The Things I've Seen Today...

Nurses General Nursing

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I really just want to vent and see what people think... I'm in rehab / LTC for starters. During hand-off the aide tells us (me trying to leave after my replacement was late coming in, her apparently not wanting to be there), that one of the pts is sweaty and unresponsive. I jump up and she (wait for it) sets on her butt. I spend the next 45 minutes doing the nursing thing, you know, CARING for people. She (wait for it again) sets on her butt. Can you feel the frustration building yet? I get him stable and responsive, head up to count narcs, and she decides to go get OJ and give him a drink after not having seen him in the hour she's been there. This is all frustrating, I've slept 4 hr in the last 60 and want to be home, but I understand this is what I signed up for...to a point. We get all set finally and I get my stuff together. I do one last check of my hall and she goes in a room to check a light and the little old guy needs the bathroom. She says I can't I have stuff to do. To say I was angry is an understatement. So guess what, I drop my stuff and take care of him. As I'm doing this she walks past, looks in, and says did he need something. Seriously? Did he need something? You just told him he wasn't important. Oh well, venting has helped a little. Now someone entertain me with a good reply.

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The difference between you and her is that you are a nurse. A real nurse isn't afraid to jump in and get the job done. You did the right thing for the patient. Good job!

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I may have misunderstood, but the sweaty, unresponsive pt is not the aides' responsibility. That's a nurses' job. The aide reported, the nurse responded.

As far as the pt who needs to go to the bathroom, I would have looked that aide up and sent her/him to the room immediately. Then decide whether I wanted to write them up for ignoring the pt's needs.

I'm sorry you had such an awful day.

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You're just a little off. Aide reported it to me and the oncoming nurse. A nurse is who would not help me or help the pt. My aides are awesome, wouldn't trade them for the world.

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.
You're just a little off. Aide reported it to me and the oncoming nurse. A nurse is who would not help me or help the pt. My aides are awesome, wouldn't trade them for the world.

I DID misunderstand. Where I work, if such a thing happened during report BOTH nurses jump up and go to the room. I better understand your frustration.

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I was referring to the oncoming nurse not jumping in and taking over.

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I'm just at a loss. Common sense says you jump in and see if you can help. Not the fact she's a nurse, she should be up because she's there and heard there was trouble.

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betterlatethannever you got it right and I understood you're reply perfectly. Just clarifying a little for imintrouble. Why on earth would someone do that?

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Karma will get them. One day they will be old too.

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Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.

During report and in the middle of my monster am med pass is the only time I will track down an aid to help someone to the br instead of doing it myself. I have found though that when you have 15 patients and the CNAs have 8-10 that I shouldn't be the one shouldering the majority of the br calls. Interuptions can lead to mistakes, and toileting can wait a minute or two while I finish one persons meds or finish report. But it would annoy me if the on coming or off going nurse won't at least attempt to find someone to help someone and just sits there while I do it myself.

I consider my patient to be MY patient from the moment I walk in the door until I walk out. If I am taking or giving report and a patient has a change of condition I am RIGHT THERE to assess the patient with the other nurse. I'm completely amazed that the oncoming nurse didn't help you. She will be responsible for that patient after you leave, I would think she would want to know what is going on.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Reminds me of the night I walked in, was told a patient was "nervous" after dialysis. My question, "How nervous?" "Oh, sweaty, out of breath, nauseated...." Pt was a horribly brittle DMII, had been in WWII, and probably hadn't been "nervous" since Normandy. So I go in the room, and walked in on a pt in the middle of a ginormous MI. The leaving nurse says, "well, you can give him some Ativan or Mylanta, I've got to get to WalMart."

Yup. 0.5 of Ativan and 30ml of Mylanta. That'll fix it. I got the pt to ICU, and his troponins were in the 30's. I called the dialysis nurse, who'd left me 2 messages to call her, and she (not the dayshift nurse) tells me that she stopped dialysis early and brought her back to the floor because his vital signs started going nuts, and the dayshift nurse blew it off because she was too busy drinking coffee and being queen of the nurse's station. Had she been the pt's nurse for another couple of hours, I think they'd have died...but they wouldn't have been either anxious or nauseated....*grrrrr*

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Specializes in Anesthesia.

I often log on to Allnurses.com to read and discuss clinical issues to better my knowledge and understanding of medicine. Instead, I continue to find people complaining about lazy co-workers and inferior nurses. Everyone has lazy co-workers in any field of work.......Get used to it. How about discussing something relevant to our profession? That is why we are here....right?

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