I was doing a clinical on the Medical ICU unit and the RN that I was working with was CONSTANTLY text messaging instead of caring for her pt. She didn't start doing anything for him until about 10:30 and she came on at 7:00.
What (if anything) should I do? file a complaint with the hospital? Leave it alone as a possible isolated case? The pt was fine and she did what he needed, but it seemed as though she did the absolute bare minimum...
I've been thinking about it since then and would hate to know that my loved one was in ICU and his/her nurse was texting.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
wow.........harsh. she didn't feel right about the situation & came here for advice - she didn't immediately go off & report it to the hospital. i think she did the right thing.
we don't know what that nurse was doing while texting.....texting physicians, etc. she could have also just been playing around & texting friends too. nobody knows. point is, she had a patient & thank god nothing happened but does that make it ok? texting here & there ok, but making that a priority while at work, not ok. sure the patient was taken care of but what happens next time.......she or her patients may not be so lucky.
for those who think the op is obnoxious, etc. can you honestly say you'd be 100% comfortable with this same rn taking care of your mother/father/son/daughter in the icu?! i think not.
my sister had a seizure in the middle of her c-section. the rn on the night shift was sleeping for almost 2 hours at her desk that night. nothing happened to my sister (she hasn't had a seizure since then) but that doesn't make it ok that her nurse slept during her shift!!!!!!!!!!! there are too many "what if's" to be negligible, especially when it comes to patient care.
well, that's my opinion :)
i'm sorry you think i'm harsh. even considering "reporting it to the hospital" without seeking more information is rather self-righteous. without knowing more about the situation, the op made a judgement that it was wrong. she didn't bother to check things out with her clinical instructor -- who might have been able to look into it right then and there. she just came here to this board with a lot of preconceived ideas about what a horrible nurse this person was.
i can't say whether i'd be uncomfortable with that nurse taking care of my family member. i don't know for sure what she was doing or why. i'm not sure that the nurse wasn't doing everything correctly. sometimes the very best thing we can do for our patients is let them sleep as long as possible. an experienced nurse can tell with a very quick look that a sleeping icu patient is ok or not based on vital signs, heart rhythm, skin color, breathing patterns, o2 saturations, etc. we don't know for sure that the nurse in the original post hadn't already made that conclusion based on a very quick look that the student didn't recognize as an assessment. i can't make a judgement without more facts.
Specializes in M/S, Tele, Sub (stepdown), Hospice.
without knowing more about the situation, the op made a judgement that it was wrong. she didn't bother to check things out with her clinical instructor -- who might have been able to look into it right then and there. she just came here to this board with a lot of preconceived ideas about what a horrible nurse this person was.
how do you know it wasn't wrong? you weren't there. just because she didn't do something right then & there (tell instructor, etc.) doesn't make her obnoxious or whatever else you want to call her.
i've come home from clinical & reflected on my day & tend to think about things more or differently - that's not a bad thing.
you say she should leave it alone yet you condone her when she doesn't talk to her instructor right away. i think she was appropriate with what she did. she thought something wasn't right......obviously it bothered her more when she got home & she came here where wonderful advice is typically given. lots of us do that. she then decided to talk to her instructor about it & the decision was made not to rock the boat.
instead of just giving her some helpful advice, you're rude. how is being rude beneficial to anyone here?
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Studying24.7;4142180]I don't see it exactly as "going behind her back" and I would definitely not want her to be terminated. In naive-student-world, I expected a high caliber of patient care in the MICU. I was thinking more about the patient than about the nurse; But I understand what you're saying. She didn't place the patient in harm's way. My thought process was that she might be so distracted with her phone that in the future it may become an issue.
. . . .A few semesters ago at another clinical site, one of the nurses would ask patients to rate their pain, but she would not document what they said, she would document what she perceived was their pain level. So disappointing. Brought that issue to my CI and I got the same response that this CI gave me. "That is completely unacceptable, but don't rock the boat because we need the clinical site."
It may be that you are simply concerned about the patient, but the way things are worded above sound like a student nurse is making a global assessment of the care an ICU RN is providing her patient, based on the observation of 3.5 hours of time. Perhaps you looked over her shoulder and read what she was texting on her phone? Do you know what she was thinking? Any nurse who makes it to ICU can teach you something about patient care. It's one thing to think , "Note to self: don't be like this nurse" and another to contemplate turning a nurse in to the hospital, and not for the care she did provide, but that you were worried about what kind of nurse she would be in the future. That was one of your first mentioned options, which gave the impression that is what entered your mind first.
As to pain level documentation, there are hundreds of posts on that subject, but it isn't uncommon for a patient to overstate their pain level depending on individual patient histories. If a patient says their pain level is 15+ on a scale of 1/10, some subjectivity needs to be used. I am not starting an argument on the pain issue!! Just that there is a reason for the concept of "peer review".
Brilliant Dreams-- I am so sorry about what happened to your dad. I lost my dad when they sent him in unstable condition to the CT scanner and he went bad in there. I had soooo many questions, and I was out of state when it happened, so I wasn't able to kick *ss and take names, as it were. I spent many sleepless nights wondering what went wrong? Who's fault was this? Should I take legal action? In the end, I realized that given his condition and other factors, it was best not to take it any further, but I did have a long talk with one of the nurses on duty that night, and I thank God to this day for her, because she humanized my dad, she addressed the awful grief that seized me and she offered some details that at least gave me some closure. I hope you will be able to have a measure of peace some day. :redpinkhe
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Just to play devil's advocate...maybe since she had a student she expected the student to provide the care?
I thought about that also, I know we are expected to pretty much take care of our patients at my clinicals and this is our first semester at the hospital. Our nurses must be present to pass meds with us or do some things like the push meds, or we can page our CI if the nurse is swamped and she will do it with us to ease the nurse load. I mean don't get me wrong, the nurse goes in and checks on the patient and does her own quick assessment and so stuff, but they are expecting us to do most of the care without them having to be right there all the time. It frees them up for a little more time to catch up or help other patients. When I first read the post I was thinking maybe the nurse thought the student would be proving most of the care with her doing the basic care.
Also, although I disagreed with the actions the OP was thinking about taking, I respect the fact that before being hasty she came here and sought opinions first and I don't think she has deserved some of the harsher comments. It's not as if she saw this happen and right away went and filed a complaint just off her perception. She came here for opinions and allowed herself time to reflect on the situation. I mean there are SO MANY venting posts here that when someone jumps in and gives a different perspective, they are slammed for invading on the vent blah blah blah. This is no different. The OP sought out opinions on a situation she observed and was unsure about and in return she was judged and called names and assumptions were made of her. That is no better then what she was accused of.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
How do you know it wasn't wrong? You weren't there. Just because she didn't do something right then & there (tell instructor, etc.) doesn't make her obnoxious or whatever else you want to call her.
I've come home from clinical & reflected on my day & tend to think about things more or differently - that's not a bad thing.
You say she should leave it alone yet you condone her when she doesn't talk to her instructor right away. I think she was appropriate with what she did. She thought something wasn't right......obviously it bothered her more when she got home & she came here where wonderful advice is typically given. Lots of us do that. She then decided to talk to her instructor about it & the decision was made not to rock the boat.
Instead of just giving her some helpful advice, you're rude. How is being rude beneficial to anyone here?
Sorry I didn't read through the rest of the posts yet and just posted a lot of what you just said
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
As a student I definitely would not rattle that cage. I would, however, file it away as behavior I won't tolerate in myself and if I am ever manager on a ward, won't tolerate in my employees.
I will say, there are a lot of nursing apps out there for the higher end cell phones and it is entirely possible what this nurse was doing could have been work related. Just too many variables to know for certain what was really going on.
I too have seen bad practice at clinicals, except that it was by my instructor and PE. Yesterday, my instructor was 2 hrs late to the floor, and left an hour early, now the schools policies state that no student is to be on the floor alone. We were left alone for three hours. Also we have been instructed to NOT DO PT CARE :eek:but instead work on our worksheets such as care plans, lab data, medications, ND, and manifestations of illness. I got a verbal warning for walking my pt around the floor. I was told that if your pt is taking up too much time to tell them "I cannot help you right now I have to do my worksheets". The worse part is that I did just that (I do what I am told) and the primary nurse heard it, told the pt care rep she started asking other students if this was correct, which they said "it was". Now I am waiting for the repercussions. Along with that my PE sits on her backside and texts all day as well. Both my instructor and PE take long lunches while us students remain on the floor, having to refuse care, meds, and any procedure that might arise because we are without a instructor. Not learning much except how to cut corners with pt care so that I have as much time as possible to do my worksheets! Paying a lot for this education getting less in return. :up::up:
I had a similar clinical experience to the person above. Late instructor, floor nurses who didn't want us around, nothing much to do, 2-hour lunches, etc. I felt like it was such a waste of time!
I just want to ask, did anyone actually READ the update on the situation that the OP gave where she mentioned that the she told her clinical instructor who disagreed with the behavior as well but didn't want to "rock the boat" and lose the clinical placement. I think she also mentioned something about the nurse stopping before giving meds or in the middle to text in her second update, unless she was just giving examples. She also said she knew what the nurse was doing because she has the exact same phone and you can tell the difference between an app and a text, I'm sure she was close enough to make that distinction.
I think as students we all know that nurses are human but we've also been taught that most people don't do what they normally would do if they are being watched in a professional setting. I doubt the nurse would be doing that if a doctor was in the room with her so if she knew a student was in the room with her, why do it? I think that in itself is just disrespectful to the student, maybe not the patient if she wasn't in the room doing it in front of his face. Just like if a student is in the room with the nurse, we probably wouldn't be texting in front of them either. Maybe doing that as a nurse doesn't make you a bad nurse, but I think doing it while you're suppose to be teaching a student (most of you either missed or didn't care that the op said this was HER nurse she was working with) does set a bad example and makes you look bad.
If the tables were turned and the nurse caught the OP texting instead of trying to learn something during clinicals I'm pretty sure she'd at least go tell the clinical instructor.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I've always been told that it is not the obligation of the staff nurse in the hospital to teach students, so she isn't "supposed to be" teaching the student anything. Many nurses like to teach, but it is not part of their job description to do so.
Also for surethe student should not be looking at the nurse's phone at all, period, end of story! To me that's a heck of a lot more disrespectful than worrying what the student nurse may think about her choices as she performs the job she is licensed to do, and who is supervised by someone who is qualified to render judgement on an RN's competence.
Even though we weren't there, the OPs instructor advised her on two separate complaints, to not rock the boat. I can guarantee that if a student nurse approached her instructor about a genuinely dangerous, unsafe, negligent act, the instructor will deal with it, using the authority of her chain of command.
I have read through the majority of the posts on here and my question to the op is, while the your nurse mentor was texting for 3.5 hours, what were you doing? Did you have another nurse to work with at this time or did you just stand around with her? I ask this as I too am a student nurse and I have had some really great mentors and a couple mentors that I wondered, why are they taking a student, as they seem to have no interest in helping or teaching or watching me... I know in your situation unless I saw a definate unsafe situation for any of her patients, I would not have reported the situation to my clinical instructor, as I know I would have got the same response about clinical sights. It is frustrating to only have so many days to be at clinical and wanting to get the most out of it as you can because this is it until you become a licensed nurse, so it is really frustrating to work with nurses who really have no interest in having a student. Question to all the licensed nurses that work at teaching facilities, Do you have the choice to take a student, or are you required? Just curious.
.thumb.jpg.5aa4d55557c0228e31b94de19666bbbb.jpg){kind=small}
:up:
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
i'm sorry you think i'm harsh. even considering "reporting it to the hospital" without seeking more information is rather self-righteous. without knowing more about the situation, the op made a judgement that it was wrong. she didn't bother to check things out with her clinical instructor -- who might have been able to look into it right then and there. she just came here to this board with a lot of preconceived ideas about what a horrible nurse this person was.
i can't say whether i'd be uncomfortable with that nurse taking care of my family member. i don't know for sure what she was doing or why. i'm not sure that the nurse wasn't doing everything correctly. sometimes the very best thing we can do for our patients is let them sleep as long as possible. an experienced nurse can tell with a very quick look that a sleeping icu patient is ok or not based on vital signs, heart rhythm, skin color, breathing patterns, o2 saturations, etc. we don't know for sure that the nurse in the original post hadn't already made that conclusion based on a very quick look that the student didn't recognize as an assessment. i can't make a judgement without more facts.