The NEW Nurse (Not the ones AOL speak of)

[walk6miles]

Here is my take on the new nurses today. Not all new nurses do this but, at the facility where I work - 80 percent have the following behaviour:

Consistently late to take report (20 minutes average).

Bring their "luggage" to work - fight with kids, husband, lover, married lover, most of the shift - don't these people sleep??

Show no respect to the patient, the experienced nurse and/or doctor.

Spend 90 percent of their time on the computer - and - as soon as the day shift leaves, the IPod or MP comes on either with or without earphones.... so they NEVER hear call lights, telephones, telemetry alarms.

Discuss their business or another staff member's business in the patient's room.

Hold the experienced nurse to public ridicule.

Make fun of this disabled nurse's disability (just happened this past weekend) AND the hospital is sweeping it under the rug.

Text message all night long.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Here is my take on the new nurses today. Not all new nurses do this but, at the facility where I work - 80 percent have the following behaviour:

Consistently late to take report (20 minutes average).

Bring their "luggage" to work - fight with kids, husband, lover, married lover, most of the shift - don't these people sleep??

Show no respect to the patient, the experienced nurse and/or doctor.

Spend 90 percent of their time on the computer - and - as soon as the day shift leaves, the IPod or MP comes on either with or without earphones.... so they NEVER hear call lights, telephones, telemetry alarms.

Discuss their business or another staff member's business in the patient's room.

Hold the experienced nurse to public ridicule.

Make fun of this disabled nurse's disability (just happened this past weekend) AND the hospital is sweeping it under the rug.

Text message all night long.

And when you try to get them on the right track they cry "why do nurses eat their young".

Just joking.

I'll go hide now.

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

Old nurse here and our new grads are pretty doggoned awesome. They run all shift and they really care about their patients.

OP, you should come work a couple of shifts with our team. You'd change your mind in a hurry.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Old nurse here and our new grads are pretty doggoned awesome. They run all shift and they really care about their patients.

OP, you should come work a couple of shifts with our team. You'd change your mind in a hurry.

Same here. I'm so impressed with the "kids" I work with. They are working their butts off. They are buying homes, starting families and sometimes I stand in awe of them. When I was in my early 20's.....well lets just say I was on my way to a 12-step program but hadn't made it yet. LOL

[Dolce, RN]

Wow, what a vent. I think you should have chosen your words a bit more carefully. You just offended a LOT of people, and started the whole "nurses eat their young" debate again.

Well, I have to disagree. If we didn't vent here where would we vent?!

I graduated with my RN at age 20 and now, at 24, I have 4 years of nursing experience. I have passed the "new grad" phase but haven't made it to "experienced" yet. I can tell you that this is not a "new grad" problem. I never behaved in such a manor. In fact, I believe that I behaved more maturely as a new grad than some of my more experienced peers. I do think that this problem needs to be addressed in nursing school. At one of the hospitals that I worked at we had a local community college with the worst reputation for their RN program. Their students were so unbelievably unprofessional. One of them felt compelled to give me a detailed description of her current affair with a married man. I have no doubt that she carried her unprofessional behavior to the job after she graduated. She should never have been allowed in the program in the first place. Nursing schools need to have a careful screening process and an emphasis on professionalism.

Its not all new grads that are the problem. But, I certainly know people who would fit your description.

[miko014]

Well, I have to disagree. If we didn't vent here where would we vent?!

I graduated with my RN at age 20 and now, at 24, I have 4 years of nursing experience. I have passed the "new grad" phase but haven't made it to "experienced" yet. I can tell you that this is not a "new grad" problem. I never behaved in such a manor. In fact, I believe that I behaved more maturely as a new grad than some of my more experienced peers. I do think that this problem needs to be addressed in nursing school. At one of the hospitals that I worked at we had a local community college with the worst reputation for their RN program. Their students were so unbelievably unprofessional. One of them felt compelled to give me a detailed description of her current affair with a married man. I have no doubt that she carried her unprofessional behavior to the job after she graduated. She should never have been allowed in the program in the first place. Nursing schools need to have a careful screening process and an emphasis on professionalism.

Its not all new grads that are the problem. But, I certainly know people who would fit your description.

I didn't say she couldn't vent. I mean, come on, if this weren't a place where we could do that, it wouldn't be in the subject dropdown menu, would it??? I have shared many a vent here as well. And half the time I have gotten chewed out by people who disagree with me. So I guess that's a risk you take by posting a vent on this board, isn't it?

My point is that quite a bit of the allnurses members are NEW NURSES or soon-to-be new nurses. So if you're going to say that new nurses suck, then you are going to get flamed.

True, the OP did say that "not all new nurses do this", but honestly, by the time I got to the bottom of the post, that line had left my mind. When you start off with "here's my take on new nurses" (sorry, I'm paraphrasing, not sure that was the exact quote) and then have a laundry list of things you hate, that one little sentence isn't going to stick out in my mind.

My main point is that anyone can be a jerk, and it doesn't have much to do with being a new grad. I think what the OP is dealing with is appaling, but I am a preceptor, and my new kids really work hard. I just hate to see people lump them all into one big category, especially since most of the "bad behavior" I see comes from the older nurses on my unit.

I wish everyone could just pitch in, do their share, and we could all be a team. But I guess it'll never happen.

[miko014]

Hey walk6miles - what are you talking about when you say "Not the ones AOL speak of"? Sorry, I may be being stupid, but I'm not sure what you mean when you say that!

[walk6miles]

There was a brief "article" about nursing on AOL today... it was somewhat positive; somewhat altruistic, somewhat negative. The point of the article was that the nurse today graduates school and works in the hospital and the magic of disney makes their lives so wonderful (no stress, no patient acuity to worry our little head about, no problem).

The article lasted about three hours - keep an eye out for it.

[Batman24]

Old nurse here and our new grads are pretty doggoned awesome. They run all shift and they really care about their patients.

OP, you should come work a couple of shifts with our team. You'd change your mind in a hurry.

That's so nice to read. I'm a new nurse and give my all every shift. I work with a great team of experienced nurses who have helped me every step of the way which really built my confidence and made me feel like a part of the unit.

[walk6miles]

I will try to make this a somewhat general reply to those of you I have offended. Please re-read my remarks. I apologize for not being more specific. Of the group of new nurses, 18 in fact, there are 4 who are excellent, serious, professional, caring, and a joy to work with. I work with all of the new nurses because of my schedule. There is one who announced as she walked into the lounge to await her assignment what she had just done in the parking lot to make her boyfriend happy.

The following week, she announced her quickie marriage - followed by a quickie divorce followed by a complete change of sexual preference. I didn't ask for her story - she just walks in and starts her announcement.

Two months ago, one of the new nurses couldn't concentrate and subsequently went home sick because she had yet another fight with her married boy friend.

This past weekend, I worked with two excellent new nurses - we all dropped our jaws when we realized one of the other new nurses had not gone into her patient's room more than 2 times (this, courtesy of a sitter in the room who wondered if the patient had a nurse that night).... this newbie sat and watched as the rest of us ran our butts off.

Charge was aware - we know that because she mentioned that the nurse was text messaging every time she came to our unit.

This is a classic case of poor work ethic combined with laziness - I don't know who or why they allowed her to graduate but they did!

If this offends you, imagine how it makes the rest of the staff feel - when you complain you learn that nothing will be done because they have warm body mentality: warm body, nursing license still intact, assign two patients and get through the night.

I cannot get more explicit (although I have plenty of examples) than this vent.

[walk6miles]

I did not intend to offend you - just venting after a horrible weekend. I know what you mean about more experienced nurses treating new nurses, and patients, and families in a mean mean way - I have seen it.

I worked in ER (trauma)for a bit over 2 years. I found myself getting hard around the edges; especially with regard to pain meds... God reached down and whacked me on the head and I got the message. I am now a very outspoken patient advocate when it comes to pain meds. I am amazed that nurses will not give the patient their pain meds!

Recently, one of the nurses next to me in recovery (I float all over) refused to allow a mother in to see her daughter who came in as a trauma - mom had driven 7 hours to see daughter....the nurse made her wait until the morning: "visiting hours are over" - that's a cold, cold person!!

She got away with it! Anyway, keep on with your positive attitude - the patient's will appreciate you and you know you are doing the right thing.

[lvnandmomx3]

Apology accepted. That last reply sounds as if the main issue is with only 2 ppl. I can understand that and it just happens that these are new nurses. I am sorry you have to work with people like this. One question I would have for the charge is why are you letter her text, if you see do something about it. The charge shoud report her to the unit manager. I believe in team work 100% and if someone is not pulling thier weight then they need to be reported.

[walk6miles]

Racing-Mom-4

Please re read the first part of my vent. I didn't see your name there anywhere.

Next, bet money that I always address the issue with the person when I have an issue.

What I am working with is a combination of warm body employment (any warm body as long as the license is valid) and a management system that rewards bad behaviour.

I don't know how to approach a fellow professional when I say I really can't watch your two patients plus my patients so you can spend 30 minutes off the floor to fight with your boyfriend over who-knows-what. Any suggestions would be appreciated (I have tried every approach including simply saying NO). Your positive input is always welcome. I will try to keep my complaints to a minimum.