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."
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.
A lot of people mess with them where I work. I don't think it looks good when patients or families may see you, and there aren't a lot of places where they won't see you. I don't understand what's so difficult about staying off them for a little while. Tapping out an "Ok" to your kid who texted you when he gets home from school is one thing, but people carry out entire conversations with their friends on them. There is always something to do in nursing. Always.
What about co-worker doing their school work on company time on company computer? Charge nurse shuts the station and computer down for the day and somebody lost a lot of unsaved school work. Pitched a fit two weeks after it happened (obviously nursing a grudge). Who was supposed to know you were not saving your stuff to a memory stick?
What about co-worker doing their school work on company time on company computer? Charge nurse shuts the station and computer down for the day and somebody lost a lot of unsaved school work. Pitched a fit two weeks after it happened (obviously nursing a grudge). Who was supposed to know you were not saving your stuff to a memory stick?
Or supervisors who make their subordinate nurses do their assignments. Do your OWN work and let us worry about our patients.
4 There is always something to do in nursing. Always.
This! This is . . . well, more of a pet peeve. One can't say this is an unprofessional attitude at all
I've had a couple of managers that considered sitting still (unless you were obviously charting) as 'slacking'. "You could be sanitizing the nurse's station!"
There's nothing to disagree with here . . . there IS always something to be doing. But dang, feeling guilty about being caught just sitting there? Just adds to the stress.
Some folks'll be just sitting there . . . taking up space . . . and that's a problem. If only they felt 'guilty' for just sitting there, maybe they'd actually get up and do SOMETHING . . .
When there is one or two RNs who are running their butts off, and the rest of the staff (including the charge) are sitting in a circle listening to someone tell a long personal story . . . mmm, that is not OK. The last hospital unit I worked on was good, in that nurses were open to helping each other, and trusted each other. When we'd float somewhere else, and the 'culture' was such that asking someone else for help was like farting in their face or insulting them, that was tough.
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.
Hopefully she never did THAT again!! When I was a CNA, I was on night shift in a rehab unit w/ another CNA and an RN. The other CNA was on break, we had 3 call lights ringing, and the RN was sitting at the desk with her feet up, and working on her cross-stitch. I did say something to her...something like "Hey K, we've got 3 call lights going off, and I can't be in all 3 rooms at once." She did get up and help. I was sooooo irritated though.
The hospital I used to work at posted a video on FB with the headline "Our nurses sing to patients!" showing two nurses with guitars singing for an elderly patient and his wife in his room.
Now, I know it's a nice thing to do. I take care of elderly patients and sing to and with them informally while performing ADLs, but my first reaction was that it made it seem like nurses performing and entertain was part of their job. The way it was presented--it just rubbed me the wrong way--like they were saying choose our hospital and be serenaded.
The hospital I used to work at posted a video on FB with the headline "Our nurses sing to patients!" showing two nurses with guitars singing for an elderly patient and his wife in his room.
Now, I know it's a nice thing to do. I take care of elderly patients and sing to and with them informally while performing ADLs, but my first reaction was that it made it seem like nurses performing and entertain was part of their job. The way it was presented--it just rubbed me the wrong way--like they were saying choose our hospital and be serenaded.
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.
AAAAaaaaaannnnnnd a close second to this? "Won't you come to my new business opening? I've just started selling (Arbonne, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, blah blah barf!) and I think you'll really find some things you Juuuuuust Caaaaan't live WITHOUT!" I do not come to work to be sold to, not for your "business" or for your kids' fundraising, no way no how! And if we took this to it's extreme, wouldn't we all just be buying crud we don't need and spending money to supposedly improve someone else's lot in life? Not my job.
This is a very eye-opening post for me. I'm but a lowly pre-nursing student, and Idk if I have a warped outsider's view of nursing, but I'm kind of shocked at the idea that coming in late, looking at cell phones while you should be working, or not pulling your weight is tolerated at all. When I imagine my future career as a nurse I've always imagined having to be constantly busy, alert, and hyper-professional.
I've been in the workforce for nearly 20 years, from retail to food service to a decade or so in admin. My current position is very relaxed. But even working at a bookstore or a restaurant, I would have gotten written up for coming in late without calling or having my cell phone on the floor. And that's freakin' retail or food service!
I cannot imagine going through all the time, energy, and stress of training for and pursuing a career in nursing, and then bleeping off to the point of being routinely late, putting on deo every day at the nurse's station, playing Candy Crush, and just generally being a lazy good-fer-nuthin. I have put a lot of thought and energy and stress into this already and I haven't applied to nursing school yet! I want to excel at what I do. Otherwise why do it?
I encountered this for the first time in years when I was working retail for a few months over Christmas. At the company where I work FT, most of the young people are trying to break into the business, so they work hard. But at the bookstore, oh-em-jeez. I was frankly shocked at how much energy people would expend to keep from expending energy. Like, don't you realize it's less work to just do it than to avoid doing it? Whatever "it" is?
I am anti-cell-phone-in-the-workplace, for what it's worth, at least when that workplace involves dealing with the public as health care providers.
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.
In report: "Foley is patent." (At my first job, that was the thing to write in the GU part of our report sheets.) Really? What's the alternative? In report: "Foley clotted off, still clotted off. Not patent." ???
"I don't even have time to peeeeee!!" Yes, you do. It can be done in 60-120 seconds. Really, you can't spare 60-120 seconds?
Scrub tops that cling to the wearer's breasts.
Requesting a prn when available = clock watching = drug seeker!!!!!!!! Don't worry about it. Hey, it save YOU from having to watch the clock to keep on top of your pt's pain.
There isn't a scrub top that doesn't cling to my breasts. I'm an HH cup. I would have to wear some sort of sack for a shirt. I don't wear low cut, skin tight scrubs though, if that's what you mean.
I did say something to her...something like "Hey K, we've got 3 call lights going off, and I can't be in all 3 rooms at once." She did get up and help. I was sooooo irritated though.
dudette10, MSN, RN
3,530 Posts
A lot of people mess with them where I work. I don't think it looks good when patients or families may see you, and there aren't a lot of places where they won't see you. I don't understand what's so difficult about staying off them for a little while. Tapping out an "Ok" to your kid who texted you when he gets home from school is one thing, but people carry out entire conversations with their friends on them. There is always something to do in nursing. Always.