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.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
wow! what a long thread. quite simply: some of this i agree with and of course some of i don't agree with. as an experienced emt- basic and now a cna working my way through nursing school. based on observation this is all human nature. we are human beings. none of us is perfect. the obnoxious md who treats the nurse wrong may have his reasons just as the nurse who delgates to the cna. this is why nurses are not doctors and cna's are not nurses. it is a health care team people ! we are all interdependant on one another. which btw is an entirely different issue.
you are definitely right about the long thread part, but that's where we part ways. an experienced emt and a cna both bring much to the table, but this thread is about judging nurses, and much of the judging is being done by people who aren't nurses and therefore not only do not understand the demands on a nurse's time but don't know that they don't know.
while there are a lot of reasons for the nurse to delegate to the cna, many of them explained here, there is really no good reason for "an obnoxious md to treat the nurse wrong.". delegating is not the same as being rude, arrogant or obnoxious.
and i don't understand your comment about " this is is why nurses are not doctors and cnas are not nurses.
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.
I hear/see this a lot from students and newer nurses...fact is, there are times that it is TRUE. I am certainly not above toileting a patient, but you have no idea what I might be involved in at that moment. There are times [and a lot of them] that I can't drop what I am doing to help Mrs Smith to the bathroom, and part of my job is delegating tasks to to others. Now that CNA that my fellow nurse delegated that job to...toileting Mrs Smith is his/her job and on an adequately staffed floor a CNA should be there shortly to help. Sorry if I come off as peeved about this, and I might not have been if it weren't for your last sentence...Do you really think it wise to suggest I re-evaluate my career choice because I'd rather deal with the emergency I am in the middle of than toilet your EKG patient and "help" you?????
hi to all first of all what you wrote was not appreciated at all you never been a nurse and you d ont even know yet how much responsibilities nurses have and sure we all assist any one to the bathroom but the problem is there is some not all cna s that when they see u always doing there job they start hiding or she s gona do it for me any how nurse got a lot and a million thing to do we help all the time always you are so wrong thinking that some will say it s not my job i never heard that but a can need to do her work and nurse need to do there job when u become a nurse you will know what every one is talking about , i never heard of a nurse calling a doctor and saying sorry for calling and if she did may be she s just being polite and nice and kind she it s not a weakness well all what i can say is that any one in health care are great from cnas nurses doctors and every one else i did nt mention there all great it say so much about a person that put down other people, u commented about gossip and such just look at what your wrote your being so NEGATIVE and putting down other fellow nursessssssssssss DOWN that is not nice at all ,so before you want to be a nurse think about it or may be you need to be looking in some thing else,nursing is not that easy as it seem i used to be a cna and i used to watch nurses i thought oh it s so easy simple and when i become a nurse now i know how different it is it is a lot of responsibilities i love it so much and been a nurse for long while i thank great god for it for my choice and if you ever want to be a nurse it is going to take you many years to be like good at what you do and hope you think about it before you want to be a nurse i trained many nurse that change there mind to be a nurse after a few weeks they think it is hard how can we do it all i always advise my new nurses to take your time think always positive give it time and it will all come together but thinking negative like you i dont know what else to say just take ur time thats all and wishing all the best and thank you for reading my long note lots of hugsss PS be always positive and dont try to find negative in people you work with look for the positive and stop causing trouble it will get you no where :jester:
and if i miss spelled sorry for that i type way too fast
Our housekeeping department is good, I will admit. We have someone in house at all times for emergency cleanups.
I'm not an elitist, but housekeeping is not in my job description, IMO. I don't see what is wrong with saying that I went to college to get away from jobs that require a mop and broom. Since when did that become a bad thing? I feel that this is not a nursing issue but an employment issue. I don't remember anywhere in my job description when I was hired that I was going to be mopping floors. Nurses go above and beyond as it is. Why pile on more crappy duties that just blur the lines of professionalism (which in nursing, are already very murky?) What other job do you know of that requires their college educated employees to take out the garbage? I'm not going there. Hospitals can slash their budgets all they want. I draw the line there. If my patient's trash someday overflows in the middle of the shift because there are no housekeepers anymore -- yeah, I'll take it out -- to right in front of my manager's office door.
The reason why I don't clean up *some* messes especially (I previously mentioned stool) is because it is not sanitary. At my institution we do not have access to the appropriate supplies to clean this stuff with and be assured that we are not transmitting bacteria, etc. A paper towel, as one poster mentioned, does not suffice for biohazardous waste.
Excuses, excuses.
Is it MORE sanitary to leave stool sitting on the toilet seat? You can't use something FLUSHABLE to clean it off, and then (drumroll please) FLUSH it, rendering the "biohazardous waste" issue nonexistent? Briefs and incontinence pads are placed in regular garbage, so a paper towel used to clean off a toilet seat (that YOU made a mess on when you dumped the bedpan, maybe you shouldn't be so clumsy) wouldn't have to be "biohazardous waste," either. There is NO WAY I would summon a housekeeper to clean off a seat, or a spot on the floor, that I spilled on. I also know where the housekeeping cart is kept, so if I need the spray cleaner to sanitize the small area that I'm cleaning, I can go get it. My legs and my arms aren't broken.
Leave a garbage bag in front of your manager's office? You can't drop it down the chute? Sometimes patients generate a lot of garbage (by no fault of anyone's, mind you). A full/overflowing trash makes the whole room look unclean, and if it happens to need emptying, just DO it, for crying out loud. I don't spend half my shift room cleaning, but I will change garbage bags when I'm making my rounds, if they need to be done. How about if there is a particularly odorous brief IN said bag, do you call housekeeping to change it and let it sit and smell up the room until they can get there? If it's 2am when said brief is soiled and disposed of, do you let it sit in the garbage in the room until the room gets cleaned the next morning?
I know this is a bit off the original topic, but WOW, this attitude really grinds my gears, and I couldn't not comment on it, even after the fact. Not elitest, my big foot.
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.
i got a little chuckle with this post and agree with a good bit of it.
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.
i have worked nights and days. sometimes there can be down time at nights. i remember rushing like mad on a stepdown unit passing meds, taking patients to and from the br, getting them ready for bed. afterwards, reviewing the charts yada yada yada and then midnight rolls around and it is quiet. your patients are alseep and the unit is silent. i have made it through many books on the night shift just because your patients need sleep and there is not a whole lot to do. sure we round on them quietly and respond with lightening speed to the infrequent call light. some nights it is busy and the book remains in the backpack. do not have the luxury of slow shifts on daylight and that is just how it goes sometimes. my experience has been that the night nurses usually help each others out more and are much lower in stress level.
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.
i can agree with this but then know the other side too. i am usually always near my patients and like to nip things in the bud. now if some of the other nurses are out smoking or gossiping i can feel abused in answering all of their call lights too. i try to be reasonable in responding, but maybe letting that nurse or tech deal with following up. i can't reasonably take care of every patient and sometimes the nurse/tech assigned needs to maybe step up and do a little more of their job.
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.
nursing is 24 hours. i think part of this can be attributed to frustration. i get irked when i follow some nurses who leave the room a mess, patients covered in old dry stool and leave pages of orders undone. i do appreciate it when a nurse tells me, "i was busy and could not get to this or that", that way i can plan my day to cover what tasks are needed and i think that helps to build teamwork.
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.
well said!
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.
this has always been a pet peeve of mine. i prefer mandated uniforms - except for white, it is just not practical when i spend so much time crawling around on the ground measuring outputs, plugging in machines or cleaning up messes. a nice royal blue works well!
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 don't see anything wrong with a simple "sorry i had to wake you" . i usually hate to wake anyone for something that i need. it is just being polite. i have woken up residents who have been awake more hours in a row than i could be and i truly am sorry i have to interupt their sleep because pt x is having a panic attrack and i need some ativan. maybe because i am southern and we are just raised to be polite.
Some of the Doctors are terrible to deal with. That may be why some nurses act meek and mild on the phone with certain MDs. Some of them are downright obnoxious. I do have to say that most Docs are great but those few bad apples make one a little nervous when having to call them.
I so agree with what you said about the rude doctors. I see it happen all the time at my workplace. Just because they are doctors does not mean they are any better than the rest of us. I have seen them talk down to the nurses and other staff members. The ones i've seen, they treat their patients very well but they are just plain rude to the staff.
please!!!, rude doctors? I work with surgeons and anesthesiologists, who are literally pioneers in their field.you really dont get much more arrogant docs to work with, in my opinion. normal polite exchanges of please and thank you aside, never a sorry- because I dont have anythig to be sorry for Yet, thank god)
I treat them like a coworker- they are, we are on a first name basis, and they are saying "im sorry" and thank you to ME, because it is me who enables them to do THEIR job....I understand that this might be a different dynamic than on a unit, but just wanted to share.... and i guess it is a generational thing... because the doctors give up their chair for US, the nurses, whenever there is such a scenario....
and as far as the "not my job" nurse--- well, sometimes, it just isnt.... yes, the aides are their to help us, and the patients, but there are like 100 things that ONLY the nurse can do, and in a specific period of time that we have to do it... so , yes, if I am doing one of those said tasks that ONLY me or another nurse can do,and something delegatable needs to be done? guess what? YOUR doing it, and for that period of time, NO ITS NOT MY JOB.
Op here. After working as an extern for almost 7 months I can safely say that almost all of my previous post means nothing. Everyone is honestly too busy to care about the stuff that used to bother me as someone on the outside looking in. All of this stuff still happens but I'm too caught up in my own stuff to really care what my co workers do unless it's harmful
Op here. After working as an extern for almost 7 months I can safely say that almost all of my previous post means nothing. Everyone is honestly too busy to care about the stuff that used to bother me as someone on the outside looking in. All of this stuff still happens but I'm too caught up in my own stuff to really care what my co workers do unless it's harmful
In some way.
Good thread; opinion changed with experience.
Thanks for the update. It's ironic, but a lot of people might find it difficult to admit that they're smarter today than they were, yesterday. It's also a pretty good indicator that you will progress toward becoming the kind of nurse you do want to be. Most of us, I think, really do care about all of the myriad details of a patient's stay. It's part of the reason we are notorious control freaks. But it is an ongoing challenge to balance all of the things you would like to do, all of the things you can do, and all of the things that you have to do, right away.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
op here. after working as an extern for almost 7 months i can safely say that almost all of my previous post means nothing. everyone is honestly too busy to care about the stuff that used to bother me as someone on the outside looking in. all of this stuff still happens but i'm too caught up in my own stuff to really care what my co workers do unless it's harmful
in some way.
good thread; opinion changed with experience.
it took courage to come back here and admit that. you've learned a lot. good on you!
:jester:
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
you are definitely right about the long thread part, but that's where we part ways. an experienced emt and a cna both bring much to the table, but this thread is about judging nurses, and much of the judging is being done by people who aren't nurses and therefore not only do not understand the demands on a nurse's time but don't know that they don't know.
while there are a lot of reasons for the nurse to delegate to the cna, many of them explained here, there is really no good reason for "an obnoxious md to treat the nurse wrong.". delegating is not the same as being rude, arrogant or obnoxious.
and i don't understand your comment about " this is is why nurses are not doctors and cnas are not nurses.