Slack, Sloppy Nurses for coworkers! VENT101!

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Specializes in LTC.

Ok...Just had another night with slack nurse 101! We had 4new admits @ our LTC/SNF ....well...the one nurse is older but very capable of doing her job....her pt came in w/ a very low bp, fever, and constipation (no bm x 7dys)...I had to call the MD (she wouldnt call him.....as usual) and tell him about this pt...he gave new orders for vs q 4 and if any other bp changes to call him back....well....this was at 5.....by 945 this pt's bp had dropped again to 70/42....I took it myself b/c the pt's nurse wouldnt go do it! I called the md back and he said to send her back to the ER which I had to fill out the entire packet of paperwork, get the copies made and call EMS....I told her to call the pt's daughter and let her know which is ALL she freakin' did! she ignored the whole process...didnt offer to do a darn thing and it was her pt....I knew absolutely nothing about this pt....then after its all said and done Im trying to give report to the next shift nurse who is taking over my hall and the er doc calls and she hands the phone to me! I like this nurse as a person but omg....i dont know how much more of her slack i can take....she always gets other people to work for her so shes hardly there anyways.....even though shes supposed to be f/t...and when shes @ work she does the BARE MINIMUM...and i do mean the absolute least she can possibly do. she does her meds, a few charts and thats it. she never calls the md, never offers to help me or the other nurse with admissions yet expects me to pick up her stuff all the time, never offers to help with any of my tx's ....nothing....she will let expired or d/c'd meds sit in her cart for days and days til someone else gets sick of seeing it and removes it. and you can forget her ever sending back any meds if she has time or helping with any orders or labs or anything. Although....she is definitely not the only one guilty of this. I had an 'RN come and tell me that she didnt want to call the doctor to clarify an order he had written that day ....this was her reason " He likes you better than he does me. "...which was bull. I am soooo sick of having to pick up the slack for 3 shifts worth of nurses and the mgmt nurses arent any better.....the DON is all about " PASS IT ON TO THE NEXT SHFT...PASS IT ON PASS IT ON PASS IT ON>>>>thats all i ever hear from her. Its no good to talk to her about the issues...goes in one ear and out the other. So....Im making myself a deal.....no more picking up after people...Im not gonna make 10 nurses's lives 90 percent easier just to make mine 200 percent harder at work.....if they dont get their work done...its on them cuz I officially am retiring from being the gofer!!!!!!!!!!!! No more slack sloppy nurses for me......

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Specializes in Staff nurse.

"she always gets other people to work for her"...Apparently, she got you to do many times. I hope you documented all of the above in your post.

"I like this nurse as a person but omg....i dont know how much more of her slack i can take....she always gets other people to work for her"...she's manipulating you to do her work and you like her? Have you had a one-to-one, heart-to-heart with her about her behavior? When you do, tell her the honeymoon is over...that you will assist when emergencies arise but you are no longer going to help her draw a paycheck when you're doing much of her work.

She sounds like a risk to safe patient care. I would document the expired meds and anything else that could be safety issues and let it fall to the DON. Do your assignments and turn a deaf ear to her...she is toxic and hurting you and others.

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Any time anything of her's starts to move in your direction, I would become immensely busy with your own work. If the supervisor wants to start doing this nurse's work, then so be it. You know that saying about the doormat. Nobody can treat you like their doormat, if you don't let them. And yes, document anything that is circumspect, especially if someone might blame it on you. Your work is enough for you to do.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

The bottom line is that we train people on how to treat us.

If I'm aware that my coworker is the type of person who will jump in and do some of my work for me, I'll allow it (especially when I'm feeling lazy). However, I will automatically need to pick up the pace if I'm working with someone who only deals with their own patient load.

The easiest way to get people to pick up the slack is to stop doing all their work for them. People will use you up and spit you out if you permit it.

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Specializes in Derm/Wound Care/OP Surgery/LTC.

People only treat you the way you allow yourself to be treated. Unfortunately, you may have to be a bit more firm with this nurse. Tell her, point blank, that you are busy with your own intakes and patients and that you simply cannot do this for her. Of course, if there is a patient who is in crisis mode and she isn't doing anything about it...yes, sadly you will have to make that your responsibility. I would call the doc, get orders and then plop them in front of her...telling her what doc wants. If she still isn't doing anything, I would end up taking care of that patient myself and have a VERY firm discussion with her. Even if it means she doesn't like me anymore for it. I am not there to make friends...especially with someone who is taking advantage of my good nature.

And boy, do I remember the "Pass it on..." managment style. I know. Useless.

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Specializes in LTC.

Thanks you guys! Its so nice to have a place where I can vent this bull.....I have to work with this gal the rest of the week..gonna put my plan of action into motion starting today! I had the RN supervisor from the prior shift tell me just yesterday that now that another nurse had quit the only one left to "pick up" things was me...I corrected her right then and told her that b/c Ive "picked up" so much lately doesnt mean that Im the only one who CAN do things....there are 2 other nurses on my shift. I kindly told her that from now on when she has something left over and if it doesnt involve my pts to take it to the nurse it DOES involve instead of laying it all on me. Whats even worse is that our md asked me "do you ever get a day off from that place? you're always the one that calls me" which is true. when this incident happened the other night with the bp....i thought about not doing anything and seeing if or what that nurse would do..then i had this vision of me being in a courtroom being interrogated by lawyers b/c this woman died and no one tried to do anything about it.....and thats when i went to her and called the doc. people are sue happy these days and I dont ever want to be in a lawsuit. My DON talks to me pretty frequently about stuff that we need to do and need to change and she asks me all the time what do i think we can do...when i tell her....its in one ear and out the other....and then for example with her pass it on style...if something goes on on another shift she will call me from her house and tell me to "pass it on to the next shift to do their chart checks and check their dates" and what not....when they already do that. Ive gotten to the place where I just say ok..and dont bother with it b/c im not the boss and i cant manage what nurses do or dont do. Despite my attempts to tell her this over and over it does no good. She chewed me out b/c that same nurse didnt check her pt for an impaction one time. never said a word to the one it involved. Our md cant stand our mgmt team and the majority of nurses dont care for it either but.....hey...what can we do? its bad when the doc tells me to go back and get my RN to take the boss's job.....i told him i would if he'd pay for it lol. Busy never looked better to me than it does right now ! I'll post how the new plan of action goes tonight. Thanks again to all of you who listen.

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Specializes in Staff nurse.

We're behind you!!! It may take awhile before the management realizes you mean business. Stick to your new self. God's best be yours.

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Specializes in LTC.

Wellllllllll......here is an update in the past week of putting my new do in action...it seems to be working some.....when ive been getting my daily stack of unfinished labs, orders etc...ive been separating them out and telling the nurse to whom the pt belongs that their pt has orders to be written from the md. and when I've called him .....i make sure that the others are right there and then I hand them the phone so they have to tell him about their own people..esp if its something acute that i dont really know about ...I did that to one other nurse and I told her that she knew more about what was going on w/ her pt than I did and that I'd call him and tell him about mine (who had a fever) and she could tell him about hers ..she'd never talked to the doc before and was nervous...I told her that she didnt have anything to worry about b/c he'd go with whatever she told him and would probably say to send the pt to the er.....and he did for which she was admitted. the family even went as far as to call us @ work and personally thank that nurse for sending the pt over to get looked at further. She is a new nurse and I was so proud of her. She needed the shove i think. and as for mgmt....the boss called me one night to tell me to go home early but we had 2 admissions and a new nurse.....i couldnt in good faith leave her with all that.....thats what made me wanna quit when i was a new nurse. thank god i had nurses then that would help me. i am gonna post another topic about psych.....any help would be nice w/ that..check it out.

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here's one, i work the nite shift, and a co-worker sleeps at the nurse's station, doesn't help out, does not answer call lights or bed alarms, had the nerve to tell me he's going for a break, disappears for an hour, can't find him nowhere's ,then returns to the nurses station to sleep some more..then had another nerve to be upset when i told him i'm going for my break, and told me me has not punch out yet, for his break? anyways i reported him to the DON, her response was..we'll i do not have all my ducks in a row yet.(meaning i can't do anything bec. i can't find a replacement, and none of the on-call really would like to work your shift) so i took a picture of him sleeping, and showed this to him, in the hopes that it will straighten him out, but no , his responce was..."i'm not sleeping, i'm resting with my eyes closed. on one occasion he treatened to sue me for taking his picture w/o his permission...grr..pease..so i'm hoping for him to report me..haha..for taking his picture while he is sleeping..hopefully...really can't wait..IDIOT...

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Take the pictures of him with a date and time on the photo and place the stack on the DONs desk.

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Specializes in Staff nurse.

So, according to your DON, the patients have to suffer inferior care because SHE doesn't have all her ducks in a row? Maybe she AND the sleeper need to be packing. How would that hold up in court?

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Specializes in LTC.

omg....is this guy a nurse or a cna? if ur phone is able...go to a store and print out a few copies and put one on your don's door, adon's door, and the administrators door (or under it rather). thats bs! if hes a nurse he cant possibly be doing his meds or what not. or his charting......he needs to get gone or get a daytime job and try that "resting my eyes" bull.....as for the don.....she needs to get on the ball. if the chain of command doesnt work .....look for a toll free hotline number and give it a call...that'll get them to do something. legally they cant retaliate against you and if they do or try to.....get a lawyer. man....now that just irks me in a bad bad way!

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