PrncessK

I don't know how bitchy the ED nurses are at my hospital, but it does get pretty bad on my floor, so well said! I get tired off all of the complaining and back-stabbing that goes on in my unit, but I guess that's what I get for being in a female dominated profession. :)

Obviously you were missing my point. In case you haven't noticed, I am one of the FEW floor nurses that didn't feel the need to slam you or point fingers at ER nurses, yet you feel that you need to retort with some smart a** remark. That attitude is why there is so much negativity towards ER nurses. Keep your chins up and keep up the good work EVERYONE!

See, this is the problem with this profession! Everyone thinks that they are better than everyone else. To have the attitude that only ER nurses do any work is completely disrespectful and just plain wrong! I have very good friends that work in the ER and they love their job. I respect ER nurses, they are very good at what they do and have to deal with crazy situations that those of us on the floor can never dream of. I work in Tele, I love what I do, I can't imagine working in the ER, it's just not for me. Now does that mean I am not a "Real" nurse? No. It simply means that I am a different nurse. The main problem that we deal with at my hospital is that some brilliant person came up with the idea of the charge nurse taking report from the ER nurse to make things move faster. Nice idea, except the charge nurse SOMETIMES is nice enough to find you and tell you that you are getting a patient and they never ask the really important questions......is the patient REALLY alert and oriented, can they stand, are they continent, etc. So we can get a little cranky when the surprise patient comes rolling up. But we can't blame the ER nurses because they have no idea that we knew nothing about this patient. Granted it will probably never happen, but we all need to realize that no one department is trying to sabatoge another department, and we should all respect each other because ultimately we are all in this for the same reason.....the patients.

The manager. charge nurse and doctors all spoke to the family. Fortunately the manager and charge nurse where understanding and on my side.....the doctors on the case with the exception of the attending were not, of course (Telling the family "Well you know these nurses......(insert whatever blaming quote you want here.) Afterwards, the family still felt the need to call me back and yell at me over things that the doctors were ordering. It's really difficult when there are around 8 different doctors consulting on a case. As a night nurse, it is a little difficult to call everyone involved over everything, becasue #1 they are probably not the doctor on call. Second it is very frustrating when you are not told things. I was told by the day shift nurse that the family was very concerned about the care....but after talking to my charge and manager this morning, this family has been doing this the ENTIRE time the patient has been there. A little warning would have been nice. I do agree that in these situations that you need to tell the next nurse everything that is happening, which I did this morning.

Any advice on how to deal with families that don't feel that you do anything right? I just left a situation this morning where the family is angry over the care and took it out on me, even though I had never had the patient before last night. Even the doctors were going at it with each other. It was really tough to sit there and get yelled at for things that you have no control over. I really wanted to cry, and did a little when I got to my car. I know this won't be the last time this happens, so how do you deal? I'm still a newbie, even though I have been a nurse since May, so I'm still not sure what to do.

I know that I have posted previously but I came up with one more after my shift last night. I hate not getting ANY respect from the next shift. I realize that every shift is busy, but when meds are held with no explanation and rescheduled for the next shift you end up playing catch up the whole time. I'm sorry, but you can only run so many things through an IV line at once! Then there is the exasperated "Ugh, you didn't get that done!" No sorry, I didn't get that done. I'm sorry my patient was going downhill fast in the next room while I was transfusing, and I'm sorry that 2 of my other patients had antibiotics that had to be hung almost every 2 hours! Just take report and deal with the one thing that I left you to do. And I've seen day nurses and night nurses that are guilty of this, so it's not directed at any one in particular. :angryfire

My biggest pet peeve when I was a student was mostly when the aides saw you hit the floor and said "great, break time!" and then couldn't be found for hours. I realize that CNAs work VERY hard, and I respect that fact help them out when I can, but they need to realize that nursing students are there to learn to be nurses. Granted, I know there are some lazy students out there that believe they are beyond cleaning up someone after they have diarrhea or taking someone off the bedpan, but I was not one of those students. And before anyone gets offended, I'm not saying that all CNAs were that way. I actually worked with some really great aides as a student. I found that if you help them out they go out of their way to help you. Ok, off my soap box now. :)

I work in Tele, and it is 4:1 on days and 5:1 on nights.