we often see threads with the title "fired for no reason," or "new grad harassed and fired" or something to that effect. and i always feel at least a little sympathy for the individual involved, if only because i can clearly see by reading between the lines of their self-justifying post that there was a reason for their termination, even if they just don't get it. (there are always a few posts every year from a new grad who is convinced that the reason she's not getting along with her co-workers is that she's just so beautiful they're all jealous, that crowds of mean people are following her around, that she's so wonderful she's going to rock the er or icu or nicu or or and no one sees her wonderfulness clearly, or that some mean, tired, old nurse who ought to retire and get out of the way is targeting her for no good reason.)
i worked with a new grad who was recently terminated for, as she puts it, totally bogus reasons. evidently seeing mine as a sympathetic ear, she went on and on and on about how unfair it was that management expected her to get her act together and actually understand what was going on with her patients. "i've got the time management thing down pat," she said. "i don't know what else they want. they're just picking on me for no good reason." i liked sal, i really did. she was interesting and entertaining and really, really nice. she was also smart, hard-working (when she was at work) and well-educated. but she didn't study outside of work, and really didn't understand what was going on with her patients. i participated in several meetings with her in which it was pointed out that it's not enough to do the tasks, you have to understand why you're doing them. it's not enough to draw the labs. you have to understand what the results mean and then address them. for instance, if the inr is 9, it might explain the nosebleed, the cherry red urine and the fact that the hemoglobin is now 6. giving the coumadin at 6pm as scheduled is not a good thing, even if you gave it right on time and were able to explain to the patient that "it's a blood thinner." i could go on and on.
i got a call from sal today, complaining that she knows she's blackballed for no good reason because she just can't get another job. she wanted me to give her a reference. did she just not get it?
all you new grads out there who are convinced that you're being picked on for no reason, that your more experienced colleagues are just out to get you, and that you're being unfairly targeting, harassed, or picked on, hear this: it may be something you're doing (or not doing) and all those "mean people" are trying to explain it to you so you catch on, learn your job and succeed. we all tried over and over with sal, and she still doesn't get it. are you guilty of the same thing? if your preceptor says you lack critical thinking skills, do you take it to heart, think about it and learn from it? or are you convinced that the entire issue is that she's jealous of your extreme good looks? if your charge nurse charges you with a deficit in your time management skills do you spend time figuring out where you could speed things up a bit? or do you dismiss her as a tired old dog who can't learn a new trick and ought to retire anyway? are you taking to heart and benefitting from any negative feedback you're getting, however poorly given it is? or are you obsessing about how "mean" that nurse was to you and totally overlooking the message?
i wish sal would have "gotten it." she would have been delightful to work with if she had. but right now she's focused on badmouthing her preceptors and the charge nurse, and she still doesn't understand what she did wrong. don't make the same mistakes.
I just want to mention the fact that nurse managers sometimes make less than some of the nurses whom they manage. Also, their job is very difficult. These days many manage more than one department. They have to take the heat from upper management, balance budgets, field complaints, mediate squabbles between staff, hire new staff, process incident reports, plan meetings, attend meetings, do evaluations, the list goes on and on.
Which is why you couldn't pay me to be a manager or charge nurse for that matter. Granted I won't have to worry about that for a few years yet. But I have talked to a few managers who wish they were on the floor again. I have also worked with managers who after coming in at 7am and leaving well after 6pm, came in to work the 11p-7a shift because we were short.
We did have a thread recently by a beautiful young nurse, who also was a stellar individual according to her. This led to the obvious conclusion that others were undermining her because of her enviable beauty and youth.
She was countered by a member here, who claimed to be extremely homely. The homely nurse stated that the OP of that thread was full of it, and that it was really ugly people who endure discrimination.
She was countered by a member here, who claimed to be extremely homely. The homely nurse stated that the OP of that thread was full of it, and that it was really ugly people who endure discrimination.
it boggles my mind there are young women who are so short-sighted to believe their looks/youth/beauty are the reasons for professional rejection.
honest to God, it blows my mind.
the only saving grace i see, is when they are 50 yrs old, they will understand how petty and shallow they sounded.
but then again, i'm sure i'm wrong...
in that these shallow, young nurses will grow into shallow, older nurses, and will bully away all those pretty, young things to come along.
"if the INR is 9, it might explain the nosebleed, the cherry red urine and the fact that the hemoglobin is now 6. Giving the Coumadin at 6PM as scheduled is not a good thing,"
Did anyone say directly to the new grad the above information?
How much nursing management experience do you have? How many close friends in nursing management do you have? I'm guessing you don't have much intimate knowledge of the nursing management experience. You are assuming that they only work they do is the work that you personally see.
Sure there are some bad managers out there ... just as there are bad staff nurses and bad preceptors and bad orientees and bad students .... but ...
The average nurse manager works a LOT of unpaid overtime. They are responsible for their units 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. They get phone calls at home. They take paperwork home. ... and do a lot of other work that the staff never sees. The staff generally doesn't see them "doing the budget" or "reconciling the patient charges with the supplies used" or following up on whatever to that piece of equipment that got borrowed from another unit but never returned, etc. etc. etc. You don't see them interviewing prospective employees, or writing a report to request to try to justify that empty positions be filled, or arranging to have the floors cleaned ... or the phones replaced ... whatever.
I've worked in many hospitals and worked very closely with many nurse managers. Most work several hours per week "for free." Their salaries are based on a 40-hour work week, but many work far more than that.
Maybe someday, you will become a manager and then you will know what the job entails and what it is like to be a nurse manager.
Grrrrr..........lol:D
Geez, cut a presumtuous guy a break. I admited I was wrong a couple posts later, didnt you see it. OK, there was some sarcasm with it, but I still said I was convinced managers werent as well off as I had thought. Shesh.
My first manager came and left right on time. After that, I dont see managers much. That doesnt mean they arent doing anything though. I'm sorry.
I'll give my manager a big wet kiss when I see her in the morning if it makes you feel better.:kiss
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
"there are always a few posts every year from a new grad who is convinced that the reason she's not getting along with her co-workers is that she's just so beautiful they're all jealous..."
look at the context- it's not about looks. it's about some new nurses who are so clueless that they think it's about looks.
and it seems that despite the context, there are still some folks who are so clueless they think it's all about looks. wow! despite having met people like that, i still find it hard to believe that they actually exist!
"if the INR is 9, it might explain the nosebleed, the cherry red urine and the fact that the hemoglobin is now 6. Giving the Coumadin at 6PM as scheduled is not a good thing,"
Did anyone say directly to the new grad the above information?
That is something that a new grad with basic knowledge should be able to figure out.
I mean, should someone have to tell a brand new fire-fighter not to put gasoline on a fire?
According to the posts, the grad was off of orientation and was responsible for her own pts.
Most nurses do not look at other nurses' pts' labs, meds, etc and tell them what they should do.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
"if the inr is 9, it might explain the nosebleed, the cherry red urine and the fact that the hemoglobin is now 6. giving the coumadin at 6pm as scheduled is not a good thing,"
did anyone say directly to the new grad the above information?
yes. she still did it again a week later with a different patient. and she neglected to correlate a low ptt with the heparin drip having been off for several hours. didn't get that a k+ of 5.8 meant you ought not to give the kcl. didn't understand that a vanco level of 30 might mean the vancomycin should be held. she had chance after chance after chance. and she just. didn't. get. it.
y. Of course, I'm sure none of the rest of you would admit to mistakes because, after all, it is a power thing and an ego thing. I really wish I had a photographic memory, like a lot of you, and could remember everything back to nursing 101-Get real!
The point of Ruby's initial post was not that Sal was making mistakes, it is that she didn't get it. Not getting it is what led to her demise. Not getting it is what happens when for example, you tell your your 5 year old child never to cross the street alone, and you see them chase a ball across the street in front of a car. If they live through it, you spank them for it. The reason why spanking is acceptable in this case is that they did not understand enough when you simply told them, or through their own reasoning. Sal getting fired is like the spanking. Hopefully, she will see a bit of the point before she repeats her mistakes. Unfortunately, she will likely focus on everyone else's meaness, the "eating the young" thing, the INR, etc. That is all semantics compared to the big picture as far as I can tell.
Well gee, thats news to me. pfffft. Why does everyone want to be a manager then? I always thought it was the pay. Seemed to me the people who became managers were they types that were money driven.
:oAgain, I have to retool how I see some people.
:DI love managers.
I picked the car salesman smile for a reason. Its the best I can do right now.
Every field I have worked (Construction and restaurant), the managers are there from dark (like 5am) to dark (after 6pm). The little extra pay like profit sharing, and education opportunities, the title, the career satisfaction, the company car and phone, come with the vampire hours and sleepless nights. Most companies know that famous equation, salary=cheap hourly rate if they do a lot. Even in a restuarant, most real restauranteurs know another well used maxim, that most owners and managers have done more dishes than anyone else in the whole place, including, especially, the dishwashers. Managers also have to get used to everyone resenting them, listening to embarassingly childish excuses for everything under the sun, and at how ticked off hourly staff are for having to do overtime, as if they are not well compensated for it. Management is not somethng I am looking forward to when I get into the nursing field. I want to be a well compensated hourly employee.... Just once, to know what it feels like to punch a clock, and walk out.
"if the INR is 9, it might explain the nosebleed, the cherry red urine and the fact that the hemoglobin is now 6. Giving the Coumadin at 6PM as scheduled is not a good thing,"
Did anyone say directly to the new grad the above information?
It is in the chart. The chart is there to use as a tool to guide your NDx's, Tx's and EDx's for the client. If you don't use the tools provided, and have to be told everything, well, eventually, a little less than everything will be told to you one day, and you have a good chance of killing your client like "Sal" almost did. Sal had the tools in front of her to use, requiring only curiosity and perserverance on her part, NOT just a bookful of knowlege. But she did not use the tools, instead, went and administered the medication, and nearly killed someone in her quest to put a checkmark next to her list of mindless tasks to accomplish during her day as a nurse.
"Management is not somethng I am looking forward to when I get into the nursing field. I want to be a well compensated hourly employee.... Just once, to know what it feels like to punch a clock, and walk out."
I plan on staying bedside my whole career too. Not for the same reason......well, sort of not. I wasnt interested in management because (one of the few drawbacks to the position you didnt mention) I DO NOT want to deal with the administration. I'd be fine with the people working on the floor, I think. But its the ones above me I'd want to kill.
WildcatFanRN, BSN, RN
913 Posts
Which is why you couldn't pay me to be a manager or charge nurse for that matter. Granted I won't have to worry about that for a few years yet. But I have talked to a few managers who wish they were on the floor again. I have also worked with managers who after coming in at 7am and leaving well after 6pm, came in to work the 11p-7a shift because we were short.