We had a tech that no one wanted on their patients. When the evals came in, she left on FMLA twice. Protected fully by management. They don't care what anyone says. She still strolls around with her arms folded. The training has gone down the tubes too. All these new techs don't even really know how to place a draw sheet. They set them up so high that they are useless in minutes. Positioning too. I see patients so crooked and twisted....no wonder they are on the light a lot. I don't think they are getting the right training or check offs.
Some of the aides were good and some were bad at my last job. The good ones actually did what they were suppose to do without having to be asked. The others, where do I begin? I was an aide for three years on my unit before I became an RN and the aides there were hired after me were just awful.
A patient came back from a x-ray during shift change and the aide helped put the patient back in bed but forgot to put on the bed alarm. This was the kind of patient that would be forgetful at times and get up out of bed. Needless to say, the patient got up and fell, then the aide proceeded to yell at the front desk how it's the nurses fault and its not even her patient. blah blah blah. The nurse wasn't even aware that the patient was back from xray until she was told that her patient fell on the floor. Management lets that particular aide get away with everything.
Our techs, UC's, and tele techs control our floor. Nurses complaints fall on deaf ears. It's really discouraging, because in the end the patient really suffers. I am tired of busting my butt while others are chatting it up at the nurses station or are on personal phone calls and have the nerve to get mad at you when you ask them to do something.
I am also pretty tired of the "Get here right now" or "answer my page right now" mentality. Do they ever think both your hands might be occupied or you are on the phone with someone regarding a patient?
They fuss that we can do their job, but they can't do ours. The problem is that EVERY department thinks the nurse can do something and the nurse gets stuck with so many tasks so that they can go home on time. We can't say anything. We can't complain. We can't get rid of any task that got dumped on us. .
I do think that's a big issue. Nurses are often chastised "why can't you do this just this one small thing we ask?" Because the nurses are being asking to do "just this one small thing" on all sides. Physicians decide on treatment. Therapists work on specific issues. Dieticians evaluate dietary needs. Nurses do *everything else* for patients. Nurses theoretically can delegate to aides, but still, it ultimately falls upon the nurse to make sure it's done. If the nurse doesn't have the back up of management to discipline aides who don't do their work, then the nurse is stuck.
We had an RN who was actually fired because she argued with the Aides. She worked in an ED. The aides were refusing to take pt upstairs which was their job, do the personal lists, EKG's or anything for that matter. They are supposed to draw lab on patients that do not need IV but again they refused. One nurse pulled up their job description and showed it to them (they are PAR11 and paid extra to work in the ED). The nurse manager had a meeting with them and they voiced there complaints about her. Then after the meeting they said they did not feel safe because they felt there could be reprisals. The result she was fired (even though several nurses supported her). So now who runs the ED? certainly not the RN's.
I finally had a talk with my nurse manager on just what she expected from her aides and nurses. We have one or two that just bring the whole floor down. They don't want to work, they complain about everything and do not appreciate team work or others helping them. I got a lot of clarification and luckily I know she will back me up on certain issues.
I just wish I had a copier to copy the excellent aides we do have that make is a pleasure to be a team with. It only takes one to bring the whole floor down. Unfortunately we are unionized, so it takes an act of God to fire someone.
do you ever clash with your aides? yep there are a couple i'd like to string up by their scrub bottoms.
what about? answering lights not hiding from everyone. one in paticular likes to bad mouth all of the nurses on our floor to the other floors. will say how lazy the nurses are.
who "wins"? nobody
do you have friendships among your subordinate staff? what about with other coworkers? i am friendly with everyone
have you ever had an aide tell you she's refusing your direction to do this or that? have you ever called your supervisor for back up? what happened? a group of us nurses went to our floor manager about said aide. she just told us to document our concerns. nothing ever came of it.
how did you cope with it? were you made to feel at fault somehow? i have gently talked to said aide about subject at hand. the aide responsible for bad mouthing is part of the reason i am leaving my floor.
are you in a long term setting or acute care with quick patient turnover? currently on a total joint replacement floor. patients are there from 2-4 days.
is your staff pretty stable or do you have a frequent load of new staff who don't really know the job yet? most of the night shift comes and goes. the day shift is pretty stable.
repeat - they are hired to bathe, dress, turn, clean, feed, and transfer patients. it is hard physical work. it's what they were hired for. sure, we can help them. they can only be one place at a time. so can we, though.
i agree to an extent. i will not go hunt down the aide just so she can do a bed change or assist someone to the restroom when i am all ready there. our aide has a real big problem with this concept. she tells people the only difference from and aide and a nurse is that she doesn't do bloodwork. when we are charting doing mars or on the computer she thinks we are sitting around doing nothing.
I used to get so mad at the RNs when I was an aide because I would be bathing a patient and the RN would look for me then ask me to change a patient's gown after they had walked out of said patient's room to come and find me. To me that's lazy.
I used to get so mad at the RNs when I was an aide because I would be bathing a patient and the RN would look for me then ask me to change a patient's gown after they had walked out of said patient's room to come and find me. To me that's lazy.
I used to think so too, but now that I'm a nurse I've changed my tune a bit. I've walked onto the floor to pure chaos enough times that I know if I can delegate anything, it's a good idea to do so, even if it's a simple gown change.
I used to think so too, but now that I'm a nurse I've changed my tune a bit. I've walked onto the floor to pure chaos enough times that I know if I can delegate anything, it's a good idea to do so, even if it's a simple gown change.
Well, yeah as nurses we can delegate anything but here is my point. If it took that nurse 2 minutes to find me just to tell me to change a patient's gown, don't you think they could have done it instead of spending two minutes walking the entire unit to find me while I was bathing a patient. Doesn't make much sense to me, just seems more like a waste of time. It doesn't even take 2 minutes to change a gown.
But changing the gown is not one isolated incident. Now you're changing the gown, next you'll be getting warm blankets. Then you'll be refilling the water pitcher. Then it's putting the LOL on the bedpan and cleaning her dentures. After that, it's ambulating the patient. It goes on and on, and if the nurse does not learn to delegate, but instead continues to do these things because he or she is "there anyway", then the nurse ends up doing total care while meds are not getting passed and charting isn't getting done, and the guy who's been waiting to discharge all day is still sitting there waiting....because the nurse is almost always "there anyway".
Another thing I've noticed is that the patient can get so used to the nurse doing everything, that when the CNA happens to come into the room, they don't ask the CNA for anything, nor do they use their call bell, but instead, will wait for the nurse to come back and make all of their requests then.
It may take two minutes to find the CNA to ask him or her to change a gown, but in the end it will save the nurse time when both the CNA and the patient are clear on the roles of the various staff members.
It's not about being "above" doing certain things; it's about prioritizing and time management.
when we are charting doing mars or on the computer she thinks we are sitting around doing nothing.
BrokenRNheart
367 Posts
We had a tech that no one wanted on their patients. When the evals came in, she left on FMLA twice. Protected fully by management. They don't care what anyone says. She still strolls around with her arms folded. The training has gone down the tubes too. All these new techs don't even really know how to place a draw sheet. They set them up so high that they are useless in minutes. Positioning too. I see patients so crooked and twisted....no wonder they are on the light a lot. I don't think they are getting the right training or check offs.