Ready to start writing up techs

[ABQLNDRN]

I was wondering what you all think about something: many of the RNs and LPNs on my floor are fed up with our lazy, bad-attitude, rude techs. Many have complained to our manager, who is said to simply shrug her shoulders and not do anything. I talked to one of our permanent charge RNs about how disappointed I was, and she told me why nothing was being done.

Our techs here have a union. Their union has a protocol for disciplining which management must follow. The RNS/LPNs have to officially write the techs up in order for management to be able to do anything.

I am not by nature a big "writer-upper" so to speak. I like to talk to people, nip things in the bud, be understanding, help out when I can, etc.

I work on a mother/baby unit. Before I became an RN, I worked as a tech on a med/surg unit; not for too long, but for long enough to appreciate and understand the work that techs do. There is very little butt-wiping, turning pts. in bed, helping pts. ambulate, assisting pts to the bathroom, sponge-bathing, etc. The majority of our pts. are self-sufficient with ADLs. The bulk of our techs job is to take vital signs, pass food trays, and pick trays up. Once in a while they have to go to blood bank or something to do a small errand.

Our techs literally sit at the nurse's station and surf the web all day long. They get SO mad when you ask them to do their jobs. They ROLL their eyes and crab and complain amongst each other saying, "why doesn't the nurse just do it?" I do know for a fact that ALL of our techs receive paychecks; not a single one of them is on our unit on a voluntary status. I do believe no one held a gun to any of their heads when they walked in and applied for a job.

The other day, a tech did not take Q4 vitals on a baby that was on Amp and Gent and just told the nurse (while laughing), "Oops. I must have written them on the wrong chart." NOT FUNNY for so many reasons! I would've been on that tech's behind like white on rice for that! Naturally, it is the nurse's responsibility to make sure all delegated tasks are actually being done, but I know that I don't have a whole lot of extra time to babysit my techs.

So, to sum it up, I'm not being a nice guy anymore. Since write ups are the only way to get their attention, I'm going to start doing it. Do you all think I'm being mean?

[carol72]

I feel you should take the high raod - write them up. For the safety of your patients/unit. Kudos to you for not just looking the other way.

[arizonanurse]

I had a situation like this with a tech where I work. She took two hours to do ten sets of vitals, an hour to do six accuchecks, got maybe two showers done on a ten-hour shift - and these are not bed baths, these are "wrap up the IV site and get the patient towels" showers. I AM NOT KIDDING. We have a relatively low-acuity unit, all the patients are usually walkie talkies, ten patients to a CNA. It was like pulling teeth to get her to do anything, and she argued about everything. It was bad. And on top of it all she was always complaining about how mean we were and how she hoped she'd never be like us when she became a nurse. By the time she'd worked two months, everyone was fed up with her. No matter how much we talked to the charge nurse, nothing was done.

So fast forward to this weekend. I worked four shifts in a row, and three of them were with this aide. I don't think I am too demanding, but I do expect the accuchecks to be done before dinner, not twenty minutes after. We were very busy all weekend, call lights going off constantly, and she sat in patients' rooms talking to them or surfing the Internet while I and the other nurse rushed around answering lights and doing baths. Things really came to a head on Sunday, when I was very busy and had to argue with her for ten minutes about why she could not take my neutropenic patient to the unit shower room. I was ready to lose it with her. Anyway, I don't know what finally made it change, but on Monday our boss came and told me she wouldn't be coming back. I suppose it was heartless of me to be overjoyed, but I was. I simply could not take it any more.

So anyway, I don't have any specific advice for you - but I wanted to say that I know what you're dealing with. I help my CNA's a lot, but I do expect them to work. Our other CNA is absolutely phenomenal, and always has been. I wish we could clone her :) I hope your situation gets resolved soon - I honestly don't know if I would write her up, but obviously something needs to change.

[Lovely_RN, MSN]

I got so mad when I read this post I couldn't finish reading the responses. :angryfire Who friggen cares if these techs get mad at you for making them do their job! It's the patients that end up suffering. You go to work to work...it is not a popularity contest. When I had my baby over the summer the techs were horrible. They didn't bring clean linen, fill the water pitcher, or answer the call bells. It was ridiculous! When I wanted to take pain meds the nurse had to bring me my meds and then leave my room to fill my water pitcher so that I could take my pills. She would forget to come back and after a while it got to the point where I had to get out of bed and shuffle down to the pantry so that I could get ice and water. This pantry was near the nurse's station and very far from my room. I had a difficult labor and a bad episiotomy but I couldn't take it anymore so I did what I had to do.

[nurseangel47]

I wish that I'd written up a few cnas I use to work with. Simply afraid of retaliation, I suppose. "Ghetto" type folks, who definitely would've not taken the paper trail it would've required to get rid of them. One actually followed me to another job site I went to after leaving a facility mainly because of him. I ultimately lost MY job in the end after being harassed daily by him and his against all policies poor job performance. My advice?

It may be your word against his one day and you will not win. If the NM has their mind set against not doing anything about it. START THAT DOCUMENTATION NOW! I will always regret having not been more preventatively proactive in the rights of the patients and most dreadfully, in losing that nursing job because of a lazy, incompetent nursing assistant.

Still fuming here.