Something funny

[itsnowornever]

At a mandated meeting (for newbies) we had several department managers come talk to us...one kept insisting that "ER is different because its more of a 1-1 care situation" ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha LMAO!!!!!!!

Thought you all would get a kick out of that! She then proceeded to tell us stories about how everything is basically ERs fault- what else is new? LMAO

Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

[CodeteamB]

I agree. My charge nurses would be on those nurses' rears to get their patients up and get those beds open! Or if I see a patient has been sitting, I'll see what I can do for my co-worker to get that pt moving. I (& pretty much all of my co-workers) hate seeing the waiting room fill up and beds not opening up quick enough. I don't think you could get away with that for long..

Make that 3. We have an RN assigned to ensuring that inpt beds get filled STAT. We have a set time limit to get the patient upstairs once a bed is assigned, and heaven help the nurse (ER or floor) who is dragging her feet.

[HikingEDRN, BSN, RN]

Make that 3. We have an RN assigned to ensuring that inpt beds get filled STAT. We have a set time limit to get the patient upstairs once a bed is assigned, and heaven help the nurse (ER or floor) who is dragging her feet.

Make that 4. Our charge nurses would never let us sit on a patient. And personally, I don't want to. Patients who are admitted want to eat and take their regularly scheduled medications, and various other needs that can really slow down the flow of the ED, etc. If they are stable and all necessary tests have been completed, I want them upstairs :)

[Armygirl7]

Ha ha ha I wish I could just hold on to my stable admitted patients! As soon as my Pt is admitted they are out in the hallway and that room is refilled with the next new Pt. If the admitted Pt doesn't have a bed assignment yet then they may go to our "ER Short Stay Unit," a fancy name for a designated hallway- and so I have to go and give report to that poor RN whose job it is to manage up to 7 admitted patients in a busy hallway (a special kind of h*ll both for those patients and the RN). We often have up to 3 ESSUs in our ER hallways - and when they are full then I have to manage up to 9 Pts - 5 in rooms and 4 in hallways, some admitted some not dispo'd yet. A room in our hospital is like gold, and the instant bed board assigns a room I am hearing from all sides "give report, give report, give report!!"

But I always give the floor RN the benefit of the doubt - because just like them sometimes I am hearing "give report give report give report" and I am up to my elbows in starting a new patient who is critical and unstable and so I just can't give report that very exact second Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse Meeeeeeeee!!! I assume the same when I call the floor and the UR tells me the nurse is busy call back in 5 or the nurse answers her spectralink and asks for 5 minutes. I usually tell them to call me back as soon as they can take report. If an inordinate amount of time passes I call again - I don't ever assume they are hiding I KNOW they must be swamped like I am.

I also try to remember to ASK them how it's going up there on the floor. I've had some good laughs with floor RNs who I may never ever meet face to face. If I want to work in a collegial place then I have to start with myself and build collegiality and camaraderie. Will I still meet the occasional a*hole? Natch. But the flowers far exceed the weeds when I keep my heart open to everyone's struggles and burdens as nurses, and I find I get the same in return.

Peace out.

[dandk1997RN, MSN, RN]

I definitely try not to assume the worst (ie I don't generally assume you're holding pts)- I just wish I would get the same respect. If I say I'm busy- I really am. If I don't answer my phone by the third ring, I catch heck from my charge RN. So I try to answer even if I'm in the middle of something (say, IV push meds.) The other day I was pushing dilaudid, phenergan, and something else I can't recall right now. So, flush, med, flush, med, flush, med, flush. And these are meds I generally push slowly. Got a call for report and asked to please call back in ten minutes because I was literally in the middle of the phenergan. Got the biggest attitude ever. Um, really? Please try to be a team player here. And the only time I don't answer the phone is if I'm in a contact room or if I'm actively trying to prevent a fall. I've even been known to answer the phone in the bathroom (hands already washed, mind you.)

I have been known to call people out on their bad attitude during report. One woman gave me crap on my birthday, which was already going badly, and I told her we were all a team here- I had been waiting 30 minutes to give her report and she never called back. At some point, I have to assume she didn't get the message and call her back. I ended up keeping that pt 2 hours longer than I should have (was supposed to hand him off to someone else at 7 but didn't see the point since he was getting transferred.) Anyway, I called her on her attitude and she apologized because WE SHOULDN'T BE GIVING EACH OTHER A HARD TIME! Our jobs are hard enough as it is. We gotta' have a little nurse love in our jobs!

I couldn't take report one time because 1) I was already getting report and 2) the room was still dirty. Before I was even off the phone with the guy, his charge was calling my charge telling her I was refusing. I didn't refuse, but I won't stop someone mid-report to take report from someone else, and our policy prohibits calling report on a dirty bed. I was so angry, but couldn't really even do anything about it because the nurse in question is the brother of one of my co-workers (who is charge and supervision depending on the day.) And you know what? He ended up bringing the pt up and putting her in a dirty room. Not cool.

So my point was that no matter where we are working, we should give each other the benefit of the doubt. Some people probably play tricks, but I want my empties filled sooner rather than later. I can hear people rolling their eyes at me over the phone when I ask for five minutes. (And if you agree, please wait the full five minutes rather than calling back after 1.5 minutes. That's also not cool.)

I'm so appreciative of the nurses that don't think I'm lying when I need a few minutes- I'm really not. And to those who think I am? Sorry, you're wrong.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

As a ER nurse and manager and supervisor.....I can say ALL sides have their little white lies......I think ALL sides need to be HONEST and RESPECTFUL of each other.

I have seen ER's who dump patients simply because they could and they didn't want to be bothered calling back.....I have seen floors play the phone tag game with the nurse "at break" "on the phone", in a "contact room"....and that the room is not clean.

Each position has it's strengths and weaknesses...but neither one wants to be in the others shoes. I think this is where management can make a difference.....however management these days aren't interested in anything but satisfaction scores....sigh