Sundowner

I am sorry to report, I know many nurses who operate the same way. Give all their 8ps along with their 4s....or worse...just plain not give any. Sick huh. I would probably say however, the worst thing I have ever witnessed came from a nurse who had five or six years experience under her belt in ltc settings. We had a patient with a huge CHF history....Gtube, trach, foley and Diabetic to boot. Nurse wonder noted her foley to be empty at the end of her shift....and for some strange reason decided that she probably didn't have enough hydration..hence her lack of output. (never mind her continuous tube feeding) so she dumped a whole pitcher of orange juice down her tube. BRILLIANT! Needless to say, she went right into CHF, Sugar through the roof.

Krissy, Don't let these bad experiences get in your way. My advice to you, if you love ltc, stick with it, God knows ltc needs loving careing hands. I say that instead of considering your self the interviewee...you be the interviewer. Get yourself a couple of prospective homes you could consider working at and forget that you are being interviewed....go and check the place out...you can get a sense of a facility fairly quickly by hanging out at the nurses station for about ten minutes. You can get a very good feel for environment if you tour the facility with your eyes on whats going on, rather than being nervous over the whole interview thing. Think of it as this facility needs to sell themselves to me rather than the opposite. There are places out there where *****ery isn't common practice, where the goal is the care and the staff are all on the same page and fighting the same fight. God knows that working with women can be a nightmare. Ya have to remember though...being cute has its price....ya gotta let it roll off your back, smile to yourself and thank your god that you are who you are, inside and out. I highly suspect you are as beautiful on the inside as you are outwardly, which is a double whammy for the miserable masses. If you were a pritty witch...then you would be just a witch..ya know what I mean? If worse comes to worse...try and grow a ugly mole on your face...one with a big hair comming out of it....lol.

Nothing worse than being treated like you are stupid. I have found that most of the time when someone treats you that way, it is usually due to their own lack of confidence. I myself would probably tell her, in a very non confrontational way, that I heard everything in report...just as she did...and I know my job and know it well...let her know that you know she has alot to worry about in her position and you will make sure that she doesnt have to worry about your end of the job being done....you will do that for her. Let her know that you admire the fact she cares so much about her shift running smoothly, and the work being done correctly, let her know that you so enjoy working with a RN who pays such attention to detail, Stroke her big dumb ego a little (as painful as that may be) and she will slack off of you. I have often found this technique to work quite well. There is no confrontation involved, thus no hard feelings...and a pleasant work environment.

LPN here...been so for the last 10 years. Dont want to be an RN at this point in time, however, I have always found it to be a complimemt when someone asks me when I plan to be one. Yes sometimes it is annoying and gets old, but it is always a compliment. The salary thing, yes RN's make more than I do, when I do all of the same things that they do except for push IV meds. I often found myself angry that more of the RN responsibility seems to get pushed down to the LPN. This has happend alot in my particular facility....odd thing is that it doesent seem to be that our RN's have been handed down more responsibility, just that the group we have now can't seem to handle the job....and it has trickled down to us...but that is just my facility. I dont get angered over pay, if I werent happy with my pay I would leave. If I were disgruntled over an RN making more than me, well, that would be my own stupid fault wouldnt it? I have to say that I work in a facility where there may be one decent RN supervisor....she sadly cant handle cleaning up after the others all of the time. She cant run the place on her own, sadly in time she will quit. I have had the pleasure this week of orienting a RN who thought it was just insane for an LPN to be orienting her. She ended up feeling quite dumb at the end of the evening....and righfully so...she is a twit, which explained her attitude. I have also met the CNA who thinks I should be answering all her lights while she putz's around....well...I can help her do her job, but she CANT help me do mine. So when she comes at me with that attitude with her face in mine telling me she has four lights on and I could at least help her, I remind her of that fact....and she shuts up....untill she works with another nurse who puts up with her crap. It is a one hand washes the other profession. We are only as good as our counterparts let us be. I can't be a great LPN with out a great RN above me and a great CNA below me. That is the fact.

This is exactly why I dont work in the city. I suggest investing in some mace, a stun gun....whatever it takes.

Hey...I am proud of you for even attempting to quit. I wont even consider quitting.....It stresses me out just to think about it. You can do it! Invest in some tootsie pops like our good man Kojak! Keep that mouth busy!

My experience with foriegn nurses: I work for a corp. that about two years ago decided to bring over about 20 nurses from two different countries. They shacked them up and paid their rent for a year....paid them more than what they pay the regular staff..bent over backwards to keep their whiny butts happy.....not ONE of them were able to pass the PA state boards...so guess what.....none of them can afford their rent anymore. Their spouses and children that they brought with them (we paid for that too) speak next to no english and cant find a job .....theses nurses cant even pass the CNA tests, so they have taken huge pay cuts to go and work in the kitchens with their non english speaking spouses. My facility is back to all english speaking, knowledgable, patient friendly,nurses..there is no more jibberish being spoken in the hallways, but sadly I fear that these recruits we spent so much money on are going to end up needing our goverments assistance to stay afloat over here. I am not for recruitment by any means. My experience with foriegn nurses has been nothing but bad, as has my patients experiences with them.

Yup...medication aids...I've worked in personal care homes where this is considered acceptable. I have also worked for religious organizations...(took care of nuns) where anything goes. I was told that their "home" was not overseen by the state. They did not have state inspections or regulations to follow. Catholic perk I guess. They did however INSIST on quality care, and did not utilize medication aids.

Okay, my turn! First let me say to mattsmom, please dont ever apologize for your personal feelings, at least not to me anyway, those are in my opinion, the ones that matter most and the ones I care to hear, the ones that we learn from. I did get quite a bitter taste in my mouth from your posts, and I apologize if I intern offended you or misinterpreted what you were trying to convey. Some one once said to me, and as I get older in life I tend to believe it, they said, "We are all a bunch of azzholes, but some of us are better at it than others". I am convinced that each and every one of us has at least a handfull of people out there who consider us to be asses. I quiver over the reality of this because in my head I am sure that I am not, but somepeople out there may disagree. I strive to be as non-assholian as possible and for this reason I have concluded that I am just not as good an asshole as alot of people out there. Bertha.......she gets the honor of being a flaming azzhole, was probably her birth right as I suspect she was born unto a family of assholians. Mattsmom, you did however enlighten me on a whole new aspect of this situation when you mentioned "lateral violence". I pondered that thought in my brain and I have concluded while Bertha added the fuel to my fire, it was not her I desired to beat as I had stated but it was the patient that got under my skin so badly. I have realized that in my years I have handled many out of controll over the top patients and family members, but never have I encountered such behavior as preformed by Mr.Nasty, nor have I ever had another nurse (needless to say one I had little tolerance for to begin with) make such a bold attempt as to prevent me from my action. I ask myself what would have happend if Bertha kept her mouth shut and backed off and I see myself being completly content with Mr.nasty in his room, out of my face, and the staff free from insult. Yes I was enraged with his mouth and the "n" word signed sealed and delivered my initial action, which I am still not sure was right. Then I caught myself thinking who would have taken my "lateral outburst" if it werent for Bertha? I convince myself that there wouldnt have been one........so........is it technically "lateral" or not? Have I confused everyone? Someone else in a previous post had mentioned (and I am sorry but I forget who posted it, but it was a good question). What if Bertha went o ff the deep end over my comment and got violent with me herself? Awesome notion......my response to that is I think I would have crapped my pants and that natrually would have de-escaladed the whole incident...lol. Seriously, I dont know if I was that out of controll, I remember thinking to myself as I spit out "beat the shit out of you". that yes ...I really chose the wrong words. I had been trying to think of what to say to her to get her to back off and nothing came....but that, and as it came I was saying to myself oh my god I cant believe I said that. She stormed off imediatly to the phone, and I said oh boy here we go. I honestly, and dont yell at me people! I laugh when I look back at it, I remember the tone I used.....she got the same treatment my kids get when thewords "stop it" dont cut it....I give there arm a little squeeze and give them the look of death and speak in a soft deep very slow very serious tone..."If you dont stop that...you are gonna get it". The tone is soft and serious...and its all in the eyes.....Poor Bertha got the look of doom too! Then I wonder, how scary that could have been? My kids dont get it half the time and end up being grounded or what not.....she must have just been ticked off cause I treated her like a child?! LOL.....or maybe the look of doom only works on adults? Okay...enough of that, now. I have to say the only other violence/inappropriate launching of office supply I have ever encounterd was last year in relation to a nurse who was being quetioned about her narcotics.....she attacted the charge nurse when she was asked to present her cart keys. That was scary......and obviously not similar at all to the fore mentioned types of abuse. I would love to hear other rolo-nurse stories.

I am with you on that KlareRn. The most annoying thing I have encountered is trying to figure out phones! I usually try and locate extinguishers and crash carts and what not, keep an observant eye out for these things. I learned a keen lesson last year when on my second day in a facility the state inspectors were in and decided to ask me where they eyewash stations were........boy was I happy that I happend to notice it perched on the wall right behind the guy! WHEW! Taught him to fool with an agency gal! Of course, he was aware that I got really lucky and then followed me on my med pass just to jack me I suspect. He busted me on a coulple things.....I didnt check a wristband, pull a curtain for a g-tube pt .....little things. I am suprised I didnt get slammed with worse.

Mattsmom, No one here has disagreed with you in the fact that the actions taken by myself were wrong. The anger that you sense does not come from that opinion as for we are all in agreement, it comes from how you have stated it. Aparently you have read this thread twice and still are under the impression you may be the only one here who has a sense of what is right and professional despite my last post where I thought I very clearly explained myself and my reasons for posting hereas well as the responses of others, and yet you still seem to believe that YOU have somehow posted here from atop your white horse and gave us all a lesson? We were most certainly wrong and you were the first one to point that out.....BRAVO! you are the supreme nurse. This has shed some light into exactly how it is that you found yourself dodging a rolodex.

OH....I almost forgot the most important thing!!! I wanted to thank you all so much for helping me put this all into perspective. Each and every one of you have really helped me out here with your understanding and insight. YOU guys rock! I really hesitated to post this incident because I was just so ashamed of myself, but then I thought whats a little shame among my peers? LOL! I decided it would be good to post my nightmare and get outside perspective, I was right. Thanks so much gang for helping me sort this out, I am so glad you are all here! What have we learned???? dont threaten to beat the bejesus out of a coworker, even if she is an azzhole! Invest in a b0-bo doll instead.

Mattsmom, I understand how easily misinterpritations are on boards like these. It is so very easy for one person to achieve a different message from a post than another person would. It seems as though you felt from my postings that I attempt to blame someone els for my behavior, but I assure you that I certainly do not. I have hashed this incident over and over in my brain and never once did I come up with any reason to justify my actions. I have simply been trying to understand why I did what I did. Last year I spent four days in t he hospital due to an allergic reaction to a spider bite. The four days that I was there were hell and I was stressed to my limits. Let me tell you that I requested tylenol on my second nights stay for a headache........six hours later it was brought to me.....The K--pad for my foot....never happend though it was ordered....a frickin pillow arrives for me the next morning after I requested it......bloodwork that was ordered....never done.....had to get it on my own after discharge. Of course my insurance company sent me home cause THEY felt I needed discharged. If I were elderly, I would have been sent to LTC to recieve my three more weeks of IV antibiotics. The problem then you see would have been that I would have been stuck on a floor in ltc with a bunch of acute pts that have been discharged from the hospital well before they should have.....all of whom are stressed out enough already because they got such crap care from the hospital. Now who takes the brunt of their anger? Its not the hospital nursing staff who turns them out so untimley and never treats the whole patient, just the acute specific problem/problems that lands them there.....no.....it would be us. Now, don't misunderstand me, this is not at the nursing communities fault....this is strictly business...money making business at the expense of peoples saftey and lives. Tonight for example, I admited a woman who is on a heprin drip and required pt inrs drawn Q2.......we are not equipped to do that....but the money machine rolls on and someones wallet is fat, and she was in this facility for no more than six hours and should have had 2 draws....when I left she had only had one done and we were waiting for the lab to come and get the other. Please try and refrain from speaking poorly of LTC when you have no idea what goes on and what we go through and what we have to deal with when we get sent one of your neglected train wrecks. I think we all are aware that the situation I described earlier with Bertha was just incredibly wrong. I didnt post here to somehow obtain justification for the incident from my peers, or be told I was right, I posted this here to obtain the viewpoints and feedback from my peers, vent my frustration at myself for what I had done and perhaps a little empathy from the people I know would understand. I posted this incident in the hopes that I would gain the feedback from my peers that would give me insight and inable me to see different views of the situation and help me learn from it. I also thought that perhaps the incident would be of some sort of value to us as nurses, perhaps we could all learn from. But I guess over in critical care these problems or potential problems would not exist for the critical care nurse is exempt from the stresses of LTC...where all the good help is. Those patients and their families start with you and they end with me. 80 percent of the time, we are their last stop, there is no going home, they know this and reality sets in and their stress is tenfold, we deal with the guilt ridden family, the angry patient.....you see half of it if even, we get the real shit. Dont put yourself up on a pedistal, because in my eyes we are all in the same crapping dingy of a boat that is barley afloat. Not your fault and not mine. Your stresses are completely different than they are for us LTC folks, and untill you see first hand whats going on out there dont throw those stones. OH, and I think that one might get the idea that posters here have defended or condoned this behavior of mine simply due to the fact that most of us have wanted to very badly at one time or another....beat the crap out of a co-worker. I used to often take V.O. slips and put certain nurses that were getting on my nerves names on them and write an order as follows "admin slap to the face Q2hrs and prn". I would give them to my supervisor to take them off. She would chuckle when she came across them and we would dream that it could be done. As far as me and therapy go.......I dont think so. My therapy begins and ends here. You may wish to check the horse you are riding on.....if you look closely I think you may note that it isnt so high off the ground. The incident that took place is not the normal in Ltc. I still cant decide exactly what provoked me so. Was it the facility or Bertha or a combo of both. There was alot of tension in that place. The point is moot now anyway, it is done and over. It may make you all feel better to know that I did schedule myself an appointment with my Dr. to have my hormone levels checked! Am I burnt out? No. Am I disgusted and distraught with how corperate companies make life altering decisions for people that need healthcare? Hell yeah. They are pushing the envelope big time and I often wonder when its gonna break. Will I contiune to work and do my best to provide people with quality care despite the stuffed shirts. You bet.

RNPD, I am in agreement with you, the fact that the man was in a wheel chair allowed me to take advantage of him. Had he been ambulatory, this would not have happend. I would not have been able to remove him. Technically I think Bertha was right in her thoughts that the man should have been left alone, however, she shouldn't have attempted to prevent me from removing him, be it wrong or be it not. The situation was just not handled right from the get go and obviously got out of hand. Some of my biggest issuses as of late have revolved around what we as nurses have to take as far as abuse. I have no problems with the confused smacking me or being nasty, it is out of their controll, but families and oriented patients have become increasingly more abusive towards us and it is getting out of hand. I understand their anguish, but most of them could give a rats azz less about ours. It seems as though the world is aware of the nursing shortage, and it somehow in every aspect is taken out on us. This is where the danger lies, this is where the problem is. Those patients and their families know what we are under and they choose to not care and expect us to do for them what we could normally do for them if we were staffed right. What I just ADORE is the patient who is now in long term care, and has two daughters that are nurses and they sit with him all day and all night long........but wont lift a fricking finger. They call you off the floor for every little tiny need. They know you have a time window with meds but insist that mother dear gets her pills at exactly five, Unless its a pain med then you should be able to sneak it in in that hour window you have. They cant seem to rub the lotion on moms feet or back....not a script...just their favorite lilac scented moisterizer that mom loves and makes the room smell nice....they need the cna to do it...or worse they dont like the cna and feel it should be a licensed person to put the cream on. WHAT THE FU8K! How many times have you heard a family member or patient call the staff names? Stupid is the word I have been hearing alot latley.....or my favorite....."where did you get your license?" I actually had a nut case ask me that question when I told her I didnt have an extra tv remote for her dear hubbys tv. (he was in a vegitative state and couldnt use it anyway). The lack of respect and understand towards us is obscene.

You guys are too funny. Though I know I could go for a "nurse death match" on occassion. I think they should instate Peeps's idea and make it some sort of state regulation or something. I spoke with my boss this morning who said (and I am not suprised) that the particular facility inwhich this occured does not desire my services any longer.....oh well eh. I have been officially kicked out whiich sort of bothers me because I have prided myself on my excellent work history and now have quite a blemish. I have also been put on probation (again not suprising) for two months (I thought that was rather lieniant). I also learned that bertha dear has exacerbated the story, and states that I left the facility without telling her or having permissioin which is not true. I should have beat the shit out of her. But no big whoop all is said and done, now my biggest fear is running into her at a different faciliity somewhere.....heee heee that should prove to be interesting.