chiya

OK I have to agree with everybody. There are good EMTS/Paramedics and there are bad ones. I have seen them all. The good ones actually listen to your report. The bad ones just shove you out of the way and do their thing or argue with you. I do think some of the confusion here is that the rules and titles mean different things in different states. In my state EMT has a basic emergency first aid course, The paramedics have the schooling. For the most part the paramedics are great, the EMTS mainly in it for the adrenaline rush. Now for the bad ones. I have found that rudeness doesn't just apply to LTC. I arrived at a patients home while working Home Care to find an ambulance crew, (EMT's) walking out the door, When I asked what was going on they told me. "He just took too much meds and is sleeping it off." I said so you aren't transporting? answer was no. I went in put my stethscope on the patients chest and found acute CHF. I called the dispatch and ordered an ambulance. The dispatcher said but they were just there. Yeah I know that send them back and by the way is it your protocol for an EMT to decide whether to transport or not? Being home health and on the road a lot I also frequently was the first at the accident scene. Stood in a ditch in 3 feet of ice water during the winter to keep an accident victim calmed down and NOT MOVING after this gal had been t-boned and the car shoved over a hundred yards over a bank. (She was later life flighted to a regional trauma center with severe head injuries) Only to have the EMTS and paramedics who responded just shove me out of the way and basically ignore the report I attempted to give them. In LTC I have handed a DNR order to an EMT only to have them look at it and say this doesn't mean we can't bag them. Off they went to the hospital very dilegently working that ambu-bag. The hospital called a half hour later to chew my butt for sending a dead patient with a DNR to the ER. My response- I showed the EMT's the same DNR you have in front of you and they chose to bag and transport so go talk to them about it. I have been treated profesionally by EMT/paramedics and I have also been called honey shoved out of the way and had my judgment questioned. So now my rule is you arrive at my unit to transport, I will be standing there with my report ready for you and will treat you the same way you treat me. Respect that RN after my name and you wil get nothing but respect from me and I will even help you transfer the patient to your litter. Call me honey and start an argument with me and we will have a problem.

I don't know about the other 2 but the honeybee = thickened liquids

OK Newbie sticking in her 2 cents, Is this an ongoing problem/pattern of behavior with this nurse or a one time thing? Years ago when moving on to another job in my exit interview, my supervisor for whom I had a great deal of respect asked what can I do to be a better supervisor. My response you have one habit that really bugs the nurses. When someone is having a bad day and is overwhelmed and just needs to let off steam, you always hit them with "you think you have it bad so and so has to do this and this." So if this isnt a pattern behavior with this particular nurse maybe she was just having a bad day and just needed to vent. If it's a pattern then yeah write her up. If it is a one time thing my response would have been what can I do to help you. Especially in LTC good nurses are hard to come by because it is very hard work with little thanks, and if I have to stay an extra hour to get my work done because I was out on the floor helping out a good nurse who was just having a bad day well that's part of my job.

Thank you so much for the response. it does answer some questions. And on the other hand really worries me because she was asking me to call an oncall doc to get an order that I KNEW was contra-indicated and would send her PCP through the roof.

Thank you for the welcome, I was looking for just this kind of board because I am having other serious issues with the facility I am working in and really could use the insight of other nurses.

Yes I am enjoying browsing it very much thank you. and for the first time in over 25 years of nursing am thinking about not working out my notice, There are a bunch of other problems with the facility I am currently working in and I have already gave them notice, but the more I think about it the more I think I am being set up and it would be a good idea to just cut my losses and get out

Hi all just discovered this board and have a question which is really bugging me, I recently moved to LTC from acute care and am finding that one RNAC in this facility frequently calls the unit and orders the RN to call a DR. and obtain an order for whatever. The last time this happened to me. the order she wanted would have had to be given by an on call Doc as the regular was on vacation and was something that the I knew the regular Doc would have blown a fuse over. So I called the on call and he just said yeah go ahead and hung up. I documented that the order was obtained on The RNACs request and called the DR back and said wait a minute you need to hear more of this story before you agree to the order, And read him some of the patients other orders which pertained at which he then said no way to the order. Now when the RNAC found at that I had charted that the order was obtained at her request (there are 2 of them in our facility) I thought both of them were going to stroke out. which is really making me wonder how kosher them calling the units and asking us to obtain orders is.