sooo tired of staff without ANY compassion or empathy!!!

Nurses Relations

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Ugh, I need to vent!!! I've been a nurse for several years and I get tired and

stressed out like everyone else. No, I'm not always thinking the nicest things,

but I am ALWAYS kind to patients, no matter what! I always keep in mind that it's not about ME, and that they don't NEED/ WANT/ or CARE to know about how busy or

totally stressed I am. They are there to get GOOD CARE, and they deserve it!

I'm actually venting about a specific situation that I see time and time again, anywhere I've worked. The patients that are dying and/or are in pain---especially the lonely ones with no visitors.

We've been taking care of someone like that, and it is SO sad because every procedure we do hurts her (surgical wound is red and draining, and as with many patients, removing the TAPE from the dressing is very painful!) colostomy care, turning, stage II decubitis), so we are extra gentle (I hope EVERYONE is!). Once we are done with all our TASKS, she begs us to stay with her. Sadly, we have SO little time, but I try to stay and give a few encouraging words, feed her some ice chips, etc.

What I am VENTING about is most of the nurses and aides complaining CONSTANTLY about how "ugh, she's ALWAYS wanting pain meds!" (yea, she's DYING of mulitple CANCERS!), "ugh, she's on her light ALL THE TIME!" (yeaa, she's in pain, she's afraid, she's lonely---have ya noticed NO ONE visits her!?)......One nurse even said "I TOLD her "I do NOT HAVE TIME TO STAY IN HERE, I AM BUSY!!!" (seriously????)

Like I said, I'm busy too, and I am by no means the perfect nurse, and yes, the sound of her CONSTANT call light annoys me too (sometimes). Yesterday, I barely sat down the whole shift, (not complaining, just stating a fact!), and was extreeeemely busy, too. And even though I didn't have extra time for this patient--- at the very LEAST---I wished I had, and still remembered the REASONS she was on her call light every five minutes and TRIED to take the best care of her I could. People forget the interventions we've all heard about to try when someone is constantly calling! Does everyone forget them?

On the other hand, where I worked before, I was working with a very similar patient. The HUGE difference was, it was a SLOW shift and I DID have lots of extra time to give TLC. Every time this sweet man called on his light (about every 10 minutes), some of my co-workers would roll their eyes, say things like "ugh, just IGNORE him this time".....REALLY???? THEY weren't busy either, they were having too much fun perusing the web with their phones. UGH, are your coworkers like this???? I am SOOO tired of this! :no:

I always want to ask these people "and what if that was YOUR loved one? Nurses sitting around playing on their phones and saying "just ignore him/her" while your loved one is wet/ soiled/ sad/ in pain/ needing to be turned/ lonely.....????:no:

I'm new in my LTC facility, I've got 30 residents, two med passes and a treatment pass in the course of my 8-hour shift. I absolutely agree with you about certain aspects, however, I've already found it's not always that easy. I have a resident that needed a PRN Tylenol the other day and it took me 20 minutes to administer it because she wanted- her pillow fixed, her feet moved, a drink of water, some milkshake, etc. I did my best to spend time, but 20 minutes for one med is more than I can spend. I eventually had to say "Ms. ___ I understand that you were feeling pain and now you'd like to have some company, I have some other residents that are also waiting for their medicines and when I can I'll be back in to take care of anything else you need." She proceeded to ring non-stop for the next 90 minutes. If anyone other than myself or one aide went in she would yell at them to go away, and then ring the bell as soon as they walked out the door. I spent at least another 20 minutes over the course of the shift- which went an hour over my scheduled time. I did take five minutes to call my family and say goodnight, never ate anything or even stopped to pee. Sometimes we can't make people happy because as much as we want to stop and do whatever it takes, there were 29 other people that also deserved my care and attention. I think the whole staffing system in LTC is horrendous and it breaks my heart that I can't provide half of the "caring" I'd like.

I really wish we had a solution to this. Its depressing. Downright, want to hide under my covers for days, depressing. I feel so hopeless about this. We were all taught in nursing school to say exactly what you did to needy patients. But so many times, it does not work. I've really been feeling hopeless about nursing lately. I'm in the process of looking for a job, but I'm so scared it will be a horrible place with too many patients to REALLY care for.

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Great, another "let's rant about every bad nurse we've ever met" thread where we all get to feel superior because we're so much more caring.

Thank goodness. I thought I was the only one thinking this.

Specializes in Pain, critical care, administration, med.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I have been a nurse for 30 years and I treat every patient as though they are my loved one. I hold patients hands when they are scared and lonely. I sit at the bedside to just talk and listen. Many nurses today especially where I work are so detached that they don't even see their patient. They are bodies.it breaks my heart to see patients treated poorly. They can never understand why patients end up yelling ......well maybe if you would just acknowledge them they wouldn't need to act that way. I also teach my students the human factor if nursing. You can teach skills you can't teach caring and compassion.

Great, another "let's rant about every bad nurse we've ever met" thread where we all get to feel superior because we're so much more caring.

How exactly does a nurse being on their cell phone make the pharmacy deliver the dilaudid any slower? Because everywhere that I've worked, it wasn't nursing that was the delay in a PCA refill, it was pharmacy. Of course the nurses always make a perfect target for any frustration with the delay.

Exactly 15 minutes? Not 14? Or 16? Although I'm sure your perception of time was better than the man with "shaky" mental status, who couldn't remember to call for assistance but knew the exact amount of time he'd been sitting on the side of the bed. I'm sure in your time as an ICU nurse you've NEVER had someone perceive their wait for you to be longer than it actually was.[/quote

As far as pharmacy-we have the same issues and 99% of the time the issue is on the pharmacy side and we always get blamed.

The man sitting on the side of the bed, short of breath, weak and in liver failure was my husband. It wasn't 15 minutes-he said it was almost an hour. I looked back on his monitor and saw how long he was disconnected and he was right. My point was someone somewhere (i.e. his nurse) should have checked instead of listening to his alarm going off. It's simply a safety issue. What if he coded? How long would it take for them to realize it? After he became a vegetable or dead? He had a clock in front of him on the wall, so I tend to believe that he was correct with that.

And NO I do not feel superior to anyone else. I'm too tired for all that pat myself on the back and "me wonderful me" crap. We all have our days and we all have families and patients and visitors who absolutely pluck our last nerve and our sympathy and empathy. I just try to do the best that I can on those days. Sometimes I fall short and fail but I pick up and keep going as I know many other hard working nurses do everyday. So no wooh and ocn.

Specializes in NICU, Peds, Med-Surg.

blueheaven...I cannot IMAGINE the anger I would feel if that had happened to my loved one. And let me CLARIFY----I would *NOT* be angry (or feeling superior) if I saw that the people taking care of my hubby were BUSY!!! The fact that they were standing around with their phones and it took them a long time to acknowledge you, AND you say the nurse gave you "attitude".....nope, not acceptable! (I hope your hubby is okay!)

I'm so NOT superior to **anyone**--- It's coworkers who actually IGNORE patients because their facebook status update / playing "Candy Crush" is more important that infuriate me!!!:madface:

I'm sorry but in my role as an RN I cannot be responsible for curing or treating a patient's "loneliness." If they are so lonely that they need companionship 24/7, family and friends need to provide that. I can make sure that their medical and physical needs are met. My patients never wait more than 5-10 minutes for pain meds and I am prompt in placing second/third calls to doctors in the middle of the night if pain is poorly managed. But no, I'm not going to not take a break that I need (even if that 15 minutes is spent playing on my phone) so that I can fluff Mrs. X's pillow again or run to answer her call light to be repositioned when she was repositioned 10 minutes ago during rounds.

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