Question about Nursing

[Duttygal86, BSN, RN]

Hey All!

I wanted to ask for other peoples advice. I Moved home in order to go to Nursing school.(needed assistance with childcare) I got a job in Registration (ER) at the local hospital. I started applying to Nursing schools. I am waiting for responses now. But I am concerned about the things I see in the Nursing field, and am starting to have second thoughts

so anywho, heres my issue......

All of the Nurses (RN) that i come in contact with are just plain rude.

( and I am not even referring to their utter disdain for Registraion, they hate us, all we are trying to do is get vital information from patients, and due to EMTALA, we cant do *most* this until after patients have been seen by a PA or DR)

In an ER with well over 50 Nurses, I can name two or three that are nice. Most of them are dismissive about patients and lazy. Even when there is almost no patients they still act like they cant be bothered. Some of them rush through their work with patients to get back to the Nurses station and gossip. No one ever smiles. I can understand being inpatient or even rude when the ER is busy, but.....sometimes were slow....and they are still the same. I am not the only one who feels like this, the main sorce of conversation in Registration is how nasty the nurses are. On the other hand all of the Techs and Parametics are really nice.

My question: Is it like this in all Emergency Rooms, is it just the nature of Emergency Rooms? Would things be different in a different setting? ( I want to work in Psych or L&D anyways)

I would appreciate any replies, thanks!

[KneKno]

It's the culture of the ED in that particular place. A work culture ("vibe") can vary from shift to shift, from unit to unit within the same hospital, and from hospital to hospital. There is a trend to improve that culture (AACNs Healthy Workplace Environment Standards is what I'm familiar with).

I work in and ICU where the personality of the place varied with who was working. One group was great, everybody helped and had each other's back, the other group would let you drown while they sat and talked about how disorganized you were. I dreaded going to work when I was scheduled with these people. (sad thing, they were all great when they solo, it was just 2 or 3 of them together that was bad). A new director, and the toxic group slowly transferred out.

Don't let 1 toxic environment ruin the whole field for you.

While I'd still rather hit the lottery for $$$$, I usually don't mind going to work.

[tewdles, RN]

I agree that rude nurses is a reflection of the culture of that department. I believe that this attitude is the responsibility of the management of the department and the attitude changes when management enforces a "different, more polite and professional" expectation of staff which is "modelled" by the management staff. Too often I have witnessed first line managers "complaining" to direct care staff about their attitudes when the attitudes of the manager is unprofessional, impolite, and disrespectful. It is, in many ways, similar to a family...if the parents are boorish and disrespectful to people the children are more likely to share those characteristics...likewise, if the authority figures (parents) are polite and respectful the children are more likely to also behave similarly. Certainly there are exceptions to this, but overall behavior has a tendency to reflect the behavior witnessed and expected by those in positions of power.

[Duttygal86, BSN, RN]

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate it! You are all so awesome!