workinmomRN2012

When a patient has asked for another nurse it's a blessing because the patient is usually a PITA. Now when this happens my first response is " thank God"! , someone else gets to deal with them.

NPO at HS (midnight), is exactly that! Meds given at 2100 are fine. Most orders now will state the expection "NPO can take meds with sips of water." The provider should have simply held the med for 2100 if they didn't want it given.

Virtual nursing could be an option.

Alot of hospital systems are going to this model of nursing. I just started my virtual position. It helps the bedside nurse by freeing up time for them to medicate patients or the actually take a break. My hospital is hiring for positions that will be 2 days virtual and 1 day on the unit a week. It's good for older nurses who may be leaving the bedside if not for these openings. It's less physical but you can still use your skills by being on the floor 1 day a week.

You should also talk to your manager about this toxic work environment and tell her what you have been going thru. If she isn't sympathetic, look for another job.

I've always been told, "you teach people how to treat you". Sounds like you were sticking up for yourself and teaching her that she cannot get away with this behavior. Except for the yelling, you did the right thing! You can get her in trouble for yelling at you and doing it in front of a patient. I had a coworker (she was also charge RN that shift) that was talking behind my back because I didn't know were some supplies were and she didint know that I was listening to every word she said about me. So, about an hour later she came to my patients room to tell me about a change that was happening and I said, "in the future if you have something to say about me I would appreciate it if you come to me with any questions or complaints instead of talking behind my back. First of all, I have only been on this unit for a few months and forgot were these supplies were since I don't use them every day, Second...I am 50 yrs old and we are not in high school anymore, grow up! I never had another issue with her again and I didn't know it but other people overheard what I said to her and told me on the side that they were happy that someone finally said something to her. I was still friendly to her when I had to interact with her but she changed her tone when she was speaking to me after that.

Agreed! and since you are the supervisor and will be doing the investigation..a separate note for that is were all the other info about the narcan should be documented.

Hmmm, while I agree that some of the students are immature and not prepared, this does not mean that this situation did not happen. Professors are flawed people too! Maybe you had a glowing experience in your nursing school but not all profesors and schools are the same. They can be mean, racist and unfair. I know of professors that got along very well with the younger students but were very nasty and hard on the older ones. So, I guess what I'm saying is, cool your jets!

Exactly!! Now that you know, you should help the students to get the ball rolling to report these professors (I use that word very loosly) to the school and media.

I doubt that they have a leg to stand on. I say this only because it has already happened on the unit that I work at in a hospital (big hospital in the NE). We are a non COVID unit BUT we have staff that is floating to us from having floated to a COVID unit just the night before. I have brought this up as a concern for our patients and staff getting infected to no avail. It's no surprise that about 8 of our nurses and 2 doctors have been infected in the last 2 months. Good luck ?

Nursing is a 24 hr job! Whatever you dont finish gets passed onto the next shift. Unfortunatly the only way to shut down theses "bullies" is to call her out. I've done this exact same thing when I couldnt get an IV, ask another nurse on the floor/call ICU to get one of their RN;s to get the stick or it just gets passed to the next RN. She was clearly bullying you! You did what you were supposed to do-asked other RN.

At the very least the patient should have a monitor on and ideally be on a cardia floor.

Did I say that I actually said this??? No, I did not! and the fact that you are a nurse and you would report another nurse for "perceived" rudeness says alot about you! Ive seen your type, you come into the hospital because a relative is admitted and scrutinize everything but not lifting a finger to help your family member even when you see that the nurse is overworked and overwhelmed. Sometimes a simple statement, as you said seems very easy to say but when you have 6 to 20 patients, ALL with family members (some with nurse family members) that can clearly read the sign...DO NOT INTERUPT MED PASS and they still interupt you. So yes, it does get frustrating! I think eveyone was just venting and that they dont really say these things out loud only in their head. So get off your high horse!!

Or "lack of planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part"! In other words, you should have asked all your questions when I was just in your room 5 minutes ago!!

This nurse has already decided how she is going to interact with you judging by this statement. I would ask to be changed to another preceptor, who knows this could be her first time precepting someone and the manager could be trying to teach her how to precept. I've had that happen to me, when I went to complain about how I was being oriented by this nurse the manager said that the reason that I was paired with her was because i was already a nurse for a few years and she thought that it would be easier on this nurse who had never precepted anyone before. As far as everyone on here (AN) saying that not looking at her when she is talking to you is rude, well I would have to say that what she did by yelling at you in front of everyone far out weighs you looking at the computer. I have found that bully behavior does exist but you will be hard pressed to get anyone to agree with you on this site! Some people will sympathize but ultimately will find fault with whatever you are doing. The nurses that are precepting should know better than a new nurse and if they dont, they should be called out on it...its BULLYING!!!

It is simple, I learned it and so can you. You need to combine some of the due times to make the med pass manageable. If you have meds due at 11/12/1 do the med pass at 12 and give them at one time, its ok if some are a little early and some are a little late. Remember you can give meds an hour before and up to an hour after due times. If you have meds due at 5/6/7 due med pass at 6, then you get to take care of all 3 at once. Its about being efficient with time management. Like I said before...you will not get as much time with the patients as you thought you would, like in nursing school. In nursing school most of us only had up to 2-3 patients, now you have 20-30 patients. Time management and prioritizing is key!

Yes, It is normal. To answer your other question about getting your rythm down. LTC's and STR's usually have med passes that are at a certain times. If you work days it would be at 9,12 and 2pm. The evening shift is usually 6 and 9pm. I worked in a facility once that had 25-30 pts and the med pass would take the day nurse 3 hrs, that nurse had poor time management skills. this means that its impossible to spend the amount of time that you you like to with every patient. You will really need to rely on your CNA's, good ones are so crucial to nurses being able to keep it moving.

Where their alarms on when you got report at the beginning of your shift? who was the last person to move the patient? I had a similar incident recently and I was not the one that moved the patient to the chair and didn't activate the alarm, a CNA did--so I will not take ownership for the fall. You cant take responsibility for everything, although management says that everything ultimately is the RN's responsibility. If I went along with this train of thought I would be in the psych unit by now.

Yep, I learned this a long time ago...its works beautifully, most of the time. Tell them what you need, dont ask.

Unfortunately you have to say something to her about it being her job. No way around it.

Starting an IV!!!

Really!??? To prove my point all you have to do is look at the many posts from the past on bullying here on AN, also their are many types of bully tactics (passive/aggressive behavior) used by nurses to intimidate newer nurses. You would have to be living under a rock not to notice or heard about it. A good majority have been through it. I, myself have caught myself doing it and just maybe you have too.

As far as the coworkers having an "attitude" towards the newbie..we all know that this is common place in nursing! People on this post acting like its unheard of, we've all been through it. Based on what the OP wrote about their work ethic, I would have to say that they probably dont like the "newbie" because she actually works and she makes them look bad! And.. we are ALL tested when it comes to a new job, I just started a new job 6 months ago and Ive been a RN for 8yrs and one of the nurses decided to talk sh@! about me within ear shot of the room I was in and didn't know I was listening to every word. I "discussed" it with her afterwards and she no longer behaves this way and now we get along just fine.

Get out while you still have your license intact! If there is an incident with one of your patients through not fault of your own, you can bet that they will throw you under the bus quicker than you can say..I QUIT!!