Really bad week at home and work

[ShayRN]

It started because my boss ripped into me about keeping extra nurses on the floor. Our patient load has been so heavy, even when we have empty beds, I didn't send people home because everyone was so darn busy. For example, one day last week we had 3 people on our floor getting blood transfusions, 2 people on insulin pumps, and 2 people in isolation. One of the patient's in isolation has a wound on his butt that takes almost 45 minutes to change the dressing on every single time you change it, and he is incontinent. PLUS 10-11 discharges with 8 admissions. And they wanted me to send someone home OK, so I screwed up, I will take my lumps. Then the other asst. manager tells me that some of the night turn crew has been complaining about the assignments I give out. That I play "favorites." Well, I do my assignments by acuities. Basing them on 1 being easy, 2 being more intensive care and 3 being very heavy. I try to give all the nurses a total of 12. Whether that be 3, 3, 2,2,2 or 3, 3, 3, 2, 1. Also, the ones who are complaining about ME are the 12 hour people. Their assignment is already made when I come in, because they are following a 12 hour person from dayturn, so it is really the woman they are complaining about me who is doing their assignments. Further more, they are following other 12 hour people, so in actuality they are getting the assignments THEY give to dayturn nurses. (I hope this is making sense, I am still pretty upset) The one person I am friends with on 3-11 who they are saying I am showing favortism towards usually gets 2 admissions a night. They also told her that I always make it so that my friend and I go on break together. Well, we do. But not because we are friends, we became friends because we always go on break together. We are the 8 hour people. The 12 hour people, I feel, should get first break because they have been there all day. So I let them go first, because there are usually 2 or 3 12 hour people on and then her and I we always go second. No brainer to me! Ok, so anyway, she then tells me who it is, a couple of them don't surprise me, they complain about everything anyway. Then she tells me a couple more and my mouth drops wide open! I have never been anything but nice and gone out of my way to help the 2 girls that were in on the little "Shannon is a witch" session. So now, my feelings are hurt. I started tearing up and couldn't get control of myself for probably 3 hours. My boss's boss sees me in the hallway and I say, can I talk to you? So I go in her office and we talk for about 30 minutes. She tells me that she thinks I am doing a fantastic job. She had been approached by numerous doctors and other units who comment on much smoother 3-11 is running (on my unit) now that I have taken over. That no matter how hard I try there is no way I will be able to make everyone happy and that I have her full support because she doesn't want to lose a strong leader like me So, I thank her for her kind words. Take a deep breath and go out with my head just a bit higher. THEN, my husband calls me. He stepped on the bottom step funny when he was taking down the laundry and was going to ER. He has a very severe sprain, his ankle is the size of my calf and will be on crutches for probably another week. NOT good for a mailman. So, I think, OK, I am in the clear when I got home. I just sat down at the table to try to collect myself after the LOUSY day I had and then I hear my dd upstair crying. She had thrown up all down the side of the bed, all over the mattress, all over the carpet, all over herself. So it takes me over an hour to clean the bedding, carpet, HER, etc. So, then I go to fix Shawn an ice pack for his ankle, we have no ice. BACK OUT I GO to the gas station at 1:30 in the morning for a bag of ice. Needless to say, I slept until almost noon that next day, ROFL.

I didn't want to go into work the next night, but forced myself. Everything was fine until 7pm when the night turn crew started coming in. One said to me, why does everyone else have 5 patients and I only have 3, just so I can get the admission? Well, I said to her, everyone else has FOUR patients, not 5 and yes you will get the admission. So my problem nurse starts muttering under her breath and I say really loud, DO YOU HAVE AN ISSUE YOU WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS WITH ME? She said, well, yes I do. These assignments are not fair. This one of mine gets blood sugar checks every 3 hours during the night and this other one is on the call light frequently. I said, well, if you don't like taking care of patients, maybe you shouldn't be a nurse. Furthermore, if you have issues with your assignment, I suggest you take it up with the dayturn coordinator, because I have nothing to do with YOUR assignment. Finally, if you have a better way of doing things, by all means I am listening. How would YOU make out a fair assignment? Because YES, you have those issues going on, but this one is getting blood, blah, blah, blah.....I went through every single nurses assignments and showed her all the heavy patients they had. Then I said, ALSO, you are getting rid of this heavy one because she is transfering to rehab and this one because he is discharged. So if anyone had a reason to complain it was the girl before you who has 6 patients, she never said a word. So maybe it isn't the assignment that is the problem, maybe it is YOU. From this point on I will no longer listen to complaints about your assignments, you don't like them, too bad. Move on, because I am DONE listening to you whine about having to work when you come here, do you understand me? I am DONE. Then I turned around and walked into my office to calm down, :chair: . I called my boss and told her what happened, then told her that I fully expected to back me on this. I want any complaints about me to be directed back to me, if they can't say it to my face, then it doesn't need to be heard by managment. She said, absolutely. I will tell them that I just don't want to hear it, it is your shift and you are to run it anyway you see fit Then I told her I needed some days off because I am a bit fried from the last two days, so I get to be off until Monday, lol. I was already off from Thursday on for some pre-scheduled vacation, but she told me I could take Wednesday off too. I hope I will be in a better frame of mind when I go back.

Then, on Thursday, I went in, on my vacation day, for a committee meeting. I fell and sprained MY ankle. I was on crutches for about 36 hours. I sure hope that next week is better, because I very well may have a breakdown if it anything like the last one.:roll

Thanks for letting me vent!

[LPN1974, LPN]

I think you are doing an excellent job.

The griping needs to be stopped in its tracks. Where I work our assignments are grouped according to how many nurses we have each day. We rotate each day. Of course our assignments are pretty much stable....we are under a nursing home license, but it is a training facility for the mentally challenged, so we don't get admissions everday. But we rotate....if I have the heavy assigment today, most likely I will have a lighter one tomorrow.

We don't have the griping and whining about it either, that you have to put up with. We know it all has to be done, and we will rotate tomorrow.

[clee1]

So my problem nurse starts muttering under her breath and I say really loud, DO YOU HAVE AN ISSUE YOU WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS WITH ME? She said, well, yes I do. These assignments are not fair. This one of mine gets blood sugar checks every 3 hours during the night and this other one is on the call light frequently. I said, well, if you don't like taking care of patients, maybe you shouldn't be a nurse. Furthermore, if you have issues with your assignment, I suggest you take it up with the dayturn coordinator, because I have nothing to do with YOUR assignment. Finally, if you have a better way of doing things, by all means I am listening. How would YOU make out a fair assignment? Because YES, you have those issues going on, but this one is getting blood, blah, blah, blah.....I went through every single nurses assignments and showed her all the heavy patients they had. Then I said, ALSO, you are getting rid of this heavy one because she is transfering to rehab and this one because he is discharged. So if anyone had a reason to complain it was the girl before you who has 6 patients, she never said a word. So maybe it isn't the assignment that is the problem, maybe it is YOU. From this point on I will no longer listen to complaints about your assignments, you don't like them, too bad. Move on, because I am DONE listening to you whine about having to work when you come here, do you understand me? I am DONE.

That is precisely the way to handle chronic whiners! GOOD for YOU!!!

[pugmum]

Without a doubt....certainly qualifies as one as 'those weeks.."!

Hang in there, you're doing all the right things! I hope your husband's and your ankles are feeling better soon! :flowersfo

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Wow, maybe it is the moon or something cause the same types of things are happening where I work.

Hang in there -you handled the whining appropriately.

And please everyone get on the same page about complaints - go to the person you are mad at FIRST. Then if you don't get any satisfaction, go up the ladder. Stop talking about people behind their back.

I hate that.

steph

[weetziebat]

so my problem nurse starts muttering under her breath and i say really loud, do you have an issue you would like to discuss with me? she said, well, yes i do. these assignments are not fair. this one of mine gets blood sugar checks every 3 hours during the night and this other one is on the call light frequently. i said, well, if you don't like taking care of patients, maybe you shouldn't be a nurse. furthermore, if you have issues with your assignment, i suggest you take it up with the dayturn coordinator, because i have nothing to do with your assignment. finally, if you have a better way of doing things, by all means i am listening. how would you make out a fair assignment? because yes, you have those issues going on, but this one is getting blood, blah, blah, blah.....i went through every single nurses assignments and showed her all the heavy patients they had. then i said, also, you are getting rid of this heavy one because she is transfering to rehab and this one because he is discharged. so if anyone had a reason to complain it was the girl before you who has 6 patients, she never said a word. so maybe it isn't the assignment that is the problem, maybe it is you. from this point on i will no longer listen to complaints about your assignments, you don't like them, too bad. move on, because i am done listening to you whine about having to work when you come here, do you understand me? i am done.

you handled that superbly!! way to go. just keep on top of it and don't let them backslide again into that whining crap.

wish you and your family a quick recovery! enjoy your time off.

[lpnadmin]

I said, well, if you don't like taking care of patients, maybe you shouldn't be a nurse. Furthermore, if you have issues with your assignment, I suggest you take it up with the dayturn coordinator, because I have nothing to do with YOUR assignment. Finally, if you have a better way of doing things, by all means I am listening. How would YOU make out a fair assignment? Because YES, you have those issues going on, but this one is getting blood, blah, blah, blah.....I went through every single nurses assignments and showed her all the heavy patients they had. Then I said, ALSO, you are getting rid of this heavy one because she is transfering to rehab and this one because he is discharged. So if anyone had a reason to complain it was the girl before you who has 6 patients, she never said a word. So maybe it isn't the assignment that is the problem, maybe it is YOU. From this point on I will no longer listen to complaints about your assignments, you don't like them, too bad. Move on, because I am DONE listening to you whine about having to work when you come here, do you understand me? I am DONE.

ShayRN, I admire you for sticking to your guns. I'm going to tuck this in memory for future reference.