ljrn135

UGH. I was just thinking about this last night. I had to call for something dumb, but ordered and I started with, "Sorry I had to bother you so late".... WHY? Why am I sorry? they placed the order, its their job to respond. Why has it come to this? I completely understand your frustration.... wish I could change it. Good luck with getting someone in admin to hear you.

Being a newer ICU nurse I totally get your hesitation; however, accidents happen and this is not that bad of one anyways. You will get past this.... and this ONE incident in no way makes you a bad nurse nor should it affect your employment! Good luck and don't be so hard on yourself!

All facilities will have some kind of reporting system that you should use. The chart needs to have specifics about meds, PPN, lipids ect… but putting in there the condition how the patient was left (full of poop) may or may not be pertinent to the actual chart of the patient and would be best dealt with in a report. You don't want to cover anything up, but you want to make sure that if someone reviews the chart, medically necessary items are there. If you don't know of any report system, as that is not something that all travelers are briefed on, I would write a VERY detailed email to ot only the charge nurse that was over that nurse but I would CC it to the director of the unit. That sounds terrible and thank goodness you were there to correct thing and take care of them.

I'm not PRN currently, and I still feel bad when I don't pick up extra shifts. We are naturally givers.... we give our job our everything for our patients... Just know that the days you do pick up mean the world to some and you are not going to please everyone. You need you time as well. I used to pick up at least 1-2 extra every week and I ended up getting burnt out really bad. Don't feel bad! Enjoy those kiddos!

I thank you for your two cents. To hear other nurses two cents is why I started this thread. Do you have any suggestions besides for that it's juvenile I would live to hear them!

Scottaprn, I have done an abundance of research into peer reviewed literature and I was looking for other nurses perspectives as well. Thank you for your suggestion!

Haha psu_213 that is super funny!!!!

Thanks nursemarjorie.... I will bring those ideas to my group! Soldiernurse22, I'm not sure what the newbie should be "corrected" for. Not having as much experience? The newbie did not disrespect anyone unless overselling your skills is disrepect? Should people be more truthful in their abilities.... yes. But when they say, "I'm not so good at this, can you help?" Why is it ok to belittle them? And in front of other peers? We teach our, pardon the expression, scum bag patients how to be better and they aren't going to be working side by side with us saving lives.... why not teach the newbies how to be better nurses?????

I am on a committee to discuss, deal and eradicate nurses eating their young. Hard and impossible task I know; However, something must be done! We recently had a few issues with very experienced nurses belittling our new nurses. Yes, the new nurse may have over sold themselves in their interview, but who doesn't? Now the experienced nurses are very quick to pass judgement and to talk down to the new nurses like they are stupid for not being the best at NG tubes or a pediatric Foley cath. I am trying to come up with a catchy, possibly somewhat silly/dumb phrase to get people attention that we need to educate and not belittle. Does anyone have any ideas on this they can share or what they may have done in their own ER? Thanks!!!

We have a monitor station and a medic/monitor tech that is assigned to that station 24/7. It is NEVER left unattended. We also have a computer monitor with each rooms monitor on it at each nursing station. That way we can see at our nursing station what going on but then we have another set of eyes keeping watch over all 60 rooms. They have so many to watch that if we have a critical patient that needs a closer eye all we have to do is call them and given them a heads up and they flag that particular room, Im sure it has saved many patients lives but just the other day we had a pt that was bouncing in and out of vtach and vfib and all 3 nurses and our medic for that particular section were in other rooms and the monitor tech over headed that someone needed to go to that room stat. We knew he was already having issues (life vest shocking him) so all of us ran into that room and we started defibrillating him. I honestly can say Im certain if we did not have a monitor tech that patient would have died!

I have only been a nurse for 4 years so iI would consider myself to be a new nurse in many ways, on top of that I have only been in the ED for 10 months. I did not have any ED experience, and on the floor all your allowed to "protocol" are bls and acls "protocols" essentially. I find myself frequently feeling looked down on by those that have been in the ED nursing role for many years because I'm not as efficient or smart as those. This DOESNT build cconfidence or make me want to ask you for any kind of help or advice! With that being said, if you have a newer nurse that doesn't use common sense in the most simple of applications (possibly not even nurse related) that's a problem. I always try to step up and help in any way possible and give it my everything every second I am there and I know that some others do not feel the same way as me. I find that I know MANY more "protocols" now than I did 10 months ago and that I catch irregular/dangerous heart rates faster and that I am getting more efficient in MANY other aspects but that I also have a lot more to learn and more to experience! You may not have been "green" going into the ED but everyone has to start somewhere!