tedards1

Recognized as definition of workplace bullying in a court of law in 2014: Workplace Bullying is repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators. It is abusive conduct that is : *Threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, or *Work interference - sabotage - which prevents work from getting done, or *Verbal abuse

Fresnovet made an outstanding observation about a novice nurse not necessarily being a greenhorn at life in general. I have a sneaking suspicion that in many circumstances I would rather have fresnovet caring for me than a myopic, selfish nurse with multiple years of experience. Fresnovet likely has a great deal of common sense, is personable, reads people better than the average person, always remains calm in a crisis, is probably more culturally aware/sensitive of my needs, and treats me with professional courtesy and respect even if I do not afford him/her the same courtesy. Smile at your adversary and learn, but feel free to give them black licorice gum disguised as juicy fruit, put saline in their coffee, and laugh hysterically (in your head) when they have to administer an M & M enema. Okay, I am kidding.

I sympathize with your difficulties. Some of the posts below have given you some helpful and constructive advice. Some of the replies have even been empathetic, but the comment that stood out most to me is that of Nurse___RN, BSN who said: I have to disagree. There are nurses with some attitude, we have to as nurses. Don't we? We have to be able to stand up for our patients. But nursing is far from being catty and horrible. No, "we" do not have to have attitude. Attitude is not a prerequisite for being an outstanding patient advocate; and attitude is most certainly not necessary, appreciated, or appropriate for any person working with anyone or anywhere, least of all a Registered Professional Nurse. I do not recall any of the courses or clinicals required to obtain my Bachelor of Science in Nursing teaching "attitude." Believing that as a nurse you have to be, or worse, are entitled to behave like a "b----" is pathetic. Me93RN, please do not accept the mean-spirited nurses or their hateful comments as the status quo. Nursing is a very difficult job. Killing your coworkers with kindness (in a manner of speaking), asking for their advice, deferring to their judgment, recognizing that you are the low man on the totem pole, and exercising due respect and courtesy are all excellent suggestions. That being said, nursing generally requires you to be assertive, firm, and strong-willed and you should never have to tolerate anyone's belittling or bullying you, but being hateful and having an attitude is not the answer. I apologize for butting in on this conversation uninvited. I also apologize if I was disrespectful to anyone, especially Nurse___RN, BSN, but nurses behaving hatefully and with attitude is toxic to this and any other profession. It only breeds negativity, arrogance, hurt feelings, and anger. I am certainly no angel and have had to watch my language as I type because I usually swear like a sailor. I have a gallows humor and very thick skin. I work in a Level 1 Trauma Center where gunshots are the leading cause of trauma. Social niceties are not in abundance, nor are happy endings, but having an attitude toward another nurse, doctor, patient, family member, etc. is not effective or necessary or professional, nor should it be tolerated.

Thank you for the words of encouragement. I was in trauma last night and my preceptor assumed I knew more than I do about EPIC. I did fine with patient care but I had no idea when labs or additional pain medication or a CT, etc. were ordered. When I tried to discharge a patient, it seemed I had to do it three different times and ways. I had to enter discharge vitals even though I had just put vitals in the flowsheet. There are at least five places to chart an assessment and the nurses keep telling me to make notes but shouldn't there be a template for what I am charting? I apologize for venting but it is preventing me from being competent!

Thank you for the advice. It will be frustrating and tedious, but you are right. Hopefully six months from now I will laugh at myself for stressing over EPIC. Maybe I will even write my own how-to instruction guide for charting in EPIC ASAP for obsessive compulsive freaks like me.

I came from an ER that used paper charting and then I briefly used MedHost at another facility. I just started in an ER that uses EPIC ASAP. I am trying to keep an open mind but I dislike this software intensely. It is incredibly messy, disjointed, overly complex, illogical, and guaranteed to confuse. Does anyone who is highly organized, efficient, anal-retentive, methodical, and detail oriented have any advice? I was given a woefully inadequate paper brochure on the software and an overwhelmingly useless 6-hour class on using the software though the class was intended for prior users of EPIC. My preceptor has been very patient but I am having to memorize everything I am being taught as there is no logical flow to the layout. There would also seem to be multiple ways to do the same thing, a feature which I do not find endearing. I have always been recognized for my scrupulous and thorough documentation, but this is an extremely busy ER and I do not have the time nor the desire to spend half of my shift trying to chart properly.