anonymous_5591

Unfortunately all of this is within the 'normal' character traits of this coworker. This is not her first time doing this to someone. She usually does *** like this with her preceptees. So confronting her will only make things worse, and who knows what this person is capable of. She could literally lie about anything and the boss would believe her 110%. Having my boss think I don't do my job will impact my yearly raises, and this is also my first ICU position so it will now impact my references for future employers too. My next moves will be to stop picking up OT on my unit and instead pick up OT on another ICU unit. This will give me a chance to scope out the other units and see how bad or good their work culture is. If it's better I'll put in for a transfer. I only have to last one more year at this hospital and then I am going to pay them back (they paid 3k for my BSN) this way I can leave prematurely to do travel nursing. Travel nursing has always been my dream. And thanks to this *** fest of a unit I'm now being pushed towards it at a faster rate (which is good), I'll take this BS as a form of motivation to get the hell out and move on towards my dreams.

Critical care is grim. It took me a few months to realize the significance of my boss' first words to me during our interview which was, "You're the funeral attendant". Out of everything on my resume (I was a nurse already for a year) this was the thing that stood out the most to her and made an impression. Working in a funeral home for 6 years taught me a lot about death and dying and dealing with grief. These lessons took me 6 years of working in the funeral industry to understand and I honestly don't know where I would be without that background. One of the best words of advice I have received is that, "their grief is not yours to bear". It sounds heartless but it's true. You can show compassion by being present and listening but it's important to remember that unfortunately life is not guaranteed. I remind myself of this everyday, and try to live my life to the absolute fullest. (that's how I cope). To quote one of my favorite shows Six Feet Under, "Nate: “Everybody dies. Some of us live to be 100, some never make it through the first day." It's heartbreaking, but once you accept this I find it makes things less depressing. I recommend watching the show. --Also, please remember that the hospital setting is the worst of it. People are grieving the loss of that relationship, or the loss of broken/unfulfilled promises, once this passes generally during the funeral people celebrate the life of that person.

ICU RN: Honestly this is more of a 6am drunken rant than anything else. I pretty much spent the whole night crying about this. A day shift co-worker has a target on my back. To provide background info: this coworker has the boss wrapped around their finger, and ANYTHING this coworker says the boss will believe. So, said coworker decided to write a 2 page email to the boss telling him all the things I "didn't" do. Now the boss thinks I don't do *** meanwhile I've been breaking my back and killing myself to ensure everything is as close to perfect as possible during my work shifts. List of things the coworker said I didn't do: I didn't change tubing labels (the time was never listed and I was tripled), I didn't empty my canisters (I receive partially full canisters all the time from day shift so I thought 200cc wasn't a big deal), I don't empty foleys (which I always do-so don't know what she's lying about there-but now the boss thinks I don't do this either), I didn't hang the calcium rider (this was ordered at 6:30 and since I was tripled I didn't have the time or energy to walk down to pharmacy. Otherwise I always hang my riders, which now my boss thinks I never hang), she also said my patient's chest tube was kinked (this could have been a lie from the coworker or it could have happened, the patient moves in bed so I'm not sure how I could have prevented this from happening. I also tip/tilt tubing, change my dsgs, check for air leaks, ensure proper suctioning/or water seal, and ensure petroleum gauze is taped on the wall at bedside...chest tubes freak me out cause I'm afraid they're gonna get ripped out so I always ensure patency.) I just feel really discouraged. I love my job dearly, but now the work environment is toxic and depressing AF. Like, no matter how hard I work and try to be perfect I feel like there's always going to be something I didn't do right. It makes me wonder what's the point of even trying....I'm only as good as my last mistake. My hard work will never be valued, and instead I'll keep having to go to these "sit downs" to be told how I'm not working hard enough. ...I'm not sure I can endure being undervalued for much longer....I'm going to look for an internal transfer.