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."
For me it is the "cutsey" crud that nurses use to put in cork board for communicating things ugh as flowers or sports themes to try to get "team spirit" up. Many times these boards are in full view of patients, visitors and other disciplines. How professional is that? Professionals don't need cutesy themes to communicate ideas or policies or plans. You don't see see those in doctors conference rooms or even in Physical Therapy rooms. You see this in housekeeping or dietary areas which generally are not licensed professionals. End of rant.
For me it is the "cutsey" crud that nurses use to put in cork board for communicating things ugh as flowers or sports themes to try to get "team spirit" up. Many times these boards are in full view of patients, visitors and other disciplines. How professional is that? Professionals don't need cutesy themes to communicate ideas or policies or plans. You don't see see those in doctors conference rooms or even in Physical Therapy rooms. You see this in housekeeping or dietary areas which generally are not licensed professionals. End of rant.
In my opinion it's just general laziness. When I was brand new, or really any time I take a new job in any field, I try to be one step ahead of my preceptor/trainer. Anticipating what needs to be done and being a self starter really impresses me.
If I stand up and say "We really need to go hang this abx" I HATE to look over and the trainee is still sitting, playing on their phone at the nurses station and has practically forgotten I (or their new job) exists. I want to hear, "Oh, I started that 10 minutes ago!"
Oh, and in general acting as though they are above certain tasks or aspects of the job. EVERYBODY wipes a butt now and then!
I literally said OMG out loud, haha. I think I'd find that too hilarious to be appropriately grossed out.
Okay, I'll admit it. I did it once on nights. I was talking to a co-worker and realized my pits stank so, still talking, I went to my back pack, got out my Secret, and rolled it on. I went down the top of my shirt. My friend just looked at me and I realized what I was doing and apologized.
Asking me 1,000 questions during report regarding information that can be ascertained from the chart (whether paper or electronic). Report takes long enough lately due to bedside report. I don't need an extra 30 minutes tacked on because you're asking me questions that, had you had the motivation, you could know if you took 5 minutes to look it up yourself.
Similarly, if you arrive right on time for your shift, be prepared to get report. Don't look up labs, PMH, and review orders when you SHOULD be getting report. If you feel the need to know that information, feel free to come in much earlier than report starts and look it up yourself.
For me it is the "cutsey" crud that nurses use to put in cork board for communicating things ugh as flowers or sports themes to try to get "team spirit" up. .
Oh my gawrsh YES YES YES! I don't think that "days since last inpatient fall (1)" with a frowny face in view of patients and providers does anything other than make us look infantile. I agree with posting data, but the cute needs the boot!
Asking me 1,000 questions during report regarding information that can be ascertained from the chart (whether paper or electronic). .
Agreed. I think all that type of badgering at the bedside just makes patient's feel uncomfortable. And it looks more professional to give a succinct physical status and pt goals and pending treatments and tests at the bedside rather than an inquisition.
My other unprofessional irritation along this vein is the nurse who uses this technique to pressure a newer nurse by making him or her feel she doesn't know enough if he or she cannot recite the minutest of details from memory on the spot.
Spot on Farawyn! "Can I do anything?" when exiting is a classic! Love it when I say, "yes, you can finish your admission charting and screenings on the patient you admitted 10 hours ago, and please restock your med cart. Thanks!"
Those are usually the ones that get huffy when you ask them to do just that. They've always had a bad day. Occasionally sure, things don't get done and days/nights are awful, but when it's the same person over and over again?
1) Strolling in 30 minutes late and then demanding that rounds need to be done before report. Um, come on time then.
2) When a patient requests something simple like water and the nurse wastes time to notify me (because I'm the assigned RN) of the request instead of simply getting the patient water.
BloomNurseRN, ASN, BSN, RN
1 Article; 722 Posts
One of my good friends works with someone that does this too! Gross!