After completing numerous clinicals and working as an EKG tech, I have observed and often dealt with nurses that are a prime example of what I don't want to be when I graduate. I also concede that I am a mere senior nursing student with no real-world experience.
1.) Night shift nurse who sits on facebook: Since when did it become acceptable to go on a computer and use social networking sites whenever you don't have work to do. In the time that you have sat on facebook you could have filled charts, done further research on your patients' needs, read nursing journals, assisted another nurse or CNA, or just do something that might help the morning shift. Instead, you sit on facebook trying to see if anyone you haven't seen in a few years got fat.
2.) The "thats not my job nurse": This kills me because as a tech I constantly hear this. "Mrs. Smith needs to go to the bathroom can you help her so I can do the EKG?" The reply from the nurse, "Ask the CNA...thats not my job." The nurse should really take a step back and re-evaluate your career choice because by not helping me you are not helping the patient.
3.) The nurse who openly criticizes patients or gossips with other nurses at the station: Guess what, people hear what your saying. You are making a fool of yourself and instead of complaining how so and so didn't bathe this patient during their shift, why don't you do it yourself? Be a professional, do your job to the best of your ability.
4.) The nurse who uses personal problems as an excuse to not care: I'm partial to this because I'm young but I don't care that you have kids, I don't care that your child has the snuffles and you were up all night. If you are unable to successfully complete the tasks of your job DO NOT COME INTO WORK. I have no sympathy for you. If I was out late partying and had a hangover and used it as an excuse would you care? An excuse is an excuse, either do your job right or call out, you are only hurting the patient.
5.) The nurse wearing winnie the pooh scrubs in an adult acute care setting: Your an adult. Dress like a professional, talk like a professional, and people will treat you like one.
6.) Nurses who always apologize to doctors when they call them: It is a doctor's job to take your call, listen to what you say, make decions based on the information you give them. Get some backbone, speak intelligently, and stick to the facts. If you show them you are serious, they will take you seriously and not blow you off as some stupid nurse who bothers them at home.
Nothing wrong with setting high standards for oneself. I'm sure none of us are perfect nurses, but that's no reason not to aim to be the best possible.
I guess I'm in a contrarian mood, tonight, but I'm actually going to disagree with that--a little bit. I won't go into details, but during my first few months as a nurse, I did some fairly stupid things, usually because I was trying so hard to be perfect. When I finally realized that just attaining a marginal level of competency was an ambitious enough goal, I started doing far fewer stupid things. So, while I certainly agree it's good to aim high, I'm also going to caution the new nurses and prospective nurses participating to be prepared to work within your skill set, and get some back up when you have to move beyond it. Not meaning to imply at all that the quoted poster doesn't know that--but I have occassionally found myself in the position of mentoring newer co-workers to be "sloppier" nurses. So, "best possible," yeah, but with emphasis on possible.
I applaud you to have such an in depth understanding of a problem that plagues many good nurses who have to work with the type you describe. Keep that fine attitude and you will not only be a great nurse, but a fine employee in any work setting. My hat (cap) is off to you.
I am a cna and so offended.. i LOVE helping people
your username says it all...a PRINCESS!
please please PLEASE don't become a nurse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would never want any of my family members under your care
completely DISGUSTING!
Let me guess if your patient dies the CNA should bag the body by him or herself to right!?
Just sick...!
Honestly nurses do make me so upset when they are LAZY and do not CARE
and yes I know the difference between a BUSY NURSE who cares about their patients and a plain lazy nurse who is there CLEARLY for a paycheck or burnt out.
If you do not enjoy your job LEAVE!
See this is why I can't WAIT to become a nurse. I will be so happy my patients have me as a nurse
and am also happy they have me as a CNA now because some cna's are SO CRUEL!
Mean and careless nurses just make me sad
This issue has been already been addressed by some nurses I really respect on these boards, and as far as I know you are the kind of caring, conscientious CNA who has every right to take offense, but as noted above, I'm feelin' contrary, so I'm going to admit there are times when I really wish I didn't have to spend as much time doing aide's work. And I'm not saying only high-minded, important RN times, like getting called in the middle of a med pass or dressing change to put someone on a bedpan. I'm saying maybe if once in awhile one of the aides who isn't on break could get my patient an extra blanket or some ice water, then maybe I could have a break, or at least get some charting done.
I'm glad you can't wait to become a nurse. It's a wonderful job, in many respects. But I can just about guarantee you won't feel much like a princess about the thousandth time you hear an aide say, "I'm busy, call the nurse." It's much more likely you be wondering how in the heck you are supposed to be doing that critical thinking you heard so much about in school when the calls for a can of soda or an extra pillow just never stop. I promise you, at some point in time, perhaps when some doc wants to know where a patient's lab values are and you can't answer because you didn't know the phlebotomist didn't draw them while you were mopping up a spill in another room and dietary needs you to deliver a tray because that other patient is in isolation, you may very well not feel too much like everything about patient care is your job.
I'm ranting because I'm in a grouchy mood, and it isn't really as bad as all that. Most shifts are pretty good, with a mixture of hard work and fun. The past few weeks have kind of a bear, though, with some unusually difficult patients (difficult medically and/or just obnoxious), pretty tight staffing at times, and having to adapt to some wonderful new ideas from the people in suits. But I tell you true, I've seen a few crappy nurses, but rather more people in supporting jobs who act like they're doing us a big favor by doing the jobs they are paid to due. If a housekeeper empties the trash in my patient's room, he isn't doing my job, he's doing his job.
I'd sort of like to add my two cents about this part here: "all healthcare workers are in the business of customer service, so the perception of your coworkers from other disciplines should matter to you.
If you were at a restaurant and a waitress was sitting on her blackberry while you were waiting for drinks, you wouldn't say, "I don't know, she might have been here for a while and worked really hard, so I'll just wait until she's ready."
I think perhaps some of the discrepancy in viewpoints in this thread comes from the fact that nurses (at least the nurses I hang with) don't consider themselves customer service, although our management personnel may disagree! My job is not the same as that of a waitress--you don't get to order what you want from me. I'm a nurse, and if you are my patient, I'm going to do things that you don't like, that are nasty, and that you don't understand. I don't give a damn what anybody else thinks or what their perceptions are as long as I am sure that I have done the best I can. A manager once wrote up one of my CNAs for poor customer service for not making a milkshake for a patient with a blood sugar of 450. I kid you not. I had to take that right up to the CEO to get it fixed.
Another problem with your analogy is that the job of this waitress is to bring you drinks. If she doesn't do that, she's not doing her job. However, if the cook is busy and the waitress doesn't jump back there and fry your hamburger, do you write a complaint on her? Nursing is the only profession I know of where people expect you to do your job and also all the jobs of everyone who works in the facility with you ;p I have done CNA work, plumbing, fire drills, cooking and serving food, preached sermons for church, taught piano, phlebotomy, and EKGs! I really loved the example above about the elevator operator
The third point I'd like to make is that as a nurse, my employers don't pay me for what I do, they pay me for what I know. It's not necessary for me to do busywork every minute I'm on shift to earn my keep. If a nurse or CNA's patients are straight, and their chores are done, I've got no problem with them screwing around on their downtime. Healthcare is not assembly work, where you get paid by the piece. You have assigned tasks, and if you can get them done efficiently and Lady Luck is kind enough to give you some downtime (FOR ONCE) take it and enjoy it. I don't understand the Facebook craze myself, but what's the difference between that and taking a smoke break 15 times a shift? I don't believe in punishing people for doing their job well by making them do extra work. Your good workers end up doing everything and your slackers slack even more.
As a nurse of 30 plus years, I agree with what you are saying. After reading some of the posts, it seems like there is a fair amount of defesiveness on the part of some responders.
Nurses should care about how they are perceived by others. If a nurse wants to be perceived as a professional, she needs to act like one.(and what you wear does add to how others see you)
Sometimes, nurses are burned out and they don't even know it. That happened to me.
Continue on to nursing school with your ideal of how nurses should act. Don't let the naysayers influence your behavior. You will be a better nurse and a better human being for it.
ok, I got up to page six, but you're all making me mad and making yourselves mad and making each other mad and I think we might all need a nice facepalm and a little break from this thread!
Really, if you're having a quick look at allnurses after you've finished your charting and while you're waiting for a doctor to return your page (so you can apologise for bothering them) surely you'd prefer to read something that lightens your mood more than a long argument about who offended who and who misunderstood what.
Right, I'm going to go read funny stories about stuff patientsh ave taught people not to do, because I want to be the kind of nurse who laughs.
sigh. I couldn't leave, I went straight back and read the rest of the posts. some good ponta have been made all round, and thankfully things got a bit more civil and less reactionary. funnily enough, I agreed with a lot of things that people with very differing opinions had to say.
I'd like to thank the OP for one thing in particular - I read your initial post and thought 'yeah, I get that' but then after reading the criticisms I started to get sidetracked by 'he's making these judgements of the nurses whole day from a snapshot'. Thankyou for coming back with the point that you're not the only person who judges the nurse on a quick snapshot, and we nurses do need to be aware of that. sometimes (as in the example of 'I just sat down to do my charting and someone passed by and commented on how I get to sit on my ass all day) it's unfounded and the person doing the judging is just an idiot, but it was a great reminder to think how we look to outsiders and take care not to give them more ammunition.
Thankyou for posting, and thankyou for sticking with it, and even though I sort of wanted to smack you in the back of the heads, thankyou all for arguing!
Going way back to the original post I don't think there is much fundamentally that most people would disagree with and the OP has gone to legnths to explain and expand her standpoint but the sticking point for me is that you never really know what being a nurse is like until you are one.
Before I was a parent I said and truly believed that my children would never be stuck in front of a DVD, I would always explain my reasoning rather ever say "because I said so" and nothing would pass their lips unless I had homegrown and baked it........ unsurprisingly none of the above lasted. I quickly discovered I was human.
Nurses get attacked from so many times and if we as a group come across as defensive then that it because we often feel attacked. Its not about heirachy or being better than any other group its because if we don't defend ourself then trust me know one else will!!
Some of the point are justified, some arguable and some clearly open for debate - and by goodness has that it generated some of that!!
Whether or not you meant to do it you have come across as rather condescending and arrogant. Some of your points may be valid but your delivery won't make you popular with coworkers in the future if you speak the way you write. Personally, if it's in the middle of the night and I have to call any one, yeah even a doc, I'll apologize for having to wake them up. I think it's just good manners. No one who knows me thinks I'm a weanie. Good luck with your career.
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Whether or not you meant to do it you have come across as rather condescending and arrogant. Some of your points may be valid but your delivery won't make you popular with coworkers in the future if you speak the way you write. Personally, if it's in the middle of the night and I have to call any one, yeah even a doc, I'll apologize for having to wake them up. I think it's just good manners. No one who knows me thinks I'm a weanie. Good luck with your career.
Makes you wonder why one would want to become a nurse at all...
I must say I agree about the scrubs. It's been years since I wore them but even then most of the prints available were juvenile. I refused to be a middle-aged nurse wearing cartoon scrubs in an ED so I got to work and sewed my own tops--in nice florals and tasteful prints.
I don't believe in punishing people for doing their job well by making them do extra work. Your good workers end up doing everything and your slackers slack even more.
nursemike, ASN, RN
1 Article; 2,362 Posts
I guess I'm in a contrarian mood, tonight, but I'm actually going to disagree with that--a little bit. I won't go into details, but during my first few months as a nurse, I did some fairly stupid things, usually because I was trying so hard to be perfect. When I finally realized that just attaining a marginal level of competency was an ambitious enough goal, I started doing far fewer stupid things. So, while I certainly agree it's good to aim high, I'm also going to caution the new nurses and prospective nurses participating to be prepared to work within your skill set, and get some back up when you have to move beyond it. Not meaning to imply at all that the quoted poster doesn't know that--but I have occassionally found myself in the position of mentoring newer co-workers to be "sloppier" nurses. So, "best possible," yeah, but with emphasis on possible.