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Discussion

problem with co-worker( long sorry)

Ok I am going to let it all out, and please correct me if I am wrong..

English is not my first language but I am trying to explain it anyways;-)

I work as a the only nurse some evenings on a floor with 40 patients and 3 nurseassistants.

I have a major problem with one of them. Six months ago she started igoring me at work. Wouldn´t do vitals on critical patients and got offended if I asked for her help. I confronted her and she said I looked down at her.

Thats fair enough. I do get anxious and seem a bit uptight sometimes in a acute situation:

Let me give you some exsambles:

1)Findning out by luck that a patient had a saturation of 56 for a couple of hours( maybe she did not feel I needed to know??) refused to help me do vitals on a critical patient next door while I to care of this soon to be very critical patient ( she had other things to do like passing out drinks)

2)Getting offended when I asked how much my patient had peed on the shift, when there wasn´t a drop of urine in the bag..ok sorry I asked if the patient have not peed the whole shift I need to know. It´s not a good sign and I am not looking down on you but I am worried about the patient.

3)had a patient who was nearly choking in her own secrete ( hmm english;-) again I asked for help. First response no.. " this is not my patient" me: I need help like now holdning her hand!! the patient was terrified and my coworker said I am not holdning her hands it´s against her will, she is forcing me away ( you don´t say so, so lets just leave her there choking to ...and please do not scream at me infront of a terrified patient when I need you to be calm in order to help, thats why she is refusing it evenmore

4) please report any actively bleeding when the doctor is actually on the floor, do not wait until report time, so I have to call him back leaving the patient in worse shape( and please do not tell me infront of my patients that there are bleedning and I don´t have a clue working them up, when it´s beets coming out of the colostomibag

5) please be there when patients ask for help. Do not turn of the light at 8 pm before the last medpass at nine. My patients are unigue individuals . They have a right to get respected and have their needs met. So if a patient is soking wet from top to toe in their own urine don´t sent them to the dining room, cause you can´t be bothered right now( change their close instead of just walking away) ..would you like being treated like that??? They are grown ups not babies so if you are stressed out or having another bad day do not yell and shout YOU ARE NOT THEIR PARENT and while I am at it don´t shout or badmouth me infront of relatives and staff from outside ( I GET EMBARRESED AND ASHAMED TO BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF OUR WARD)it´s not kindergarden, we get paid to be proffessionals not act out at work!!!

6) just a last one so you get the picture... when a patient falls on the floor and a nursing student ask you to help pic her up, please don´t say you are of work now ..JUST LEAVING THE PATIENT THERE????

so sorry for the vent. As I said maybe I am a bit "stiff " sometimes, but I have tried talking to her about my feelings in a nice tone. Still feel that eventhough she has an issue with me we have to be proffesionels.

I am fairly new to being in charge and the resposibility and I reeeeeally need to be able to count on my coworkres to help me out and otherwise. I get so anxious, feel bad for the patient and dread that if something happens like a code she won´t help me if she is " in that mood"

she is always complaing about someone to our boss and for the last couples of months it´s been me. I finally ( after holdning it back for a long time) confronted our boss. Everyone ( I mean everyone coworkers and often patients say they don´t like her) has been complaining about her but nothing has happend. My boss finally wrote some of the complaints down and confronted her.

Nothing came out of it. Mycoworker was cheerfull afterwards and I was asked if I smoked on the job ( She could spell it arrghh) I admitted it and are embarresed ( a whole nother story) BUT my boss said oh you know your coworker hate it that you smoke ( we all do it hmm) maybe thats why she has a hard time with you. My chin dropped SHE SMOKES AT WORK TOO... EVEN SHOVED ME WHERE TO DO IT GRHHH)

point is. I I am trying to be professionel and give the patients a decent care and be able to count on my coworkes so we can provide that.

But now it is turning into he said, she said and whos smoking and so on and I bet nothing is gonna be done about the bad work enviroment and good patient care!! ( Okey I admit cigarette smell is not high standard either)

sorry for this long rant, would love some perspective on this one

thanks

Featured Replies

After reading this, I am amazed that anyone ever survives being a patient.

I think you just need to stand your ground with her, do some write-ups, get this aide to learn that you need to know the answers to the questions you have posed. You sound like a good and knowledgeable nurse, just hampered with a terrible aide who has never been forced to accept your authority.

This is not an easy battle, as today's managers seem totally unwiling to discipline - except the nurse who dares to raise some issues.

Are you in LTC?

In every LTC I've worked the aides ran the place.

  • Guides

What you describe is unacceptable and inexcusable.

To not report critical events such as a desaturation and deteriorating patient or to let you know a patient has not passed urine is appalling. This is not a case of if she likes you or not she is seriously having an impact on patient care,

Firstly I would say keep acurate written records, both privately and in patients notes / incident reports. Keep a diary of events such as these, they cannot continue to be allowed.

If your senior will not pay any attention to you is there anyone higher that you can go to to talk about the problems you are having, you have to know your patients are safe and with what you describe you can't do that. If you have written times, dates and incidents this will make it easier for you to do this. You also need to point out to her the impact she is having on patient care.

  • Author

Thanks for your replies. I am almost thinking about quitting do to this. Nothing is worth a bad working enviroment just hate the thought that I am been driving to thinking this way argghh..

The situations you have described here involve life-threatening inattention to patients. It's impossible to know whether this is incompetence or a willful desire to make you look bad.

I understand your desire to leave this job. Few people relish confrontation. But if you simply leave without any effort to bring this aide's performance to someone's attention, it's only a matter of time before a patient suffers serious harm.

The behaviour you described is horrible and inexcusable from ANY health care worker. The patient always comes first and I am sorry you have to work with that type of personality. I am a CNA and I have seen this type of behavior in fellow CNAs. Without teamwork, the patient looses (and so does everybody else).

Good luck

  • Guides

I have re-read this post again because I was so appalled by what you have described.

1)Findning out by luck that a patient had a saturation of 56 for a couple of hours( maybe she did not feel I needed to know??) refused to help me do vitals on a critical patient next door while I to care of this soon to be very critical patient ( she had other things to do like passing out drinks)

2)Getting offended when I asked how much my patient had peed on the shift, when there wasn´t a drop of urine in the bag..ok sorry I asked if the patient have not peed the whole shift I need to know. It´s not a good sign and I am not looking down on you but I am worried about the patient.

3)had a patient who was nearly choking in her own secrete ( hmm english;-) again I asked for help. First response no.. " this is not my patient" me: I need help like now holdning her hand!! the patient was terrified and my coworker said I am not holdning her hands it´s against her will, she is forcing me away ( you don´t say so, so lets just leave her there choking to ...and please do not scream at me infront of a terrified patient when I need you to be calm in order to help, thats why she is refusing it evenmore

What you describe here are acute life threatening illness, You are talking about Airway, breathing and circulation problems here, emergency care is immediately required this is not something that anyone should decide not to followup because she doesn't like the nurse responsibleif a support worker had behaved as you have described and not accepted that she was in the wrong I would have sent her home as unfit for duty, then followed up with a disciplinary warning.

4) please report any actively bleeding when the doctor is actually on the floor, do not wait until report time, so I have to call him back leaving the patient in worse shape( and please do not tell me infront of my patients that there are bleedning and I don´t have a clue working them up, when it´s beets coming out of the colostomibag

Again, circulation problem, my above comment stands.

5) please be there when patients ask for help. Do not turn of the light at 8 pm before the last medpass at nine. My patients are unigue individuals . They have a right to get respected and have their needs met. So if a patient is soking wet from top to toe in their own urine don´t sent them to the dining room, cause you can´t be bothered right now( change their close instead of just walking away) ..would you like being treated like that??? They are grown ups not babies so if you are stressed out or having another bad day do not yell and shout YOU ARE NOT THEIR PARENT and while I am at it don´t shout or badmouth me infront of relatives and staff from outside ( I GET EMBARRESED AND ASHAMED TO BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF OUR WARD)it´s not kindergarden, we get paid to be proffessionals not act out at work!!!

If she is not following your instructions or complying with basic patient care requests then she is being insubbordinate, you are her supervisor and the responsible nurse, therefore she should follow your instructions. If she cannot she is not fit to work, send her home.

6) just a last one so you get the picture... when a patient falls on the floor and a nursing student ask you to help pic her up, please don´t say you are of work now ..JUST LEAVING THE PATIENT THERE????

Oh lord where do I start, failing to ensure patient safety, comfort and dignity.

It doesn't matter how long you have been in charge at the end of the day YOU are in charge and she has to comply or ship out. You have a responsibility as a nurse to ensure the safety of your patients, it's not about personalities it's about basic care.

I am fairly sure in Germany as a nurse you have to comply with certain standards similar to those in the UK and US, if you allow this to continue you are not meeting those standards, you have a responsiblity to those patients to ensure they come to no harm, with this individual caring for them this is not going to happen.

Report again and again, if nothing happens go higher until someone listens.

  • Author

Thank you sooo much I feel better already after reading your responses!!

Still feel like quitting though.. why does´nt my management take any action, I am not the only one complaining thats what horrifies me the most!!? Think I have lost some respect, though I know the are desperate to get staff this is way to much..

  • Guides
Thank you sooo much I feel better already after reading your responses!!

Still feel like quitting though.. why does´nt my management take any action, I am not the only one complaining thats what horrifies me the most!!? Think I have lost some respect, though I know the are desperate to get staff this is way to much..

If your direct line manager won't listen and you say that there are other nurses unhappy can you not all go as a group to your senior nurse / nurse director.

Are you in LTC?

In every LTC I've worked the aides ran the place.

Which is why I'll never work in one.........mc3:nurse:

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