This is a bit of a vent, but a timely one. I love working with a very diverse team on a busy med/surg floor. As we are now in Spring, we have many new orientees and again I have been asked to bring a few of them along as a preceptor. Every year it just strikes me how more and more irritated I get with some basic professional behaviors that normally don't tick me off this bad, but really get my hackles up when I find myself saying to a new nurse "well, the professional way to handle this is..." Sheesh! I shouldn't have to even have that conversation with a new grad when observing behaviors and interactions with our existing staff! Here are my top two for Spring 2015:
1. Our shifts are 0645 - 1915. I have worked nights and days and still CAN'T STAND IT when it comes to being on time for either shift. If you are coming off shift, I get that sometimes patient care delays being ready for report, BUT when you are the oncoming nurse, there is no excuse. "On TIME" means ready to take report right at 0645 or at 1845.. It does not mean, "I clocked in at 0645, but let me set my bag down in our locker room and get my stuff and fill my water bottle/coffee cup/etc."
2. It is isn't appropriate to have your smart phone out on the floor. I don't care if you were using the calculator function, or the drug look up. Those tools are available on our mobile carts and are provided by our employers (which BTW, you SHOULD be using resources provided and approved by your employer per most P&P!) But let's be honest, there is a different "tap" to being on FB, twitter, or texting than there is to using a tool. As a school teacher friend of mine once said to me, "I tell my students that I always know when they are texting on a phone. It just seems unnatural that you have been looking at your own crotch for that long while smiling, smirking, and laughing."
Well, it's worked in restaurants. The hospitals should stick to Mariachi-proficient nurses, though. Classical musicians like myself might raise the BP of some pts. They'd have to relegate me to the ones in shock and take me away from my TBIs... And then there are those who sing as well as I do sports......
Seriously though, that is an odd thing to advertise. And don't they set up enough non-nursing expectations of the nursing staff anyway??
I can sing like a Disney Princess. What instrument(s) do you play? Maybe we can make this work. Also, what's your specialty? I'm not sure I could do peds.
Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Hospice,IV Therapy.
I used to work with someone who spent time on line ordering lingerie. Looked real professional when other staff walked into the nurse's station.
I also had a manager who said she would help us when we were severely short staffed. She would assign herself as charge nurse and then spend most of the day at meetings. Had a hard time getting her when we needed her, patients were going down the tubes, the unit was exploding and we all had to cover the charge nurse duties because she wasn't there. I was so glad to leave that place!
Nurses showing up to work in wrinkled scrubs. It looks like you slept all day in them. You are a licensed professional, get out an iron or buy the kind of fabric that isn't wrinkled when you take them out of the dryer.
Also, fix your hair. Nobody says you have to wear make-up (some people have religious beliefs to where they cannot), but your hair should be neat.
I cannot stand it when I hear, "I'm not going to a fashion show, if they are clean that's all that matters". Sorry folks, it matters. You can't complain that you don't get treated like a professional when you don't look like one.
As the first poster said, I can't stand seeing fake nails on nurses! ICK. I've also seen a lot of gossiping and swearing in front of patients. Terrible
Nurses showing up to work in wrinkled scrubs. It looks like you slept all day in them. You are a licensed professional, get out an iron or buy the kind of fabric that isn't wrinkled when you take them out of the dryer.
Also, fix your hair. Nobody says you have to wear make-up (some people have religious beliefs to where they cannot), but your hair should be neat.
I cannot stand it when I hear, "I'm not going to a fashion show, if they are clean that's all that matters". Sorry folks, it matters. You can't complain that you don't get treated like a professional when you don't look like one.
Yes, and/also when they wear the same scrub set every day (maybe they wash it, but the people I see do this usually appear to have soiled scrubs on.)
I work with a nurse who tells pts way too much. Too much about office politics as well as too much about herself.
I finally told her the other day that when pts ask how she is they are being nice and don't want a rundown of her life troubles. Of course she just looked at me like I had two heads...
When age comes into play on the unit. I've seen it happen - older employee ignores younger employee who is charge or in a position that is senior to older employee simply because of age. Problems then arise with patient care and general unit functioning. Or just as bad: older employee tries to take over for/undermine younger employee because "I have more experience in general because I am older and have been a nurse longer." Which never ends well.
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Admin,Don and their staff cronies posting public pics on Facebook of themselves drunk at the local pub...The same staff cronies call off frequently on Sunday and the usual rules don't apply to them.Occassionally the entire group takes the day off-no sweat.But let two or three of the rest of us try to take time off and forget about it.Oh and the ban on hiring family members?It just depends on who you are....
OMG yes. Where I used to work they had a "Spirit Stick" made out of cardboard tube with tinsel attached to the ends that was given to a person each month that displayed the most spirit. It was just ghastly. Then there was "Get on the Generic Hospital Bus!!!" that was a big yellow school bus with each shift's staff names written on it. Getting on the bus meant getting with the policies and using teamwork. It was also a short bus. Cartoon characters, big lurid yellow smiley faces leering out at you on memos. Floral borders on some memos and colored paper cutouts on the bulletin board. It was what you would expect to see in an elementary school classroom that the "teacher's favorite" spent an afternoon on. Too many things management does in nursing seem very childish to me.
Wow, this is so absurd it sounds like a joke! Funny to read but not so funny to have to endure in the workplace.
Treating the UAP'S like crap and expecting miraculous displays of super human feats from them.
A nurse I worked with in LTC use to gripe her aides out for taking lunches and breaks on their 13 hour shifts.
I always scheduled my aides lunches and breaks and made sure they took time to have some water here and there.
Needless to say, my unit ran smoother, I had 75% less call ins, and my aides felt appreciated so they were willing to work harder and go the extra mile for me in reciprocation.
She ended up quiting because hers made her life miserable.
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Treating the UAP'S like crap and expecting miraculous displays of super human feats from them.
A nurse I worked with in LTC use to gripe her aides out for taking lunches and breaks on their 13 hour shifts.
I always scheduled my aides lunches and breaks and made sure they took time to have some water here and there.
Needless to say, my unit ran smoother, I had 75% less call ins, and my aides felt appreciated so they were willing to work harder and go the extra mile for me in reciprocation.
She ended up quiting because hers made her life miserable.
I hate that,too however in making that nurse's life miserable the aides were likely using the residents as pawns.There are NO victims,only.volunteers.Another pet peeve of mine is people who allow themselves to be treated in such a way or abused in any way.The professional response would be"Sorry you feel that way,I am legally entitled to my breaks,you are harassing me ."
Wow, this is so absurd it sounds like a joke! Funny to read but not so funny to have to endure in the workplace.
ixchel
4,547 Posts
I can sing like a Disney Princess. What instrument(s) do you play? Maybe we can make this work. Also, what's your specialty? I'm not sure I could do peds.