goodgyrl

Wow....I know it has been a while since I posted the original message but you are totally correct!!!! It was a Kaiser facility and I am so glad to be away from there now!!! Thank you for the post!!!

Someone Please Help!!!!! I've been at my new assignment for 6 days and I thought everything was okay. Yesterday the charge RN approached me to say that they are watching me and that I am moving too slow (e.g. with discharges in the PACU). She went on to say that I need to be able to take 2 patients (which I have been) and that maybe this isn't for me. I was very distressed because the only thing that was new to me in this pacu is the computer charting. I am familiar with computer charting when I use to use it in med-surg. nursing. I have been taking patients since day 1 here and will only ask ppl questions randomly....i have been working independently. Also, at no time has anyone ever been taking up more of the work load due to me not being able to take my fair share load of patients. The charge RN went on to humiliate me even further by saying, "well, you are nice". What the HELL does that have to do with anything! I am a good nurse and have always been asked to extend when my contract is almost up. I have travelled over 2300 miles by car to get here and I feel like something else is going on. I don't see anyone being timed as I am. I watch other nurses and compare my times with them (since I'm new to using the Epic software) and I am neck and neck with them. What should I do? My agency made me sign paperwk. that If I don't complete this assignment I'll have to repay everything to them. Yesterday, they loaded me up with so many patients (actually the bulk of the patients in Endo) my first day orienting to the Endo pre/post op area that I forgot to take my 40 min. break. Not to mention there was another traveller who noticed because she was ready to take patients but said, "you just kept taking everybody". And I replied, "no they just kept giving me everybody". So I kept taking the patients to prove I could do it. But I don't like being under all this pressure especially since I already feel like my travel company under paid me for this assignment.

Unfortunately there isn't a union at this hospital. But fortunately for me, my work history speaks for itself and I've never had accusations like these before now. I've called my recruiter at my travel agency to ask for the clinical liaison. I'm presently awaiting a telephone call back from them.

p.s. I also plan to leave asap. I just want my name cleared first.

There is definitely something wrong on this unit because 50% of the workforce are new grads and the other 50% are travelers/agency. They are interviewing nurses like crazy but I don't see anyone new. One good reference I do have is that prior to coming to this floor, I was on another floor at the same hospital and never had one complaint. That's why I'm interested in preserving my good reputation and therefore I'm considering going to human resources to let them know of this hostility I face which is totally unwarranted. I am a nice person, quiet who keeps to herself and someone there has decided that they don't like me and have succeeded at making my workday unpleasant. I already have sick patients to care for and now all of this.

Thanks so much for your posts. I have contacted my agency but they haven't gotten back to me yet. The thing about agencies is that they are all about the money and I'm hoping that they won't believe/side with the hospital. I am a very quiet person and pretty much stay to myself to avoid getting caught up in clicks and this has opened me up as a target (I presume). Also I'm too busy caring for the patients and I am very thorough with paperwork so I don't have extra time for socializing. But I am definitely going to look up their policies on workplace harassment and proceed from there. It makes me upset about all of this drama because I had just worked out a pay change with my agency for $4.00 more on the hour which was to begin at the start of my 2nd contract in Jan.'08. But I am thinking of my license and I don't trust the Nurse Manager or the Clinical Team Member here and I need to make a decision accordingly.

I am a travel RN and I began working on this particular med-surg unit in Oct. Around November I was asked if I wanted to sign a new contract that would carry me through Apr. '08 and I said yes. Shortly thereafter, I had a nightshift RN verbally assault me for no reason. I didn't report her but another RN did: nothing was done about it except the am charge nurse asked her what happened and she denied it. However there was a room full of nurses who witnessed this. The next week, the nightshift RN verbally abused me when I asked her which nightshift RN was getting my telephone. She began yelling and screaming at me telling me to find the list myself and this was again witnessed by a room full of nurses. This time no one stepped up. Fed up I went to the clinical team member and reported it. She immediately began defending the RN stating that it's her pet peeve for people to ask this when there is a sheet posted with this info. I began explaining that the sheet wasn't posted that's why I asked. The next week later the CTM told me that a patient had fallen that night and fractured her hip. So i reckon this was supposed to excuse her unwarranted act that night. A few weeks later, I let myself succumb to gossip. A nurse was telling me about her pca which happened to be my pca too. I normally refrain at all costs from gossip and i guess being on this unit was making me miserable and i temporarily lost my mind and told her the issues i was having with the pca (which were the same as her issues). Well the pca overhead us (even though we weren't loud) and came into the hallway and screamed at me then went to the CTM. The CTM was very harsh to me about it and right off the bat began defending the pca and told me i was unprofessional. I told her that if i was unprofessional then she was too because she screamed into the hallway at me and this happened around pt. rooms and everything. Yesterday was the last straw. the nurse manager told me to come into her office NOW. she tells me that 4 pca's have complained about me and that a confused pt. said i was mean to him, transportation was waiting for me for 30min to fill out a transportation sheet and i didn't answer my phone and that the confused pt was laying in a bed of urine saturated. she was very rude to me and i felt like they are on a witch hunt for me. I told her right at the onset "are you asking me or telling me" what happened. She then said i'm asking (although her tone said otherwise). first off i didn't ask this but if 4 pca's were complaining about me why am i hearing about this now (it's like a dumping-effect) why didn't she tell me as it happened? i am never mean to anyone. in fact i feel that people take my niceness as a weakness. i am very passive and people play on that. i told the NM that i am not this person she describes, i'm not mean to anyone. i told her that in fact the pca's are rude to me. when i ask them to do something they don't and i end up doing it. as far as the confused pt., i told her to check my charting. i focused my care with him and i was never rude to him. the pt. was lonely and didn't want me to leave the room. i told her that even though i was overloaded i stayed with him a while longer but he kept pushing the call light the moment i walked out and after the 3rd time, i told him that i had to go see my other pt's and that i would return but that he couldn't keep pressing the call light so frequently. he had issues with voiding freq. so i set up his urinal and told him i'd be back to check it. i also notified the pca and told her we both needed to check him freq. well he knocked it over. also i spoke to the pca about all of this and she told me that the pt said that it wasn't his nurse that was mean to him but the NM confronted me anyways. and about me not answering my phone well it was broke and I had been given 4 different phones that day. i told her that the unit clerks told me my 4th phone was fixed but i was still having trouble and that i didn't hear my name being paged. i also told her that i was at lunch and she said well why didn't you properly hand over your phone and give report to another nurse to cover your patients. i told her, on this floor i was told you keep your pt's and answer your own calls. i really don't want to stay on a floor like this. the NM was definitely trying to find fault with me. Is there any recourse that I have? can I go over the NM's head b/c this isn't right.

then what would you suggest? do you know of or can you think of an area of nursing that i would be better suited for after hearing my dislikes? Help I'm falling and I can't get up!

then what would you suggest? do you know of or can you think of an area of nursing that i would be better suited for after hearing my dislikes?

:) Thank you so much! This helps me so much. I just may possibly keep my current job and pickup some parttime agency work in a LTC facility to see how I like it. I would be working on first shift so I guess this would seem to be the more hectic shift. Anyways, I appreciate your positivity!

Well I notice that a lot of facilities list themselves as an alzheimer's unit so when I called this particular agency, I asked if I could refuse those such nsg. homes and they said "yes". But I do realize that sometimes I will come into contact with those patient's in any area of nursing. I would like to try outpatient, home care or doctor's offices but I am having a hard time finding an opening there or even where to look!

I am approaching my first year of nursing and am very dissatisfied. I've been on the renal unit the entire time. What I realize is that I don't like caring for people that I end of seeing over and over again (frequent fliers), Alzheimer's patients, patients with psychiatric problems, etc.... So before I just totally give up on nursing alltogether, I figure maybe I need to leave my unit and try other departments. I don't have any special interests or units that I'd prefer and I don't know what I should try. I called an agency that really only caters to nursing homes and the RN would be in charge. Do I have enough experience for charge? What would the RN's role be? :stone