The Know-It-All nurse

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Have any of you ever worked with a nurse who THINKS she knows it all but is truly very unskilled in her specialty? These are scary people!! Let's compare :crying2: :imbar :rotfl: notes!

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

I work with an older nurse who will pick apart every single thing everyone else does..and yet when we are overflowing with patients (and not enough staff) and her patient is in the middle of a 4 minute contraction with a BP of 70/30 and baby responds with a nice prolonged decel...she'll be cleaning out the refrigerator in the breakroom!!

Another coworker is just a loose cannon. Breaking down the bed, pushing hard with the pt. for 2 hrs., even though the MD stood out at the nurses station and told her "Don't be too aggressive...I'll be in the OR until 3:30". Needless to say, the nurse delivered the baby herself with NO ONE ELSE IN THE ROOM at 3:25. She didn't call for help until the baby was all the way out. Pt. had epidural and stated afterward that she really had no urge to push. She could have labored her down for awhile. And our policy is not to break down the bed until MD is in the room and ready to deliver.

I have a lot more examples but I'd be here all day :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I have worked with quite a few of these in my career. Fortunately, where I work now, most of them are weeded out at one point or another. I have no use for them and can "sniff" them a mile away. They are dangerous.

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I work with an older nurse who will pick apart every single thing everyone else does..and yet when we are overflowing with patients (and not enough staff) and her patient is in the middle of a 4 minute contraction with a BP of 70/30 and baby responds with a nice prolonged decel...she'll be cleaning out the refrigerator in the breakroom!!

Another coworker is just a loose cannon. Breaking down the bed, pushing hard with the pt. for 2 hrs., even though the MD stood out at the nurses station and told her "Don't be too aggressive...I'll be in the OR until 3:30". Needless to say, the nurse delivered the baby herself with NO ONE ELSE IN THE ROOM at 3:25. She didn't call for help until the baby was all the way out. Pt. had epidural and stated afterward that she really had no urge to push. She could have labored her down for awhile. And our policy is not to break down the bed until MD is in the room and ready to deliver.

I have a lot more examples but I'd be here all day :uhoh3:

Your first example is plain, burned out laziness and the second example is the fact that many nurses do NOT think "outside the box". As it is, we rarely break the bed for anyone: doc or CNM, unless there is a real need to do so.

If your nurse cleaning the fridge is anything like a similar nurse we have, she crabs and fusses no matter what her assignment: charge, labor, nursery (God forbid) or mothers.

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I work NICU, and we have one relatively new grad who SWEARS she knows more than nurses that have been on the unit for 25+ years!! She came to the unit as a new grad insisting that she didn't NEED orientation!!! Can you believe it??? Scary, scary thought.

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:chuckle I worked with a "Know it all new grad RN. I tried to give her good advice when I saw she was doing the wrong thing. She was "insulted" that an LPN was trying to give her good advice. So I quit giving her good advice since she thought she was the "perfect nurse," When I saw her doing the "wrong thing" I didn't say a word. It turns out that Miss Perfect Graduate RN got fired for incompetence. :rotfl:

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:chuckle I worked with a "Know it all new grad RN. I tried to give her good advice when I saw she was doing the wrong thing. She was "insulted" that an LPN was trying to give her good advice. So I quit giving her good advice since she thought she was the "perfect nurse," When I saw her doing the "wrong thing" I didn't say a word. It turns out that Miss Perfect Graduate RN got fired for incompetence. :rotfl:

It's sad that someone would think that way. However, I think that is due to many things: 1)the specific person's personality and 2) some of the programs that encourage these new nurses to think that they do NOT need to know how to do hands-on things. I think we do our new grads a disservice encouraging them to think that they will go directly into management and don't need to know how to do bedside nursing.

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I tend to believe that all the bluster comes from fear. So, I just come right out and say how much respect seasoned nurses have for new nurses that ask a lot of questions and new nurses who do not are watched very closley. If said with a welcome smile and early in their employment it tends to work more times then not.........

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I tend to believe that all the bluster comes from fear. So, I just come right out and say how much respect seasoned nurses have for new nurses that ask a lot of questions and new nurses who do not are watched very closley. If said with a welcome smile and early in their employment it tends to work more times then not.........

I LIKE the way you put that! Great thought! Thanks.

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:chuckle I worked with a "Know it all new grad RN. I tried to give her good advice when I saw she was doing the wrong thing. She was "insulted" that an LPN was trying to give her good advice. So I quit giving her good advice since she thought she was the "perfect nurse," When I saw her doing the "wrong thing" I didn't say a word. It turns out that Miss Perfect Graduate RN got fired for incompetence. :rotfl:

Just curious as to how you guys handled this gal? What did she do and how did you all respond? What did she finally get fired for?

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

We had an ED tech taking EMT classes. He stood at the desk and argued with 2 ED docs, me, and anyone else nearby, because he KNEW that this set of orthopedic complaints meant only ONE thing. He absolutely refused to hear that there were other conditions that could cause these symptoms. He learned THIS means THAT, and nobody nohow noway was going to tell him any different. :uhoh3:

He doesn't work here anymore. :rolleyes:

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I work NICU, and we have one relatively new grad who SWEARS she knows more than nurses that have been on the unit for 25+ years!! She came to the unit as a new grad insisting that she didn't NEED orientation!!! Can you believe it??? Scary, scary thought.

Oh my!! Insisting she didn't need orientation?? Yikes...very, very scary indeed. When I did my orientation this summer, I embraced every moment of learning and utilized every second with my preceptor. In that time frame, I asked *soooo* many questions, still ask questions and will probably ask questions until I retire! I think that the day one thinks they know it all, is the day they should leave the profession for good. LOL

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