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.
I'd just like to say that I have never killed anyone. I have known many people that have had loved ones die and whenever I hear about it, in sympathy to their situation I say, "I'm sorry." I now feel like an idiot because I had no idea that "sorry" always meant I was taking blame for the situation. Thankfully, the police haven't come knocking on my door yet but perhaps in the future I should add a disclaimer with my sympathy notes...
Specializes in Dialysis,M/S,Home Care,LTC, Admin,Rehab.
With a bit of horror, I have to say that the responses to this thread validate that nurses do eat their young, proved by the exhibiting of the ole "I'll show you a thing or two" attitude..."just wait until you are as jaded as I am", and "who do you think you are, having opinions on MY territory".
This is exactly what I referred to in my article. How would any of you treat Bloop if you were precepting her, only to turn around and feel violated for being accused of doing what you actually do? Come on.
Nurses don't have to be miserable. Nurses choose to be miserable. Seek help, identify issues from your past which created your desire to care for others and in the mean time, ponder if you would want you to care for you.
I dunno. I haven't seen anything in this thread that has caused me to picture the OP sitting in a corner, sobbing. Some of the responses, perhaps including mine, have been defensive. The OP has emphasized, repeatedly, that he hasn't intended to attack any of us, but I've re-read the first post several times and it still strikes me as a bit judgemental and lacking perspective.
I don't mean to eat my young, and I don't think most other respondents do either. Frankly, when I was in the OP's shoes, I thought a lot of the same things. Now I know I wasn't 100% wrong, but I was probably 80% wrong. So let's not feel too sorry for the OP. He seems like a big boy, and if he's going to put his opinions out there, he's going to get replies.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Agree, Mike; that Bloop likely has the stuff to take it. His post is pretty unvarnished. And yet it's polite and tame compared to other "problems nurses have" lists.
Apropos of nothing in particular, I despise the phrase "nurses eat their young". It just grosses me out and reminds me of Insect shows on TV. :barf01: I know older nurses can be horrible to younger ones, I just wish there was a less nauseating way of making the point.
Doc Lori- I know what you are saying about the pile-on effect that happens sometimes. Like 20 people will pound away at the same point as if they haven't read the first 19 saying exactly the same thing. It makes me cringe, but often it's actually nursing students and newer nurses who are the most judgemental!
Specializes in Dialysis,M/S,Home Care,LTC, Admin,Rehab.
Nurse Mike, please don't confuse my support with pity. Also, from where do you think that defensiveness stems? You seem to really understand that, yet for others, it seems as though the shoe that Bloop "put out there" is quite fitting to folks, just sayin'.
Until there is a shift in all of this toxicity and everyone's ego is checked at the door, nursing will continue to be a high burnout profession.
With all of the changes coming with Healthcare Reform, nurses will not only be in the position to be the backbone of healthcare delivery in our country, nurses will be the healthcare delivery in our country.
Shame on Bloop for having the audacity to identify right from wrong. Sure, with experience you shift perspective, yet without having a perspective to begin with, without the development of a core self truth, you just end up picking up the energies and traits around you.
Apropos of nothing in particular, I despise the phrase "nurses eat their young". It just grosses me out and reminds me of Insect shows on TV. :barf01: I know older nurses can be horrible to younger ones, I just wish there was a less nauseating way of making the point.
I think I understand the point the OP was trying to make, though the delivery may not have been the best. Sometimes we need to stop reading into things and just respond to the words typed.
I've gotten plenty of dirty looks from nurses when a patient asks for something and I tell them. Everyone in the ED wears the same scrubs, doctors, nurses, and PCA's. I don't know what PCA is assigned to each room, I only know what nurse is assigned to each room. So if I walk in to a patients room with visitors and the patient asks for something, I go get the nurses.
Most are polite. But there are a few (of different age ranges) who are just plain rude. One patient had apparently gone to the bathroom and when she came back, she needed her oxygen hooked back up. She happened to catch me walking in, so I went up to the nurses station (which was directly behind this patient) and advised them that she needed her oxygen put back in. The response I got was rolling of the eyes, a huff, along with an "Okay." I just smiled, said "Thank you" and walked away.
On a positive note, I advised a nurse (who wasn't taking care of that patient. That nurse was on lunch) that a patient asked for ice water. She was very polite, had a smile (though she looked quite tired), and said "No problem." She even thanked me for letting her know.
For every rude person there is usually a nice one. I mean, we all have our rude moments, but some people are just like that all of the time.
When I initially read Bloop's post--it kinda ticked me off. Am I guilty of any of the things he outlined?? Nope. No guilty conscience here. I think it was just the WAY he presented his ideas. The tags he attached seemed inappropriate to me as well. After he came back and clarified himself and apologized, I was able to look at it in a different light.
It's all in the presentation. Steak and lobster sounds great right?? It loses its appeal when served to you on a dirty garbage can lid though.
I always said when "I" became a nurse (since I had been a tech for 6 years) that "I" would NEVER ask my CNA to do things for me that I could do myself. You get over that quick. Why?? Because you learn fast that the other nurses ALSO have 6-7 patients of there own, that they are as busy as you, and if ya wanna swim instead of sink, you better learn to delegate. Yes, I am gonna ask the CNA to get the blanket for room 6 and help room 8 with ADLs right now because room 2 is having chest pain, room 3, 4, and 5 need pain meds, and the surgeon wants me to round with him--RIGHT NOW--on his patients, because HELLO, HIS time is VALUABLE. :) Can the CNA do ANY of those jobs for me?? NOPE. But he/she can sure do ADLs and a blanket run.
Just putting it in perspective. You will walk into the world of nursing with a set of ideas on how things are gonna be, and you will realize that those things quickly change into something else. It's all a part of growing. After 10 years in the field, I STILL am in love with my job, and can't imagine doing anything else. Good luck to you in your future as a Registered Nurse.
Well said, nursel56 and Doc Lori. OP certainly doesn't deserve to have his head bitten off. He wasn't even altogether wrong. (I'm not really sure what percentage...the facebook think was the only one I agreed with unequivocally, although I wouldn't personally be caught dead in cartoon scrubs.)
I think I understand the defensiveness. I think it stems from the amount of sweatshop nursing a lot of us have to do. My facility is quite a bit more nurse-friendly than some I've read about, here, and the three other facilities where I did my clinicals didn't look so horrible, either. But even with a 6:1 ration and coworkers who are generally supportive, it's not like working my tail off is a semi-annual event. My idea of a good shift is being able to get all my assessments done, meds passed, procedures done (we don't do many dressing changes on neuro pts, but that sort of stuff) and charting finished by 0730, and have time in between for lunch and one short smoke break. I like staying busy, as long as I'm on top of everything. It's the two minute lunch, no other break, run your feet off, and still don't get to even start charting until 0730 that kills. And lately it seems like that's about a monthly event, and often not just a single shift.
Last weekend, I worked two nights, and the first was one of those sweatshop nights. Second was a little better, but mostly because my "enemies" no longer had the element of surprise. I still busted my butt. I was in our stepdown subunit, so I only had three patients. One with a ventric drain, so measure outputs and ICP every hour. If you would happen to miss one, the patient was pretty stable and probably wouldn't die. Probably. So you pretty much don't dare miss one. Second patient, insulin drip, so hourly fingersticks and titrate.
Third patient I'm not going to go into much for HIPAA reasons. Let's just say r/o neuro issues which appear to have been psychogenic, so busier than my other two patients combined.
11-7 no aide, and my coworkers were two brand-new nurses. Both very good brand-new nurses, but they do need a little help now and then. So far, we're talking a busy, but manageable shift. Hard work, but that's okay. But one patient, not mine, had family sleeping in, and they didn't believe in using a call light. Any little thing they needed or wanted, come out and grab the first nurse they see, and just because you've got a handful of meds doesn't mean you don't have time to cater to them. You're not doing anything now, are you? (Well, I've got this handful of meds I thought I might give...)
And I know that isn't what the OP meant about the "It's not my job," nurse. But I also know that familiy is convinced I'm an "It's not my job," nurse, and it isn't like that's the only time it happens. Most of the aides I work with are good. Nothing like doing without one to realize that. And that night I described, aides from the floor did come back to help out with vitals and fingersticks when they could. In 12 hours, I did two fingersticks myself, so I can't really complain, even though I am. Thing is, though, even the best of them figure that if two of them are working together on a bath, I should be able to cover my call lights. Cool, except each is supposed to do three baths a night, and if they work together on six--well, I'm not always "just charting" when that call light gets pushed. And while I know some of them understand my position, I've actually heard others answer the desk clerk: "Let the nurse do some work for a change."
Add to that the many posts we see about lazy, uncaring nurses who won't mop the floors or whatever, and darned if it doesn't get to seeming a little stale. So it may not be fair to the OP, but when you poke a boil, you may not like what comes out. (Which isn't to say he shouldn't poke. There's stuff to be learned, in among the goo.)
I guess what I would really like to convey to the OP relates to my own experience. Before I was a nurse, I was an orderly, although that wasn't the actual title we used. I got pts in and out of bed, transported them to tests, OR, discharge, etc. I did some housework in the patient areas. I ran for supplies, helped aides with baths when I had time, passed meals, fetched snacks--basically, whatever nobody else wanted to do. I saw a lot doing that job, and it's what convinced me I wanted to be a nurse. I really liked the time I spent with patients (still do, BTW).
In those days, I saw nurses on my floor that I wouldn't trust to watch my cats.
Not at all the kind of nurse I was going to be. But then I went to nursing school, and started working as a GN on the same floor, and it wasn't long at all before I realized there wasn't a nurse on my unit I couldn't learn from. Okay, so one or two did leave, but overall, it wasn't the nurses who'd changed. I was looking at them with open eyes for the first time.
There's a nurse who works dayshift that's the aides really dislike. I just love to tell my friends who are aides that I've learned a lot from her. It's fun to watch their heads explode. But it's also true. I can't do everything for six patients. I need to delegate. And while the aides may well be busy with baths or vitals when the call light goes off, I'm busy, too. Difference is, in an hour or so, they'll be all caught up and chillin', and I'll still be busy.
So, I'm going to again quote another poster without attribution: focus on the kind of nurse you do want to be. If you aren't surrounded by them, you're either working in a terrible hospital, or--more likely--not looking hard enough.
I think I noted in this thread that some of the worst nurses you'll ever see think they are wonderful and love to prove it to themselves by running others down. That fits a very few on my floor, and while I still know there are things I can learn from them, that isn't one of them. Not every nurse I've ever worked with has been a role model. But the vast majority are just like me: decent people, doing their best, and very impressed with those who truly are role models. I fervently hope that's the kind of nurse the OP will be, because we need all we can get.
As for the "it's not my job" nurse... I will try to do CNA tasks to help patients when I can, but the reality of nursing is that we are simply too time-pressured much of the time to do someone else's job.
As for Winnie-the Pooh scrubs, many of our elderly patients, who are sensory-deprived, enjoy the images and bright colors of such clothing.
As for apologizing for calling MD's, it is common courtesy to preface your remarks this way. No one likes to be bothered in the middle of the night, even if it is their job.
As others have said, wait until you have done it. You will be singing a different tune.
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.
I've worked LTC and adult acute care for 20 years and am very happy they we no longer have to wear all white uniforms. I have never had a pt treat me unprofessionally because of my uniform. I've received more compliments on my Flinstones and Love Bug tops than any other uniform I have.
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.
Have you ever heard of phone etiquette? At all the facilities I have worked at, this was always an inservice. Being polite does not make me sound unprofessional. Yes, receiving late night calls come with the territory of being a Dr. But that is no excuse to be impolite, I for one was raised vetter then that.
Here's a lesson they obviouly haven't taught you in nursing school yet.
1) Your dealing with ppl and ppl are complicated things.
2) You come into our house and start criticizing us expect to be attacked.
3) You say your shocked at the responses your getting. Well all 6 of your comments come off as criticization (esp'lly by someone who isn't even a nurse yet), because that's all they are. No where in your post do you mention any good nrsg that you've seen. No where do you commpliment, celebrate, or mention a nurse you would like to emulate.
:lol2:
pers
517 Posts
I'd just like to say that I have never killed anyone. I have known many people that have had loved ones die and whenever I hear about it, in sympathy to their situation I say, "I'm sorry." I now feel like an idiot because I had no idea that "sorry" always meant I was taking blame for the situation. Thankfully, the police haven't come knocking on my door yet but perhaps in the future I should add a disclaimer with my sympathy notes...