How many of you have come to work the next day to find out that some nurse that followed your shift had done went and told on you about an alleged mistake... or failure on your part to do some random task and they ended up having to do it on their shift?
Is there any insult bigger?
Is there any betrayal that hurts worse than that?
DO you find yourself going to work and looking around at the other nurses and instead of seeing teammates that are there to help you, to support you, to work towards one single goal... that of providing great care to the patients on your floor?
Who are you?
You are one of two kinds of nurses.. that's who.
You are either the nurse that complains or you are the nurse that does your job.
Nursing is a 24 hour a day, around the clock job. Obviously YOU are not reponsible for all 24 hours of care and it's not your job to complete every task before you go home at night or in the morning after a long and arduous shift.
There's two kinds of nurses that work those shifts. There's the nurse that comes to work ON TIME... is standing there ready to get report from the off going nurse at 6:45 or you are the nurse that walks in at 6:45 to 6:55 and still needs to drop your stuff off in the breakroom. Still needs to get your paperwork ready, still needs to make your cup of coffee or some other time delaying deed.. and then you finally show up next to the nurse that has stopped doing everything that still needs to be done and been waiting for you to report to your place of duty so they can give you report on the patients and then finish the things they haven't done yet before they can go home.
Which nurse are you?
Are you the nurse that complains to the charge when there's a new admission that arrived on the previous shift but all of the "admission stuff" that we all hate has not been done and now YOU are reponsible to see that it get's done? Are you that nurse?
Admission paperwork.... yes, the pain in the butt crap that has to be done when a patient initially arrives on your floor or your unit, has to be completed within 24 hours atleast at every hospital I have ever worked at.... but that's not what is expected of YOU if that patient arrived on your shift now is it?
Some hospitals try to make it fairer... some have policies that say if a patient arrives at 5:30 or later.... some have it at 6:00 or later... that the receiving nurse does not have to work on all of that Crap... that needs to be done, but if the patient arrives before that appointed time it then falls on YOU to do all of the paperwork... tons of silly questions about sexual habits, past drug use, smoking, drinking, past surgical histories, past medical histories even those dating back 50 years.
And then comes the Medication Reconsiliation mess... the paperwork that probably leaves us all frustrated... after all, how many patients come to the hospital with that information? You'd think that for those that say I don't have a list, that this would be easier but NOPE.... now there's even the button that you can select that describes the color of the pill.
For some unknown reason, it's left up to you to sit there past your time to clock out and go home, to sit there in front of that patient and ask them....
WHat color is that pill? How often do you take that purple pill? What is that yellow pill used for?
and on and on and on.
If you don't... expect to get called into your boss's office the next day to answer the question "Why didn't you do your job before you left last night?"
Perhaps those thinking about going into nursing, or getting out of nursing will read this and it will help you make up your mind. Here's my advice, If you can't come to work and do your job without complaining to management about your coworkers... Don't become a nurse. If you are already a nurse... QUIT. Seek out a career that has complaining and tattling in the job description.
If though.. you recognize that there's 1000 things that the nurse before you had to do that is not documented on paper... so you have no way of knowing what that nurse had to do to get through his or her shift..... keep your mouth shut and do your 12 hours. Do what you too can do in that time frame. Then pass on to the oncoming nurse the tasks that still need to be completed and clock out and go home.
Your job is to take care of that patient for 12 hours... it's not to complete every single task that needs to be done. It's your job to prioritize and do the best you can do... then provide a proper report to your relief so that those things that still are pending can be addressed by the next person who picks up the care of that patient.
