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.
Me as new nurse, determined to be a super duper fantastic nurse
X - I just put the patient in their room, she needs a blanket
Me - OK, I'll get it
X - I looked in on your patient, the lightbulb in the bathroom is out
Me - OK, I'll take care of it in a minute
X - your patient says he needs to go to the bathroom
Me - OK, I'll be there in a minute
X - Your patient says he's thirsty, I gave him some water
Me - Erm...hunh?
X - I was talking to your patient, he wants ice cream with his dinner
Me - I'll look into it
X - we finished with activities, the patient wants to go back to his room
Me - I'll be there to get him in a minute
X - I was fixing the toilet in the patient room, he says he can't find the remote
Me -- *sigh* I'll be back there as soon as I can
End of shift - OH MY GOD! I still haven't finished passing my meds! I'm going to have to clock out and spend the next two hours here doing documentation! I haven't peed all day!
Go home, spend day off staring at floor, spiral into despair, I'm a bad nurse, I'll never get the hang of this, why is this so hard, I hate my life
Now
X - I just put the patient in their room, she needs a blanket
Me - The closet is right down the hall, you can get one there
X - I looked in on your patient, the light bulb in the bathroom is out
Me - The number for maintenance is posted right here
X - your patient says he needs to go to the bathroom
Me - Can you please ask the CNA?
X - Your patient said he's thirsty, I gave him some water
Me - *internal panic* The patient is NPO! That's what the big sign on the wall says! I'm going to have to call the Dr.! he's going to be ******! I wonder if he'll stop yelling if I just say "I'm sorry"
X - I was talking to your patient, he wants ice cream with his dinner
Me - He's diabetic and we've already spent a lot of time discussing that, maybe if you could talk to him about it and reinforce that?
X - We finished with activities, the patient wants to go back to his room
Me - *internal voice - you came all the way over here from activities without the patient to tell me that?*
X - I was fixing the toilet in the patient room; he says he can't find the remote
Me -- *sigh* Can you do me a favor and help him look for it?
End of shift - Wow! I actually have some time to pee! And do my charting! And maybe forget about being a nurse for five minutes!
Random staff member/student/tech walks by--wow, what a lazy nurse, I never want to be that kind of nurse. I think I'll go to a nursing site and post my complaints.
Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.
GRRR. Can you please explain why it would be so bad to say to a resident, "I'm sorry that I'm waking you for X, I'm sure you've just fallen asleep, but y and z have just happened, can you abc?" These docs work THIRTY HOUR SHIFTS with little sleep. Did they choose it? Yes. Is it their job? Yes. But it's not going to kill anyone to apologize. In fact, in my experience, apologizing gets you a lot farther than please and thank you when you've just woken someone from a dead sleep.
I also apologize when they're in the middle of their teaching rounds, because they're not supposed to be interrupted, per ACGME guidelines, and yet something always goes wrong. Then they have to come back to the hospital to put in orders, because we have a no-verbal when the MD is on campus rule. Not only are they missing out on education, they're missing out on their lunch time.
I'm going to be interested in how expectations change after some of you all graduate and orient. I really hope that you're able to find a job with the type of nurses you want to be, because otherwise, you're not going to be happy... and there's nothing worse than a holier-than-thou GN.
Hopefully I addressed the answer to your questionin my previous post afrocentro. I corrected myslef and said what I was tryong to say beter. It's always best to be courteous and respectful to aoid conflict. My other pist should better explain what I meant. If not ask and I will try to explain it again.
In my pre nurse days I used to see the nurses at the desk and I remember clearly thinking that they were all lazy and above us aides....that they didnt do anything but pass meds and sit around.....boyyyyy did I eat and choke on my words and thoughts when I became a nurse.
I didnt know about all the paperwork they had or the importance of it. Now Im the one behind the desk with endless paperwork to do & its frustrating alot of times. Nurses are on a stricter time frame...we have a certain amount of time to get meds done and paperwork done.
As for the pooh scrubs...who cares. I have mostly print tops and I get tons of compliments from my residents about them. I dont have any cartoon ones because Im just not willing to pay 20 bucks for them. As long as the uniforms arent full of stains and holes or what not....wear on if you can. I hate solid colors....they are just no fun to look at.
As for facebook....I have never done it at work....but I work with people who do use it on their cell phones....usually when they have downtime.
As someone who has both worked nights and has been on call being awakened at night it is basic courtesy to acknowledge that you interrupted that persons sleep or off work time.
I'm disappointed at how many folks are defending the doctor apology bit (but not surprised). This is one of the negative behaviors nurses are socialized into: apologizing to the doctor for "bothering" them. But don't worry, in a year the experienced nurses will have the newbie apologizing to the docs and offering to get them coffee. They'll work on her until she breaks.
An apology is offered if you have done something wrong; providing patient care is part of your job and if you are doing it right, you better call the doc when it is needed. That's not wrong people.
By apologizing, you automatically subordinate yourself. They then have the right to refuse or accept your apology and some of them do not. I've known nurses who were screamed at, cussed at and hanged up on, all the while apologizing and apologizing. And we're surprised when they are otherwise abusive. But that's the very work culture we have constructed and adhere to. Doc=deity who should only be bothered if absolutely necessary. Nurse=submissive and apologetic.
You don't have to be rude. You should only call them in the middle of the night if absolutely needed, that is common courtesy. I know the humiliation of calling a doc at 4 AM for something that should have been handled on days or in the evening and for that I have apologized when I called and was screamed at, etc(and maybe rightfully so). But if my patient has an urgent need and it happens to occur at 3AM? For that I don't apologize.
Maybe you should ask yourself what kind of person you want to be.
You come across as judgmental and superior. You seem to have no empathy for things you have no experience with like calling doctors, being a parent, etc.
Empathy goes a long way and hopefully you will learn as you grow in this world that one should never say NEVER because you will find yourself in these same shoes one day. It's always different when you look in from the outside.
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.
I would care! There is a certain level of amusement to be had by your coworkers watching you trudge through your day, trying not to hurl while smelling the cafeteria food or holding your head in pain with all the beeps and howls and other musical notes of illness emanating from your assigned patients. If you call off when you are hung over, you will deny your coworkers this, and I do care about that.
I'm disappointed at how many folks are defending the doctor apology bit (but not surprised). This is one of the negative behaviors nurses are socialized into: apologizing to the doctor for "bothering" them. But don't worry, in a year the experienced nurses will have the newbie apologizing to the docs and offering to get them coffee. They'll work on her until she breaks.
An apology is offered if you have done something wrong; providing patient care is part of your job and if you are doing it right, you better call the doc when it is needed. That's not wrong people.
By apologizing, you automatically subordinate yourself....
Yeah, and what's wrong with that? When we're asleep, we're not doctors or nurses or patients or anything, we're primal beasts satisfying important physiological needs. And when I interrupt that in a doctor or patient, possibly wrecking their chances for sleep for the rest of the night, I APOLOGIZE!
1.) Night shift nurse who sits on facebook: I'm thinking you spend - what 10 min getting an EKG and you know these people are sitting on facebook? I work nights and take my breaks in pieces and stay at the nurses station in case I'm needed. I can't get on facebook at work - nor would I, but I do get on this site and check out the news.
2.) The "thats not my job nurse": You will find that a nurse seems to be the catch all for everything. Heck one night I was the elevator operator since the visitor elevators were down. Here I am trying to pass meds and get a new admit settled and people need me to walk down to the elevator and swiped them out. Yes I could help you and everyone else with tasks that should be delegated, but then I need to explain why I still haven't hung that unit of blood or even said hi to the new admit that came up during report. Let's not even talk about the meds, vs and BGs I still need to do.
I could go on. But my point is that the few minutes you spend on a floor getting an EKG is not usually a good judge of the other 11+ hours. I think you have good intentions and I wish you the best. But I think you will have some better understanding when you do become a nurse. And yes there are lazy, rude and gossiping nurses. But they are the exception rather than the rule - at least at my job.
The paragraph about parent nurses makes me want to vomit. You are clearly a selfish person that does not show any sign of apathy for others. It amazes me that people like this are in nursing school. Going out and partying is no where near the same as having sick children..WOW. I wish I knew you better so that when you do have kids, and they are up all night sick, I would LOVE to be there so I can cram every word you just said down your throat. GROW UP and get a taste of reality before you judge something that you have NO experience doing (that goes for being an RN and a parent).
mazy
932 Posts
Me as new nurse, determined to be a super duper fantastic nurse
X - I just put the patient in their room, she needs a blanket
Me - OK, I'll get it
X - I looked in on your patient, the lightbulb in the bathroom is out
Me - OK, I'll take care of it in a minute
X - your patient says he needs to go to the bathroom
Me - OK, I'll be there in a minute
X - Your patient says he's thirsty, I gave him some water
Me - Erm...hunh?
X - I was talking to your patient, he wants ice cream with his dinner
Me - I'll look into it
X - we finished with activities, the patient wants to go back to his room
Me - I'll be there to get him in a minute
X - I was fixing the toilet in the patient room, he says he can't find the remote
Me -- *sigh* I'll be back there as soon as I can
End of shift - OH MY GOD! I still haven't finished passing my meds! I'm going to have to clock out and spend the next two hours here doing documentation! I haven't peed all day!
Go home, spend day off staring at floor, spiral into despair, I'm a bad nurse, I'll never get the hang of this, why is this so hard, I hate my life
Now
X - I just put the patient in their room, she needs a blanket
Me - The closet is right down the hall, you can get one there
X - I looked in on your patient, the light bulb in the bathroom is out
Me - The number for maintenance is posted right here
X - your patient says he needs to go to the bathroom
Me - Can you please ask the CNA?
X - Your patient said he's thirsty, I gave him some water
Me - *internal panic* The patient is NPO! That's what the big sign on the wall says! I'm going to have to call the Dr.! he's going to be ******! I wonder if he'll stop yelling if I just say "I'm sorry"
X - I was talking to your patient, he wants ice cream with his dinner
Me - He's diabetic and we've already spent a lot of time discussing that, maybe if you could talk to him about it and reinforce that?
X - We finished with activities, the patient wants to go back to his room
Me - *internal voice - you came all the way over here from activities without the patient to tell me that?*
X - I was fixing the toilet in the patient room; he says he can't find the remote
Me -- *sigh* Can you do me a favor and help him look for it?
End of shift - Wow! I actually have some time to pee! And do my charting! And maybe forget about being a nurse for five minutes!
Random staff member/student/tech walks by--wow, what a lazy nurse, I never want to be that kind of nurse. I think I'll go to a nursing site and post my complaints.