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."
Seeing nurses throw each other under the bus for anything while NEVER seeing docs do the same to their peers even when I have seen some boneheaded decisions or under-thought orders.
They do plenty of throwing under the bus; they just mostly have enough sense not to do it in public.
We had a new-grad LPN (still in school for her RN) pass meds. The fit was hitting the shan with critical patients and very needy swing beds, call lights were going off left and right, the two RNs and CNA on duty were running their butts off. Where was the LPN? Sitting at the nurse's station and playing around on her smart phone. The CNA asked her to get a call light to help out, and her answer was "Oh, I'm on meds." The kicker? There were no more meds due at that time. Yeah, we had a nice little talk.
Give me the courtesy of telling me the orders you didn't get to. If you don't, I'll think you are trying to pull a fast one on me. And you probably are.
Foul language in pt care areas. Most of us are guilty of slipping up with a word here or there, but when you unleash a string of curse words often within hearing distance pt's and family members, I think it reflects poorly on the professionalism of the unit as a whole. Seems like my unit has an overabundance of brand new grads in their young twenties that have formed a small close nit group that seem to congregate discussing how wasted they were on their days off and other such conversations that do not present themselves well and instill confidence to the family members that can over hear them. Keep that for behind closed doors where all of the hospital doesn't hear you! When I say pt's family members an over hear I mean directly outside rooms. Being this is ICU it means sliding glass doors that are wide open :/ Please please PLEASE think before you speak and who can over hear you!!!!
Honestly, if there's some down time and all your work is (essentially) done, I don't see the problem with looking at your smart phone at the nurses station - especially on night shift. I don't think it's unprofessional, and it seems like psycho micromanagement to wholesale ban it.
The problem being the staff that seem to be indivisibly linked to their phones. Their definition of "down time" is if everyone else is already running around like maniacs, and a patient will die if they don't get off their phone, they may put it on hold for a few until someone else is available. I'd like to think we are all capable of acting like adults when it comes to this issue, but in my experience, if phones are in use on the unit, there is always a few that abuse this privilege to the expense of their peers. I've yet to see it not abused, and I am one of the staff that gets to pick up the slack since I leave my phone in my locker.
The problem being the staff that seem to be indivisibly linked to their phones. Their definition of "down time" is if everyone else is already running around like maniacs, and a patient will die if they don't get off their phone, they may put it on hold for a few until someone else is available. I'd like to think we are all capable of acting like adults when it comes to this issue, but in my experience, if phones are in use on the unit, there is always a few that abuse this privilege to the expense of their peers. I've yet to see it not abused, and I am one of the staff that gets to pick up the slack since I leave my phone in my locker.
I don't know; it just depends on the unit. Smart phones are allowed, or at least tolerated, on my unit and it just isn't an issue.
People who act like their crosses to bear in life are so much worse than everyone else's, and use that as justification for laziness, distraction, mistakes, rudeness, etc. Newsflash: We all have problems. Some of us are just better at dealing with them, apparently.
Sometimes I get report on a patient, their neuro status, lung sounds, diet, meds, etc. A lot of my patients are chronic and these conditions described in report are their baselines, the things required to maintain them in their normal conditions.
So I ask why is the patient here? What are their treatment goals? And the nurse can't answer me.
Sometimes I get report on a patient, their neuro status, lung sounds, diet, meds, etc. A lot of my patients are chronic and these conditions described in report are their baselines, the things required to maintain them in their normal conditions.
So I ask why is the patient here? What are their treatment goals? And the nurse can't answer me.
Oh, that bugs the crap out of me. When I do my chart audits on nights, I make sure the chief complaint / primary diagnosis is at the top of the screen and chronic conditions are labeled with "hx of". It's been making the hand-off is a little more informative and less "fluffy". At least on my patients.
People who act like their crosses to bear in life are so much worse than everyone else's, and use that as justification for laziness, distraction, mistakes, rudeness, etc. Newsflash: We all have problems. Some of us are just better at dealing with them, apparently.
Yes! And this ties right into the endless money collections for these issues. Someone is retiring? Ok, let's collect some money for a present. Your grandmother died and you can't afford the plane ticket to the funeral? Not my problem. I'm sorry for your loss, but these collections get out of hand.
Sent from my iPhone -- blame all errors on spellcheck
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!"
Yes!!! I've actually had to compete with one of our new hires with answering call lights / getting meds done / providing patient care (yes, even wiping butts *gasp*) - and I had thought I was on top of things! Its a very good feeling to have someone else on the team that's not starting out as just a warm body!
VANurse2010
1,526 Posts
They do plenty of throwing under the bus; they just mostly have enough sense not to do it in public.