concededrn

Yeah. One of the chrge nurses I work with , when she comes in at 1900, she gives me 15 min of freedom from triage. I already worked 9 hrs in triage. I appreciate that greatly! One thing I have noticed that there are two types that complain alot. The wealthy and the poor. The wealthy think they are entitled to be moved up in front of the line. "my doctor told me to come in!" I always point out, "sir/mam, they will always tell you to come in, it's a liability not to!" The poor b/c they are unfortunately too ignorant and poor to get the help they need before the problem gets out of hand. They have no social grace and fighting and agruing are part of their social structure. Mainly due to being uneducated. Hard workers yes, I will not take that away from them. But uneducated. Thanks for the "cheering me up"! I want this to be a vent/rant w/o the hatred theme. I just need to vent and know that I am not alone!

racial comments. I don't really get the comments but I do get looks. No one wants a spanish person telling them they are not that sick to comeback. "our beds are full, the hallbeds are full, if an empty bed opens up it's you're! Til then you have to wait in the waiting area". That upsets people. Yesterday, here is the scenario. Lady comes in s/p jaw procedure. Lido wearing off. She's hysterical moaning, pacing. 3 people infront of her. After a few minutes she is irrate. I "eye ball" her and talk to her. Script for pain med not filled yet. This could have solved the problem. Instead she called her md, and he turfed her to the ER. She yelled at me "I can't believe you're not going to bring me back!". I stopped the triage of the other person. Yeah I was ticked! "ok, come here (as I opened the ER doors) ..Come here, pointing to the floor,...(we walk to the gurney that JUST OPENED UP. slapped the bed, "this is your bed, (name removed) this is your nurse, (name removed) will triage you,now you're back here". Her reply "you are so rude (I mine yelling it to me). I turned around, my reply "how am I rude? I bumped you infront of 3 people". Her reply "It's not what you said , it's not you, it's what you are doing". (name removed) looked at me and told me to "walk away". I walked back outside to the w/a and told the family "she's back there now". I get a "thank you" from him. I walk up to the chrage nurse and tell her "That's it! I'm over it, I'm going outside!!!!". Point is, we can only do what we can. The script should have been filled right after the procedure, the md should not have turfed her to us. Now I might be in trouble for the way I acted. Again passive-aggressive. I'm human too! As you can tell, I'm upset about it as well. The governing bodies who are not nurses always tell us what to do, how to act. Have they been in my shoes? Nope! They're surrounded by 4 walls and a door and have the luxury of having a secretary keep the "visitor they have an appointment with at bay!" Not in the ER.

Ok, this will be my first official rant. It maybe a common on, but here is mine. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I do triage about 75% of the time since taking the 10am-10pm position a few months ago. Since we are in "peak season" I am finding more and more people are getting "In my face", saying pretty rude things,being argumentative, causing a scene in the waiting area,pacing infront of the triage door,interrupting someone elses triage,etc. I feel I do a pretty good job doing triage, thus that is why they put me out there. I have saved some people with my rapid assessments. If I get more than 5 triage sheets I stop my triage and go and meet every new person that comes in and "Eye ball them". They really have to "impress me", so to speak. I feel and heve been told that I'm a "good nurse", "(name removed) I'm so glad you're here!"-when there is a code blue) or help another nurse figure a patient out that is circling the drain. For the most part I have kept my cool. But in the last 2 days my "passive-aggressiveness" has come out. I have a motto of "you will not yell at me,period!". I take that seriously. I have zero tolerance for that sort of thing. Funny that the first thing I say- tends to aggreviate the patient even more, than they turn around and say "He was rude". There is no known sign that I can think of that says "feel free to yell at the nurse" that is outside my door. If you have ever triaged , PLEASE let me in on the secret to your success. Been with the same hospital for 5 1/2 yrs. I have always worked nights and did a pretty good job. This new role can seriously jeapordize my career at this facility. I told my charge nurse to "get me out of triage!" She promised to give me an ER position instead. Please help!

Very well put. I am of spanish and italian decent. I get some comments and looks from time to time. Funny how people determine 'intelligence' by the color of someone's skin. You can see it on their faces. It's more the body language than anythingelse. Some poeple are just like that. I have to say that I gauge my interaction with pts the same way. If they look 'dumb' I limit the teaching cause it may be over their head. "K.I.S.S" theory. I guess it goes back and forth. Even my father had a thing w/ latin and colored nurses "they're so nasty" he would say. I had to scold him for his belief "pop, you're the rude one not them! leave your beliefs at home. Being nasty to the nurses is like being nasty to me. Don't you remember the stories I told you about ******* patients?...Don't be that *******!"

Lol. We all have been there. Like the other person wrote. I work in the er and love it. It is my niche! You need to see if there is another unit you can transfer to. DO NOT FEEL DEFEATED. You are not at a loss. That is med surg nursing!!!!!!!!!! Personally I have anxiety (got that from my father) but I use it to my advantage. The er requires you to be fast on your feet and sharp with your mind. On the med surg floor I was bored. And the anxiety grew. I would count down the time til my next cigarette break to get off the floor. Basically what I am saying is "I was not being ulitized to my fullest potential!". When I made it down to the ER I was floored at how busy was but realized "crap, 2 more hrs to go" Some days I left exhausted, others "I could have done more". day by day my effeciency grew to my present state. Floor nursing IS HARD, b/c there is no 'quck fix' for problems that arise, like the ER,OR,RECOVERY" and much less the autonomy on the floor than these units I mentioned. Be the first one to float. People hate floating, but use it to your advantage and see what floor is to your liking! That's the beauty of floating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good Luck.

Panic? That's NORMAL. Everyone goes through it. I've been in nursing (RN) 11 yrs this may. I can remember my days. I took the test. It ended at 75 questions. Turns out it ended b/c 75 was the minimum if you get all the questions right. I personally did not take a review course. After graduation I went back to being a cna. and when I had free time I just did the nclex book, question and answer, and did the cd. the answers I got wrong, I looked into the rationale. Duh, that makes sense. lol. Took me about 1 month to go through the book at my own pace. So less stress. As far as being all thumbs. don't worry your confidence will build at 3 months, 6 months, 1 yr. etc. Last yr, I took an lpn under my wing ,so to speak. I showed her what to do, what to ask, what not to do, what to avoid, etc. 1 yr later, she is happy I showed her the ropes. She is progressing nicely. You need to find someone that will encourage you and steer you in the right direction and take away your anxiety. B/c you will have ALOT OF IT!!!!! I personally had a crappy start, so I didn't want that for the lpn "I took under my wing". It's the right thing to do. Take a deep breath, cause you're in it for the long haul. Always think if things that way. If you stumble along the way. That's OK. You stumbled when you were a kid, and you walk fine now don't you? lol. Keep us posted.

that's exactly what I was going to say. I did chemo for 6 months when I first graduated.