Really bad 4 hour shift. help :(

[nursealanarae]

I have only been working as a nurse for 4 months on a busy neuro and ortho floor. So, I just got off of a dumb four hour shift. I normally work 3-11 and I was asked ro work an overnight last night and then a four hour shift today. I had a really bad night and couldn't get caught up with ANYTHING. I had 4 heavy patients and an admission right before the change of shift. I finally finished everything I needed to do and I made sure I did not dump anything on to the next nurse. So the change shift comes and goes and the nurse taking over my patients for the next shift is 20 minutes late. Right before I am giving report, my new admission started to vomit. I let the nurse who I was giving report to that he was vomiting and it looked like it had little specks of blood. He had vomited in the er earlier and had the same specks of blood. the physician was aware, and he had gotten zofran 2 hours before so he wasn't due for anything. The nurse made me feel like I was dumping this on her..like it was my fault that the patient was vomiting. I quikly documented that the patient had N/V and made sure the nurse didn't need anything. Did I do anything wrong? Should I have stayed and got an order or something? she made me feel like an idiot and that I was leaving so much for her to do. All I want to do is be a competent nurse and I am just getting very discouraged....I don't know what to do....

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

You absolutely did NOT do anything wrong. She was 20 minutes late for her shift ..... you shoulda been gone by the time the patient started vomiting anyway, or at least almost done with report.

Sometimes things happen at change of shift. You did everything you could do ..... you knew the physician was aware of this, so it wasn't something totally new for this patient.

What did this nurse do to make you feel like you were "dumping this on her"?

[suanna]

For some nurses providing patient care is a terrible imposition on thier personal time. No, you didn't do anything wrong- the nurse that followed you did when she acted like it was an imposition on her to care for a sick patient.

[Tash4nvyblues, RN]

Some nurses feel they need to make other nurses feel incompetent and inferior to make themselves feel superior. The problem with these particular nurses is that they do it passively enough that you can't complain about them or confront them. They give you the look and the sigh's that let you know they are not happy with the work you have left them, and they are very good at it. You need to ignore nurses like these or they have achieved what they wanted.

Your post tells me that you did everything that you could for that shift and it was time for you to go home.

It saddens me the amount of posts I have read on this site, where nurses have to work overtime to get all there jobs done. Whatever happened to 24hr nursing care, the next nurse should take over any job you have been unable to do regardless of what that job is, and thank the previous nurse for all the hard work done, because we all deserve to go home and feel good about our day. Unfortunately that doesn't happen though.