Okay, I'm working on a psych unit now. Our unit, on night shift, consists of two full time RN's and two full time LPN's. Every night, one of the RN's gets pulled to another unit, and one of the LPN's gets pulled. Anyway, I'm having issues with one of the LPN's that are really starting to border on severe. Some of them, perhaps, are more personal than anything but.... well, here goes.
First of all, this LPN is a male. He is a military nurse. I get very subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, hints that he has no respect for me, or for that matter a LOT of other people, whatsoever. His tone of speaking to other people just oozes with "you are BENEATH me". He has been nice to me exactly ONE time since I have worked there. The rest of the time, he pretty much speaks to me like I'm a dog. Much of the time, when he is on the unit and we are not busy, he has his head buried in something, a book or whatever, and doesn't talk to anyone much. However... there is this one pretty MHT that, when she is there, he makes it VERY CLEARLY OBVIOUS that he has the hots for her. I find it highly annoying and, again it makes it the more irritating that he talks to everyone else like they aren't human. He's just ... ARROGANT. He's one of those people that just.. KNOWS IT ALL, you know?
Okay, so how I convey that this isn't ALL personal stuff? Well, there's also the issue of him, and the other RN on the unit. On more than one occasion he has stated very loudly, very plainly, for EVERYONE to hear, that things would be going smoother if (insert other RN's name) were there. (On nights that I'm on the unit, and the other RN has been pulled). He knows that I am new and I am trying to find my way in this new world of psych nursing that I've found myself in, and yet saying things like that undermines both my confidence AND my authority on the unit. And (and yes this is very personal but hurts like you-know-what, nonetheless)... last night he said loud enough for me to hear, that everyone was collecting money to buy (other RN) a special gift for Christmas. I mean, she HAS been there longer than I have, she is older than me... but I still feel like I'm... having to fill her shoes when she's not on the unit, and..... I don't know, that just hurt.
So now the perhaps not-so-personal stuff that happened this morning that got me thinking about all of this in the first place. =( This morning was a world of confusion on the unit. We are supposed to be OUT of there at 7am; I mean, we are NOT supposed to stay much past that at all. Well, for some dang reason, sometimes patients that are supposed to be discharged, get scheduled to leave... at 7am!! When we are switching shifts!!!! So, we night shift people have to get the person up, make sure they shower, get their breakfast and possibly a lunch for them to take, depending on how far they are traveling... get their stuff out of their locker, have them sign for that stuff, make sure they are packed, and then we are supposed to get their medications that they are taking with them, and go over the instructions on taking them, with them. We are supposed to do ALL that, and also be collecting labs on some of our other patients. Well, *I* for one am busy as you-know-what that time of morning. I'm the one having to chart the hours that the patients all slept, I have to chart whether they got their labs drawn or refused, I have to chart their accu-checks, and I have to make sure all of their PRN medications that they received during the night, are charted.
My LPN did not do a DANG thing this morning to help me get the patient that was leaving, out. He did not do the medication teaching. He barely remembered to go get the patient's stuff out of the locker (which is in the medication room; the LPN's domain pretty much). He just left out of there at 7am, pretty as you please, and left me to drown. Oh, and there was a ton of confusion this morning regarding the labs, and who was actually supposed to have theirs drawn. He knew about all of that confusion and that I was trying to straighten it out. Didn't bother to help me. Nope.
Okay, so I know you are thinking that all of this is my fault. And yes, it pretty much is. I mean, you get respect when you command it. I'm having a VERY hard time in my new role in this job. I'm NOT used to being a supervisor. As a Med/Surge nurse, I was responsible for myself, my patients, and maybe one CNA, maybe two. That's it. And generally, there was a charge nurse on the floor that *WASN'T* typically me.
So it basically boils down to the fact that I have to sit down and have a long talk with this LPN, and I don't know quite what to say, or if I'm even justified in being angry with him at all. I'm just tired of his overall tone with people, AND with the patients. He BARKS at the patients. Some of our patients are so psychotic that sometimes you do actually have to be VERY VERY firm with them to get them redirected back to their rooms, or whatever. Those patients, he does well with. But some of our patients, he just makes them angrier than they are; that's all he succeeds in doing. And he calls them "MR Jones, or MR Smith, when everyone else on the unit calls them by their first names. I know that he thinks that this is some sort of respect thing, being military and all, but the way he says their names is still very condescending. "You need to get BACK to your room, MISTER Jones".
I'm tired of his blatant disrespect for me. I'm tired of the way he talks to me. I'm tired of feeling talked down to. I'm tired of being reminded that I'll never live up to what the other RN is... I think it is because she is much more of a "hard-*ss" than I am, and maybe that is what he respects... again, being military.
I'm tired of him not having my back when I need help. He's the other licensed staff on the unit; he needs to be helping me out. He needs to be backing me up. The only time he's good at backing me up is when there's a physical management; when a patient has to be restrained. And even then, I feel like he's pressuring me to be unreasonably hard on the patient. We had a patient recently that we had to restrain, and the LPN was putting pressure on me to keep the patient in restraints ALL NIGHT LONG. I felt that to be mighty unreasonable, and did let him out, slowly. He ended up doing just fine after that.
Anyway... I really need to sit down and have a talk with the guy, and I don't know how to do it. I'm so horrible at confrontation, but whether all of this should or not, it's really taking a toll on how I'm doing my job, and how I feel about my job, when this LPN is working with me.
Do you all think I'm just being stupid?
ktwlpn, LPN
3,844 Posts
remember-"No one can make you feel inferior without YOUR consent" It isn't about touchy -feely crap.Delegate-in a concise manner.No one can meet your expectations if they have to guess at them.Then follow through.He'll love a tit for tat-so DONT engage....Don't react..Also-get over the "my LPN" thing-we are licensed,too...I am not saying you are but you could be letting him know in a very subtle way how you feel about lpn's and our scope of practice vs yours..Experienced lpn's don't take kindly to that even though we are well aware of the facts -we don't relish being treated like glorified cna's because we are not.We expect to be recognized for our abilities .As for his manner/tone of voice etc-you'll have to work and get along with all kinds...