runawaytrain

Ugh! As both a new ED nurse and a new grad, I feel your pain. There is a nurse I work with who is like that with me, too. I have kept this in for so long and now I actually have a place to let it out! Here goes... This nurse, we'll call her "Sue", actually trained me a little when I first started. She said I was doing a great job and was so nice to me during orientation; even helping me cope with my first death in the department. I thought she was a really nice lady until after I got off orientation... When I was out on my own, she turned into the biggest beotch in the world. She never had a good thing to say about me, even when I stayed over three hours to help her! When another nurse and I tag-teamed one of her rooms for her while she tended to the others and the other nurse was about to leave and give report to Sue, not knowing I was staying to get her upstairs (I never leave a nurse a pt. she doesn't know to give report). When Sue asked if the assessment was done, the other nurse said she was pretty sure I had done it (I had, I was just too busy to chart it at the moment), Sue said in a shitty tone "Well, she needs to learn how to do her assessments" and blahblahblah. I was listening to the conversation the whole time without them knowing and I heard the other nurse tell her that she should be thankful that I did anything at all for her. I chimed in and let her know the assessment was done and I was about to sit and chart it, but that it didn't matter because I keeping the pt. She just rolled her eyes and went about her business. Every time I try to help her now, she gets mad at me. Any time I need help, I have learned not to even bother asking her. She never has anything nice to say to me, and will even chime in on conversations to say something crappy to me. We were stocking the rooms on a slow night and we met up in the same room and I told her I had the stuff for that room (she was writing what was needed and I was just bringing a bunch of stuff and putting them where they were needed), she stopped what she was doing and stood at the nurses' station and talked. She will also take over my pts after I have assessed them. I cannot stand working with her and every time I see that we work together, I cringe. The funny thing about this is that she's only like that when we are on the clock. In the breakroom, she is the same nice lady from orientation. I was told that she's like that with new nurses. She feels like we step on toes. Maybe that nurse feels the same way. I don't have any advice for you because I'm just as confused as to what to do as you are, but thanks for this post to let me see that I'm not alone!

I like the ADD one, but it's better to have ADHD so you don't get tired as easily!!! It also helps to have a good sense of humor and as close to endless patience as you can get. Some of the reasons people come in just make you shake your head and sigh...

Ah, it's a bonding experience. I bet they had a contest on who's labs came back the worst... That kind of makes me truly believe that some people really do call up their friends and meet up at the ED, like it's The Spot or something. "Let's go to Club ED and score some narcs!"

Here's one from the other night: "My baby was on her back and I left the room just for a minute and when I came back, she was on her belly, crying!" 15min later... "My baby needs to see a doctor NOW! Something is wrong with her!" (baby is sleeping quietly and in no signs of distress) 30min later, after the doctor got the ruptured AAA to surgery that he was wasting his time with when there was such-a-critical baby in the other room... "Your baby is fine. She just rolled over. This is a normal part of development of a child her age." She went home. The end. I also got a guy that "shot himself in the hand" (there was no evidence of a gunshot wound) and managed to score 2mg Dilaudid and 1mg Lortab. He was there earlier and the NP wouldn't give him narcs. Before the end of my shift, this same guy was found passed out in the women's bathroom in the front lobby, drunk. I don't even want to know how he got there...

At the ED I work in, after a year, you can have a charge nurse position. We are needing a CN to replace an old one and it's about that time for me and no one else in the ED seems interested in the position. I was wondering if I could get some advice on being an effective CN, or even more information about why no one else in the department would want to do it...

We have an entire hall dedicated to SANE cases and pelvic beds. Along with Busch Gardens, we have... Vadge Valley Vadge Alley The lady parts Monologues P---- Passageway C--- Cove And my favorite prescription from a doctor: A bar of soap and directions for the whole family to use it. I was just coming on that morning and offered to DC this patient. I quickly learned why this Rx was needed! And about the "heartlessness" of dealing with death, we had an EMT student who was in two codes during his first clinical at our hospital. One of our techs (in the same class) told us that he quit because we were "heartless" and he "didn't want to end up like us". I was in on one of the codes (a young suicide attempt. Mission: Accomplished) and we didn't crack one single joke. We were nothing but professional. I suppose as being new to the field, he thought we should be crying over the patient while doing compressions, but if we did that, we could never do what had to be done. Death was the hardest thing for me to deal with when I started, but it's a part of nursing. It took me a while to learn that we can't save everyone, but we need to save our sanity in any way possible. So I'd rather joke about things than be a crying nurse that can't handle the pressure.

Now, now! Speaking as a person in her early 20's and not as a nurse, I will say that I am not a weinie. I was brought up with the notion (as long as I wasn't contagious) that "you can be sick at home, or you can be sick at school/work/etc..." Granted, many were not raised like that, but having said that... Now speaking as a nurse, there are a lot of wussies that I see in the ED. Most of them male and many of them in their 20's. But I will have to say that some of the most ridiculous patients I have had were over the age of 30. They are the patients I hear howling down the hallway with a toothache or bellyache. It's not just my generation that's getting wussified; it's society as a whole. Older people and young people alike will get on the internet and read magazines and watch the news and self-diagnose before even coming in, convinced that they are dying and they want 5-star treatment before they pass on. Yeah, it can get annoying, but it's job security...

I graduated in May of 07 and started working in the third busiest ED in the state a week later and I'll tell you what, it is a shark tank. Coworkers will be catty and sometimes very jaded in their work. The thing is, though, is that it's not as bad as it sounds. The cattiness of the coworkers is more of a "hazing" until you earn their respect. When you work in a place that's so fast-paced, you really need to prove yourself worthy so they know that when it all comes down on you, you wont kill someone. Am I making sense? Just be open to learn and don't be afraid to ask questions, no matter how dumb you may think they are. I know I asked some pretty dumb questions (or so I thought) and it turns out that even the slightest detail is important. In a place like the ED, you need to be able to understand EVERYTHING, no matter how small. When your questions are answered, your confidence is raised and it will show. Now when it comes to the jaded nurses, well, they will always be like that and you should limit your interaction with them as much as possible, or you will be miserable, too. I think that if you can't be pleasant at work, then you need to find someplace else to work. Now, we all have those patients that will just make you shake your head, but when every single patient you have is like that, then there is a problem. Sorry for writing you a novel and I hope any information helps! The ED is a scary place to start out, but as the nurse who hired me said when I told her that I really wanted to do ED, but I was scared that I maybe I wouldn't be good enough, "You should feel like that. It means you will try harder to learn. I wouldn't hire any new nurse if they thought they could handle anything." Good luck!