from her and then go straight to chart to get the real history and real background info. I did not do this with the 3 extra pts. I picked up at 2400 because I did not have time. I do not "call out" others when they give me incomplete report because I figure they were busy and didn't have time to go through the chart. I am really angry that this particular nurse felt the need to make sure everyone knew she got bad report from me. It is ok for her to say "no one told me about that" but I guess not ok for me.
What I do not understand is why they would be all nice to me in report and then turn around and ***** after I leave. If there was an issue they should have said something then. Nursing is 24/7 and at some point you have to stop or else you would be there forever!!!! I don't complain when I come in and have to do a million things left over from day shift.
I am not a passive aggressive person and believe in confronting problems head on. Apparently this is not the way you do things in nursing.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
One day I went into work after a 1 day floating holiday and my supervisor informed me that while I was out all the staff nurses had a special meeting to discuss how much I sucked in every imaginable way, and she wanted to get together with me later in the day just to go over the bullet points of my complete failure as a human being. Lovely.
These are the same people I laughed and joked with, ate lunch with, etc etc. No one said a word to my face about anything, ever. Not sure exactly what I said, I was so hurt- but I think "cowards" held a dominant position in there.
Turns out it boiled down to a variation of "she thinks she's better than us" Cause, yeah I did try to excel at my job, just to be good at it, not to compete with anyone, but I think maybe they felt threatened by that. I don't know. I never really did know. People can be really smarmy sometimes.
One day I went into work after a 1 day floating holiday and my supervisor informed me that while I was out all the staff nurses had a special meeting to discuss how much I sucked in every imaginable way, and she wanted to get together with me later in the day just to go over the bullet points of my complete failure as a human being. Lovely.
These are the same people I laughed and joked with, ate lunch with, etc etc. No one said a word to my face about anything, ever. Not sure exactly what I said, I was so hurt- but I think "cowards" held a dominant position in there.
Turns out it boiled down to a variation of "she thinks she's better than us" Cause, yeah I did try to excel at my job, just to be good at it, not to compete with anyone, but I think maybe they felt threatened by that. I don't know. I never really did know. People can be really smarmy sometimes.
well, apparently you ARE better than them. =) I would give my notice. That supervisor needs a swift kick in the butt. I would be out the door, because you are too good for that kind of treatment. A more professional nursing environment is what you need. Good luck.
Hugs! I work in a place like this! Everyone is always complaining about whomever just left the room. Its like gossip central. There are also some really awful cliques! I cannot wait to finish my degree and go work elsewhere! I think my floor would prob hire me upon graduation, but I do not care for the environment! Luckily as a NA I can stay out of most of it.
Just go to work, do your best and go home! You cannot please them all! And they talk about everyone, not just you, so please do not feel alone!
One day I went into work after a 1 day floating holiday and my supervisor informed me that while I was out all the staff nurses had a special meeting to discuss how much I sucked in every imaginable way, and she wanted to get together with me later in the day just to go over the bullet points of my complete failure as a human being. Lovely.
These are the same people I laughed and joked with, ate lunch with, etc etc. No one said a word to my face about anything, ever. Not sure exactly what I said, I was so hurt- but I think "cowards" held a dominant position in there.
Turns out it boiled down to a variation of "she thinks she's better than us" Cause, yeah I did try to excel at my job, just to be good at it, not to compete with anyone, but I think maybe they felt threatened by that. I don't know. I never really did know. People can be really smarmy sometimes.
That takes the cake! See what happens when we get a group of girls together, it is just like Junior High all over again! I feel for you, that is terrible!!!!How can you stand working near all of these people? I would have let them all have it, but again, in nursing you cannot burn briges, so you have to suck it up and go elsewhere. People suck. At least you will always have patients to interact with, and they can keep you company even if your coworkers are dreadful.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
MJB2010 and MassED-- thank you for your kind words. I've found that generally the worst supervisors and management types are those put in place by a "higher up" who is clueless about what an effective leader for that unit would look like. This lady, I believe had known our Medical Director for eons- I don't think he understood how his gesture to a friend would wreak havoc as a person with zero leadership skills or experience was let loose! Anyway, frustrating as it is, we can't control what other people think about us.
Just as the OP did-- her best-- I try to be cordial to everybody but if they want to pull you down to make themselves feel better I just can't do it and sleep well at night.
OP, you're right. By and large, passive aggressive behavior runs rampant in nursing. I can't even blame it on us women either since there are quite a few male nurses who act like that too. Basically, it's "mean girl" syndrome and it's firmly entrenched in nursing culture.
However, I fight it now. I don't accept the lame excuse "that's how it's always been". If anything you feed the behavior more by rolling over and taking it. Bullies are that way because few people call them on their crap.
There will also always be bad blood between shifts, in most cases.
I do fight the nonsense, but I pick my battles. I also don't look for friends at work..I am there to do a job..I have a full, rich and happy life outside of the hospital.
Getting the job done correctly is more important than coworkers' opinions, especially in the medical field. You stayed late to try and help out and that is commendable. Sounds to me like the day shift folks were being a little narrow minded and selfish and only seeing that they had a busy day ahead of them. They didn't really take into account the rough night you just had. I wouldn't worry about it. You could go home that day knowing you went above and beyond, and that's all that really matters. Keep you head up, my friend! =)
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
I would not work anywhere with a patient ratio like that. It is not safe. I work in a small hospital about 15 minutes north of Seattle. Union shop. Our nurse patient ration on days and evenings is 4:1 or 5:1 and on nights 5:1 or 6:1. We are about to go into a partnership with a large hospital in Seattle and if they try to change our staffing standards I am going to throw a fit because we did not have those standards when I started there and we had falls, pt complaints etc. Now we rarely ever have a fall and hardly ever have a complaint. We round on patients every hour and there are almost no calls on the call lights . If I had 8 patients I would make a complaint to the state department of health and to the board of nursing. It is just not safe.
And as far as someone talking about you, always remember the works of the comedian DL Hugely "They talked about Jesus, you think they ain't gonna talk about you?". Forget it. It is not worth worrying about. They are not your boss and they are not signing your pay check.
nursel56
7,122 Posts
One day I went into work after a 1 day floating holiday and my supervisor informed me that while I was out all the staff nurses had a special meeting to discuss how much I sucked in every imaginable way, and she wanted to get together with me later in the day just to go over the bullet points of my complete failure as a human being. Lovely.
These are the same people I laughed and joked with, ate lunch with, etc etc. No one said a word to my face about anything, ever. Not sure exactly what I said, I was so hurt- but I think "cowards" held a dominant position in there.
Turns out it boiled down to a variation of "she thinks she's better than us" Cause, yeah I did try to excel at my job, just to be good at it, not to compete with anyone, but I think maybe they felt threatened by that. I don't know. I never really did know. People can be really smarmy sometimes.