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.

[VivaRN]

Could it be that it's more of an unprofessional work environment issue where people are allowed to get away with that kind of behavior?

I used to work on a unit where the staff was extremely unprofessional. Fighting with each other in front of patients, playing their cell phone rings and dirty dancing to it at the nurse's station. I was a new grad and completely appalled. But this was the unit culture and it was tolerated.

The manager should speak with them about the expected standard of behavior in this unit. If they cannot abide by it, they should be let go.

Old nurse, new nurse, unprofessional behavior should not be tolerated. We do not work with widgets. We care for vulnerable human beings! Hello!

I understand your frustration. I was once known as the only nurse who had never slept on duty during night shift in the ICU - a badge I wore with... um, pride? :uhoh21:

[miko014]

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.

Interesting. I would love to read that...I could use some of that Disney magic myself! Especially if it will make my patients behave and, you know, not die!

[Drysolong]

So what you're saying is the new nurse is the same as the old nurse minus twenty years?

I am a NEW nurse and would not think of acting that way, in ANY job.

where do these nurses find the time for texting or using an IPOD? I'm a new nurse and I wouldn't have time to slack off even if I wanted to.

:yeah:YEAH!!! TO ALL THE ABOVE.

I think a psych consult should be mandatory for admission to nursing school. Just my opinion

JMHO 2!

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

This can happen in any work environment with any type employee..

As Manager, I've observed this problem in my department recently with 3 out of 4 clerical staff I've hired in the last 6 months, all of whom had previous jobs....

Setting the tone in a department is critical in first month of hiring by

a. Emphasizing policy and procedure during orientation

b. Preceptor modeling expected behaviour themselves and reinforcing constructively expected unit behaviour

c. Reporting to change/unit manager when nudges then frank discussion issues still being overlooked esp with personal cellphone use/ipod on company time. :angryfire:angryfire

Personal cell phone calls were every 1/2hr by several of the staff.... reinforced that cell phone to be on vibrate not ringing in the office AND if they had to take personal call for serious issue I needed to be notified if not on break....

Personal use continued during orientation. SO

• flat out approached each person was there an emergency as noted on phone 20 minutes, reinforced not acceptable and would be noted toward 90 day probation period
  
• brought up at staff meeting for ALL to hear

they then had family calling in on direct phone lines SO transitioned all the clerks to que phone line so calls circled to next person in line as part of dept reorganization to handle overflowing RN phone line. Personal calls are now at a minimum.

Did similar thing when staff arriving 15-45min late (no time clocks they keep paper record). I'd better have phone call reporting late arrival, need to request peronal time off for appointments not just think they can flex time in department as need adequate coverage....reviewed lateness policy.

Lead clerk took them aside for personal chat too re colleague responsibilities and reviewed P+P...

One clerk who's probation was extended, voluntarily submitted resignation to avoid firing... well walked out after sending email to me, key Mgmt staff including health system CEO. :eek:

3 months later, great team working relationship and expectations are followed.....along with other clerks passing probationary period.

Also helps to keep candy jar stocked and provide monthly birthday party for staff to bond together :)

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

Walk6miles---please excuse my short and tart response to your OP. I must admit I was pretty irked at just reading your subject line. That on top of only sleeping a few hours my emotions were a bit raw.

I made the comment about not broaching the subject with the new nurse but talking to the more senior nurses, as that is something I see on a regular basis. A new grad coming in, and the senior staff finding in my opinon trivial faults and then just blowing those out of proportion.

Please remember how you felt as a new nurse. It is totally over whelming. School does not prepare you for real world working. I can write an awesome APA paper, but I couldnt start an IV line. Clinical time is hard to come by and we sometimes feel thrown into the floor. As long as we have those magic letters RN behind our names we are expected to "be able to do it all"

I have said before nursing is an on the job training type of job. School barely scratches the surface of what nursing is all about. That is in no way minimizing the difficulty of school. I had to get Bs or better in Chemistry/Patho/3 pysch classes(human growth-soc and psych) 2 algebra classes, 2 english classes, statistics, and those were just some of the pre-reqs. every year they raise the bar for nursing school. Every year nursing school becomes more competitive than the last.

I have seen plenty of new grads crying in the linnen room because they were so stressed out and some senior nurses sat back and talked about how stressed they were and made comments about "she better learn it now" Or "sink or swim" or "wow she thinks this is tough, when I started we had 17 patients and etc etc etc"

Now please understand, I am, NOT lumping ALL senior nureses into this catagory, just like you were not lumping all new nurses into yours. But for every new grad you have seen yak on thier cell phone, I have seen a senior nurse gossip about a new grad that is yaking on thier cell phone. It accomplishes nothing.

I have always believed that honesty is the best policy, so I think the new grad needs to be told "julie-you can not be texting on your cell phone, your patient in 202 will need assessed and charted on before 11pm (or what ever)" and if Julie does not do her job, then she needs some sort of punishment/write up/verbal meeting/what ever your hospital has, some sort of paper trail. This behavior should not be tolerated by any nurse.

I would just hope as a new nurse, if a more senior nurse had a problem wtih me that they would address it with me. We didnt go to school to not do a good job. More than anything we want to be respected.

[GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN]

The OP must be buddies with the poster who started "nurses past their prime". Both very judgmental and prejudiced.

I try to judge people based on their character, integrity and value system. Judging "new nurses" or "old nurses" is pretty much stereotyping {borderline bigotry} as would judging one's religion, color, creed, socioeconomic status.

[SDS_RN, RN]

I don't think that any professional should act in such a manner. I just wonder how she was raised because I believe that has a lot to do with your work ethic/morales which sounds like she is lacking both.

She sounds like someone I used to work although she was not a new nurse just very loud, boysterous, lazy, and very inappropriate. She would call her friends/boyfriends at work and be at the nurses station making plans to go out drinking that noc so on and so forth. Just rediculous some people just can't grow up.

[RN1982]

Don't even get me started about that "nurses past their prime" thread. One of the posters on that thread was extremely rude and basically said that older nurses need to get out of her way so she can get on with her career. And she wonders why she has so much conflict with her co-workers. She has said in other posts that she looks down on older nurses, CNAs, and LPNs. ..Real professional there

[walk6miles]

Some very good suggestions.... management has a great deal of responsibility for allowing this behaviour.

Complaints by long-term staff fall on deaf ears. If I hear the comment, "I don't get involved in personality conflicts." one more time, I will scream. The latitude that has been given some is unbelievable.

I have something to say in this reply and this is for GrumpyRN63. I invite you to work with me - you will find I am not prejudiced, judgemental, or a bigot. I am a hard working RN who frequently precepts; I believe in doing all one can for her patients. I try to be there and be easily accessed for information or help with our new nurses. It cannot be said that I had anything with chasing them out of our unit. Instead I complained about my observations here where I felt like it would be open for discussion among my peers.

If this dialogue were verbal, I can imagine what you would say to me - in other words, just keep throwing verbal insults at your opponent at the top of your lungs so you cannot HEAR anything they say. YOU are not in the circumstances I found myself last weekend. YOU were not there to see me volunteer to take the 3rd patient because the other nurses began arguing with the charge and I felt it was important to get the patient out of the ER. I am not a saint but I am not the things you accuse me of.

When you walk in my shoes for 3 shifts, in the same circumstances, and find yourself the butt of a joke about your handicap (which I did nothing to earn but rather awoke one day to find my life turned upside down) and by the way - which 90% of my co-workers and 100% of my patients NEVER know about, then, and only then will you be allowed to criticize me.

Your description of me in your comment sounds and seems more of a description of yourself. Write whatever you like - I am allowed to vent and I am allowed to complain because this is America.

Happy Fourth of July!

[walk6miles]

I appreciate your comments. I have seen so many promising new nurses leave our unit and on their exit interview name several of our more experienced nurses as the reason. Conflict only makes the shift uncomfortable....I vented here (what a mistake) because it cannot be done in the unit. The administration just doesn't want to hear it. I learned that the hard way.

I try to make my patients happy and comfortable and do what is right but oh boy, when you are working with someone who won't get up off their butt and help it is really hard to deal with.

Thanks for your fairness.

[leslie :-D]

I appreciate your comments. I have seen so many promising new nurses leave our unit and on their exit interview name several of our more experienced nurses as the reason. Conflict only makes the shift uncomfortable....I vented here (what a mistake) because it cannot be done in the unit. The administration just doesn't want to hear it. I learned that the hard way.

I try to make my patients happy and comfortable and do what is right but oh boy, when you are working with someone who won't get up off their butt and help it is really hard to deal with.

Thanks for your fairness.

i'm still trying to understand the uproar.

you made it perfectly clear that you were talking about nurses in your workplace:

and not all new nurses.

and, your vent was reasonable and very valid.

to pretend this doesn't happen, isn't helpful at all.

dang.

leslie

[walk6miles]

Thanks for the kind words - I thought the same. Wow. I cannot begin to understand some of the defensiveness.... oh well. Life moves on.....

I did find a solution however. I spoke with the placement office and since I go anywhere in critical care they need me, I can (and did) request to remove myself from availability to that particular unit and go elsewhere for a few weeks.

I just need a break from the whole mess.

God bless!:heartbeat