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.

[SunnyAndrsn]

I have two special needs teens and no, I still don't get the phone in your pocket. If they needed to get a hold of you, they'd find a way, leave a message, etc. How did people manage before cell phones? Mine stays in my van, in the glovebox.

I am one of those "with a phone in my pocket", I have it on vibrate and only have it for a home emergency (only my teenage son and husband would call during work) Those of you with a teenage son will understand why I keep it with me....I do check it frequently...It does not distract from my work or bother any of my co-workers....

If I did not carry it, then I would be distracted from my work !!!!!

and no, they cannot reach me calling the desk...I am hardly ever at the desk.... except to chart.....sometimes.....

[SunnyAndrsn]

I wonder why administration sees this as "conflict"? Does your workplace have policies about Ipod use, cell phone use, computer use? Witnessing these behaviors and expecting staff to cease is not a conflict!

The laziness your talking about on the other hand, that's going to be harder to not call a 'conflict'.

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.

[aloevera]

You don't have to "get it".....

That is the beauty of various work environments...mine allows me to be able to stay on top of things at home and I must always be able to be reached or I would not work.

[walk6miles]

I wonder why administration sees this as "conflict"? Does your workplace have policies about Ipod use, cell phone use, computer use? Witnessing these behaviors and expecting staff to cease is not a conflict!

The laziness your talking about on the other hand, that's going to be harder to not call a 'conflict'.

When I say that administration does not care, I mean it. I worked with a RN who smoked - this was before the "smoking ban on campus" was implemented. She took her bag and went outside (I assumed to smoke) - she said not a word (not unusual)...when she didn't return for an hour, we looked for her....she had driven home - honest - driven to her home - I called the supervisor and she called her at home and asked her to come back in to work.....no explanation - no write up - nothing! I think I have just reached my limit.

Nothing I read anymore shocks me. Nothing administration does surprises me anymore.

[achot chavi]

New Nurse...Old Nurse- there have always been good and bad in our field- even Florence Nightingale worked hard to end the image that all nurses would sleep with their patients. Recently I had the "pleasure" of accompanying my husband for major surgery- in a top rated US hospital (we traveled specially for this)- I was amazed and impressed by some of the professionalism I found by some of the nurses and dismayed by the lack of it by others. One openly ignored call bells saying that the patient (of another room) is a pain in the butt (to us) while complaining about her teenage kids (we did not need to hear about) and ignored my husbands complaints of pain. I found the male nurses were very focused and professional- and many of the women were as well. as I said- there are good and bad- nothing modern about that!!

[cherriterri519]

i don't like the way "new nurses" are being generalized here. i am relatively new (i've been an rn for 2 years), and i am not guilty of any of the characteristics of a new nurse. i have never been late except once when a deer ran into my car (i still went to work), yet i know nurses who have been working for 15+ years who are late virtually every day. i do not spend my shift on the computer, yet i know older nurses who do a whole lot of online shopping. i don't make personal calls, but all the other nurses talk to their kids, etc. for every characteristic of a "new nurse" i can think of older nurses who are the guilty ones. regardless, i still respect the older nurses because they've been around and i can learn a lot from them.

bottom line: it is not a matter of being new. it's the nurse's attitude.

[aloevera]

i don't like the way "new nurses" are being generalized here. i am relatively new (i've been an rn for 2 years), and i am not guilty of any of the characteristics of a new nurse. i have never been late except once when a deer ran into my car (i still went to work), yet i know nurses who have been working for 15+ years who are late virtually every day. i do not spend my shift on the computer, yet i know older nurses who do a whole lot of online shopping. i don't make personal calls, but all the other nurses talk to their kids, etc. for every characteristic of a "new nurse" i can think of older nurses who are the guilty ones. regardless, i still respect the older nurses because they've been around and i can learn a lot from them.

bottom line: it is not a matter of being new. it's the nurse's attitude.

i agree....when in the world do they have time to shop on computer???

i barely get time to pee and eat a bite !!!!

[soontobenurse2]

I agree with previous post. Most of the "experience" nurses in my unit are disrespectful, are constantly on the phone or on the computer doing homework. Not to mention that do limited patient care.

I think is not about being new or experience nurse. It is about dedication and respect.

[crunchymomx3]

I'm sorry you seem to be stuck working with people like that. I'm a very new RN (one week to be exact) and only encountered a very small few nurses like that over the course of my time in school. The majority of RNs I have come across are extremely caring, wonderful, helpful, hardworking people. It's a shame you haven't had the same experience.

[aloevera]

I agree with previous post. Most of the "experience" nurses in my unit are disrespectful, are constantly on the phone or on the computer doing homework. Not to mention that do limited patient care.

I think is not about being new or experience nurse. It is about dedication and respect.

I am so sorry that you are experiencing this behavior with your co-workers.

Please do not let the "bad apples" sour you on the entire bunch....

I actually enjoy having a new nurse with me to orient....I like to get her input and love sharing my knowledge and "tricks of the trade"...I have made some good friends this way and wonderful co-workers. Who knows? One day one of you girls may be taking care of me !!!!

RNcpf

[jml444]

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

I am 42 yrs old and just graduated in May as a new RN and have never and would never behave like this at any job!! That sounds like a maturity problem to me- but shame on management for putting up with it! In my nursing class, the majority of the students were over 28, and a few were in their 50's. "New" RN's these days aren't all 21 and definitely can't have their parents blamed as mentioned in a previous post!! People need to be careful making generalized statements of any kind. Not all of us appreciate being put in a "new nurses these days" category in a negative way.

[puggy232]

I can relate to all these posts-unfortunately seems as if these people with little or no work ethic are everywhere regardless of age. I've had techs older who know better-off the floor to smoke for 30 mins, visit the gift shop etc, come in and then are suddenly sick after seeing their pt assignment-then I've had others who busted butt the whole shift, one tech I had who I didn't even know smoked-she'd take her break and come right back! Nurses who worked others who sat on the computer all day-one or two who sat at the nurses station with a novel to read through while the rest of us ran around, never occured to them to offer to help. One had her book out reading, with a possible nursing student sitting next to her-the student came up to see the what it is to work as a nurse, but she was sitting there while this nurse caught up on her latest Stephen King novel. But management repeatedly picked this woman to precept and mentor new nursing students-why I don't know.