LibraSunCNM

Sorry if this has been asked before---is there a reason that you've stopped making posts from the OP in a thread a different background color so they're quickly identifiable? It's a little thing but I like it.

Agreed. I would not ever depend on receiving a pension from an employer in this day and age. Obviously investments like 401ks are by nature subject to market fluctuations and there is always a chance you could lose everything, but I'll take that over the promise of a pension any day.

I agree that you're in an ideal spot to start looking for a new adventure, because you already have a stable job. You can really take your time and make sure the hospital environment you're entering is a positive one, and ideally avoid another toxic unit. I don't blame you for feeling like you're in a rut and thinking about taking the plunge into something new. Just know (as I'm sure you do) the grass isn't always greener. Maybe the summer would be a good time to try, since you aren't working at the school and have a little more time to trial a new job out?

A baby stethoscope is not really ideal for listening to an adult's heart and lungs. I used an adult for mom and baby when I worked postpartum for that reason, even though my neck would have loved to carry the lighter baby stethoscope around instead 😁

Two questions: 1.) are avatars no more? 2.) what happened to the Dashboard with the forums I've bookmarked? Thanks in advance from a member who doesn't currently have time to watch all the videos that may or may not answer these questions! 🙂

This statement on its own made me laugh really hard for a solid few minutes! Agree 100%.

The problem is further complicated by the fact that she is an LPN, one of only 3 left in our medical center, and part of the union that the PCTs, unit clerks, and some other staff are a part of. We RNs are not in the union. We work 12 hours, they work 8. Long story short, the way it is set up, she comes in at midnight, picks up a couple of patients from a couple of RNs, generally gets an admission, and then gives report BACK to one of us night RNs who has been assigned as her "resource." We are responsible for checking/changing the epidural PCAs of her c-section patients, hanging any antibiotics that need to be given, etc., in addition to giving report to day shift FOR HER on the patients she picked up, because her union has no setup for paying nurses to stay the extra time to give report, because there are only 3 nurses (LPNs) in their entire union, the rest of us are RNs and not in the union. It's a bizarre and annoying setup, one I've never had to deal with. The bottom line of this long-winded explanation is that I just hate feeling responsible when I'm giving report to days for her because I don't like to just repeat the excuses/B.S. she gave to me about patients. I have to deal with her shirking during the shift, and then make sure all her ducks are in a row when she gives me report so as not to have to scramble before giving days report. I just dislike the way our unit works in this respect, thanks for listening to me whine!

Thanks for your kind words. Yes, the annoying habits are pretty habitual. I'm just fairly new on this floor, and this woman has worked here for almost 40 years. Most people agree with me, but the party line seems to be that she's not going to change, and she'll probably retire soon. I think things are just so different than when she started that she has no interest in adapting/learning to meet new needs of the unit, which I can't relate to at all. I'm going to try to be more firm and on top of the nonsense when I'm working with her. :)

Yeah I definitely say "Do you mind doing that before you leave," it's just sometimes things happen during the night that I know if I don't keep my eye on, she definitely won't, such as breastfeeding help. But I can tell her to give pain meds at scheduled intervals, and I don't know if just the idea of that "work" makes her resentful/stubborn, even though it's not that much work, but she just won't do it and will wait for the person to call. Basically we're talking about someone who seems to have no interest in being around the kind of patients we have? Don't know. Annoying to say the least.

Exactly my point. In avoiding work, she creates more work. People learn to ask other nurses for what they need, such as breastfeeding help, because she says things like, "Oh, you're doing fine," and leaves.

Yes, I literally see her sitting down looking at her Kardexes doing nothing. But she is more or less grandfathered into her job and would have to do something extreme to lose it.

Yes, she is definitely still in this position for political reasons. I think she has been on the unit way too long and she's just only satisfied with patients who want to sleep all night and not bother her, and send the baby to the nursery for the night to be bottle fed. Anything else seems to be a major inconvenience to her. Need help breastfeeding? Good luck!

Ok, I never come to this site to vent, but this morning I just needed to. Does anyone else but me find the following two qualities in a lazy nurse particularly INFURIATING? 1.) Getting out of doing work by playing "dumb," i.e., pretending you forgot until it's the moment before you go home and you ask someone else to do a task, telling me something I'm fairly confident you just made up on the spot but I have no way of proving, hemming and hawing during report, "Oh, wait, did I do that? Let me see..." We both know you didn't do it, my friend. No need to play games and take 10 minutes to break the news to me. I'm smarter than a 5th grader and I can read you pretty easily. 2.) (and this is the most annoying for me) Trying so hard to get out of doing work that they actually CREATE MORE WORK FOR THEMSELVES (and by themselves, I really mean others) than they had in the first place. Example: when you came in at 12 a.m. and you picked up one of my patients, I told you she likes her pain meds on schedule, as soon as she can get them. Yes, the meds are PRN, but when she's ASKED REPEATEDLY for the meds just to be brought in as soon as they can be given, please just do it without making her wait, and then call when she's REALLY hurting. She had a c-section and she hasn't had great pain control, among many other problems, so maybe you could do her a solid and just try to stay on top of the pain issue. But no, you refuse to do this and have her call each time for meds. Additionally, when she last got 2 Percs at 3:15, she could have gotten them at 7:15, but you didn't offer them to her then, or at any time before you left at 8 a.m. Guess how this scenario plays out? Yup, you guessed it! In the middle of report, patient's husband comes to nurses' station and angrily requests 2 Percocets for his wife, who's "way overdue." Instead of stopping a problem before it starts, you created more work and hassle for all involved EXCEPT FOR: oh right, you! You get to waltz out the door at 8 a.m. because that's what you do. Thanks for putting up with my vent. Anyone else have to deal with this nonsense?

Norco is the new Vicodin, it only has 325 mg of Tylenol instead of the old 500 mg.

Oh, I certainly believe it. Another gem: a patient's family member who came to the nurse's station because he needed to call a family member and had lost their number (and this is a family member whose name he inexplicably didn't know how to spell). I walked over to see what was going on when he started YELLING, as the clerk was trying to explain why that's not really in our arena of responsibilities, "WHAT, YOU DON'T HAVE A PHONE BOOK??? I NEED THIS NUMBER!!!" I was LITERALLY two seconds away from snapping back, "No sir, we don't have a phone book, because in case you haven't noticed, this is a hospital, we're not your personal secretaries, and also...it's 2010!!! Nobody uses phone books anymore, including this surgical transplant unit." Obviously I didn't, but another nurse explained breezily that the only information access we have is to in-house numbers, to which he replied, "Well thanks SO much, you've been SO helpful." Five seconds later he found the number in his wallet. Bottom line: if we added up the time spent on a 12 hour shift trying to get people to do their own jobs, or to deal with things that aren't our job, but because we're the nurse, we get somehow sucked into the situation, I'm sure it would be a ridiculous percentage.