Some mean Nurses.......

[Billsgirl]

hi everyone! i don't get to come to the site as often as i would like because of work and school, but since i have a tiny break from both right now i have some questions for you all, and i love reading about people who are in the same situations i am and learning too.

i started my cna (pca) job at a hospital on the med./peds. floor about two months ago. i love it! i am learning so much and my experiences have reinforced my desire to become a nurse. i only have one problem.

some of the nurses on my floor are just plain mean. i notice that it isn't that they are mean toward everyone, just the aides. now, i am older, (37) and a lot of the girls who are r.n.'s are younger than me, which may be part of the attitude, but the older ones are just as bad. it stinks because their harshness is uncalled for. is this just some initiation deal? am i being tested?

i know everyone is different, but i was hoping for a kind of "sisterhood" at this job, where i could make new friends and find a mentor or two. anyone else find a similar situation happening to them?

[HULIYO]

I have worked in LTC, Assisted Living and in a Group Home. The nurses in LTC are usually very mean to CNAs (I am a CNA) and very few are good. I think they (LPNs) are treated in a mean way too by the RNs, who too are shouted at by Doctors. This could be the reason they are mean. Being overworked too at LTCs too could be another reason for that as the nurses in Assisted Livings and Group Homes were more relaxed and therefore nice.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

The nurse sometimes dont want to be bothered on their lunch break but thats not your problem.

You're absolutely correct. Unless it's an absolute emergency, I absolutely do not want to be bothered during my breaks. People in other professions are entitled to their breaks and meal periods, and so am I. I'm definitely not going to miss out on a break over something that can wait.

[littlebitark]

I laughing ask the nurses if they had to take a course on being mean to the CNA's- They broke the ice for me and now for the most part they are nice to me- Of course when it gets really crazy on the floor they can be short with me but I do overlook it cause we are a team for good and bad.

As long as you come in when you are supposed to, take their floor assignments without complaining and do what you are supposed to- Most nurses will respect you and build a good working realtionship- cause you are their eyes and ears - We have more hands on with the residents than they do- hope this helps:nono:

[southlandshari]

I know this thread was started awhile ago, but I find it relevant now because I have had a CNA comrade ask me this question. He has just started off in healthcare, and is ready to quit because he says that the staff he works on is so negative. My answer to his dilemma was this: In the field of healthcare, the stress levels run high. People are going to act angry and agitated because they are so stressful. It's part of this job. On my floor, i've seen CNA's talk about nurses, and nurses talk about CNA's. It goes both ways. Ironically, I was able to offer this advice to him. We had a GN fail her boards, and in the hospital I work in, if you fail, you have to work as an aide until you can pass the test again. She passed after a couple of months, and when I asked her about her experience as an aide, she said she had a whole new respect for us because she had never really known what our jobs were like. I told him to just do his job, and ignore the gossip that goes on. That's all you can do. It's not high school anymore. You're dealing with real people. I hope your situation improves, and just remember, you are needed and appreciated by someone: THE PATIENT.

Well said.

[casi, ASN, RN]

I think the "mean nurse" phenomonon is something universal. I think it has less to do with testing. There has to be some level of trust between the nurse and CNA.

[ILClaire]

You're absolutely correct. Unless it's an absolute emergency, I absolutely do not want to be bothered during my breaks. People in other professions are entitled to their breaks and meal periods, and so am I. I'm definitely not going to miss out on a break over something that can wait.

Now I'm just a CNA, but all of the nurses in our CCU unit work together, but because of the nature of the work, CCU and ICU care, they accept that it is part of working there that their breaks will be interrupted. When I fill in on our Med/Surg floor, all of the RN's there take their breaks w/o disturbances (usually)...but with CCU and ICU I agree that it is part of the job. 100% of our nurses (RN's and LPN's) in my opinion are working there for the love of the care and patient. So it's probably different in my situation. Most nurses who get an interrupted break just take a few mins longer to make up for the phone call or assisting someone. No biggie.

[casi, ASN, RN]

Now I'm just a CNA, but all of the nurses in our CCU unit work together, but because of the nature of the work, CCU and ICU care, they accept that it is part of working there that their breaks will be interrupted. When I fill in on our Med/Surg floor, all of the RN's there take their breaks w/o disturbances (usually)...but with CCU and ICU I agree that it is part of the job. 100% of our nurses (RN's and LPN's) in my opinion are working there for the love of the care and patient. So it's probably different in my situation. Most nurses who get an interrupted break just take a few mins longer to make up for the phone call or assisting someone. No biggie.

I hate to break it to you, but all nurses and CNAs deserve a full uninteruptted break. The exception is an emergency with their patient. They should have someone they can give a short report to who can look over their patients and take phone calls.

[Lajimolala, BSN, RN, NP]

Now I'm just a CNA, but all of the nurses in our CCU unit work together, but because of the nature of the work, CCU and ICU care, they accept that it is part of working there that their breaks will be interrupted. When I fill in on our Med/Surg floor, all of the RN's there take their breaks w/o disturbances (usually)...but with CCU and ICU I agree that it is part of the job. 100% of our nurses (RN's and LPN's) in my opinion are working there for the love of the care and patient. So it's probably different in my situation. Most nurses who get an interrupted break just take a few mins longer to make up for the phone call or assisting someone. No biggie.

This is exactly how I view the situation. Yes, I'm absolutely entitled to my break just like every other profession in the world. But in critical care, you're dealing with people's lives here. If something needs to be addressed because it's an emergency, it should be addressed RIGHT NOW, especially since you can take a few longer minutes to make up for it.

[coachnlb]

You know I use to work in the hospital as a CNA for a couple of years. I noticed the RN's were just rude and mean and if a diaper needed to be changedand they were right there they would call what ever CNA that was assigned to them. Oh i hated it soooo much.. Now as a Home Health Aid I love my RN's they respect me and i respect them. We treat each other with respect and as a team that we are. I only had one incident and even since then we have been okay. My mother is a RN and i always remind her to be nice to her CNA's. And they all say she is.

[casi, ASN, RN]

This is exactly how I view the situation. Yes, I'm absolutely entitled to my break just like every other profession in the world. But in critical care, you're dealing with people's lives here. If something needs to be addressed because it's an emergency, it should be addressed RIGHT NOW, especially since you can take a few longer minutes to make up for it.

In every area of nursing you are dealing with peoples lives. From a physicans office to long term care to CCU someone can go bad and they can go bad fast. So if a physican is calling for an update or to give an order another nurse can give it, if lab is calling with a critical value another nurse can take it, or if the patient wants a PRN pain med another nurse can give it.

Nursing is about team work. I work on a wonderful floor where the team work is amazing. If a nurse has a patient going bad that is keeping her busy all night, the other nurses will boot her out of the room and take over for a bit so she can eat. Heck, as a CNA I've booted a few frazzled nurses out of pt rooms if they were super busy and they were doing something I could do.

I'm sorry that I'm really off topic here, but there seems to be this old-fashioned notion that nurses are some sort of Saint that is willing to give up their own health and well being for others.

[geegee07]

Your not alone.... I say more than half of the nurses are rude to the aides, they think they can boss us around, make us do all the dirty work, while they sit around and chat w/ each other... Some will not acknowlege you, but once they get new admits or need help w/ vital signs thats when they come around and talk to you.... it's unfortunate how they treat the aides when we do most of the patient care....Sometimes a thank you is always good

[Bree124, BSN, RN]

Please keep in mind that nursing is NOT the only field where people have difficulty taking breaks. I previously worked a job that was extremely active (huge turnover rate, due to people having no clue how physical it would be when they were hired) and most of the time we didn't get any sort of break in a 12-hour shift. Not even five minutes to sit down.

To add insult to injury, our management would punch us out for 30 minutes at the end of the day, to make it look like we'd had our breaks so they wouldn't get in trouble. Did we like it? No. Was it legal? Heck no. However, most of us worked there because we needed a job, and weren't able to be too picky for whatever reason.

It was a nightmare job, and I know many people who have worked jobs like this that have nothing to do with nursing or even healthcare. So please remember that not every other profession in the world gets a leisurely break - the issue of fair breaks is not something unique to nursing.

Back to the topic at hand - I hope the OP is having a better time with the nurses on her floor. It's very difficult to work in a job where you don't feel respected, but hopefully things will improve with time on the floor.

Good luck! :heartbeat