I was having a reflective moment as this year wraps up. I want to take at least one lesson learned into next year to help better myself. I had an incident earlier this year in which another nurse took a situation that was totally nursing judgment and went to the supervisor. It did not involve patient safety but was merely a difference in judgment. This nurse was fairly new to our unit and was all to eager to gain brownie points with the nurse manager.
My supervisor initially called to chastise me but actually came to me a couple days later and apologized face-to-face about the way she handled the matter. She stated that reviewing the charting and the circumstances did in fact reveal that it was unwarranted for the other nurse to come to her with this instead of speaking to me personally. The nurse, on the other hand, never addressed the situation but continued to smile in my face and act as if nothing ever happened.
At first I felt like I should have said something to this nurse because we work on a small unit and should have enough respect to deal with each other more professionally. Ultimately, I decided that it would be best to let it go since I was satisfied with the way the manager handled things and just move on.
Since that happened this nurse has had sooo many complaints in the last several months,not only from other nurses, but mostly from families on various issues. One night I came on shift to a situation in which a family member was so upset with this nurse that she had called the nurse manager and then demanded that the pt. be transferred to another unit. This very nurse said to me "It would have been better for her to come to me if she was upset rather than to call the nurse manager." I said nothing. I simply let it be and I felt so much better in the end. I learned that I don't need to "handle" nor stress over everything--just let some matters handle themselves while I continue to try to provide the best care of my patients.
Have you learned any valuable lessons this year from your experience or that of others?
I learned my job and the relationships I have with my co-workers aren't that important. A co-worker who is a friend one day can be a bitter enemy the next- and it still dosen't matter that much. A co-worker I count as my most treasured friend can be gone tomorow for a better job opportunity. My family, my children, my spouse, and my God; these are where I need to hang my heart. When work and the people there become too improtant to my life, they are taking me away from the people that really matter.
suanna
1,549 Posts
I learned my job and the relationships I have with my co-workers aren't that important. A co-worker who is a friend one day can be a bitter enemy the next- and it still dosen't matter that much. A co-worker I count as my most treasured friend can be gone tomorow for a better job opportunity. My family, my children, my spouse, and my God; these are where I need to hang my heart. When work and the people there become too improtant to my life, they are taking me away from the people that really matter.