They won't stop calling me!

[optimist]

The facility I work in had an organized 'Wound care dept' consisting of 2 nurses during the week and myself on the weekends. We are the only ones that do wound care in the building because we recieved special corporate training and can provide consitancy with care and documentation. Something happened recently that caused the facility to lose both of thier weekday nurses at the same time. Since then the scheduler/don/admin have been blowing up my phone begging me (on my vmail) to come in and help since Im the only one left that knows all the proper documentation (anybody can read the TAR, but few know how to properly measure and describe). I havent returned their calls for several reasons 1)I dont feel like its my place to run in and rescue them, they should have had a plan in place before they let those nurses go. 2)With all of the drama going on in that building, Im afraid to do anything above what is expected of me for fear my head will be the next to roll 3)pulling extra shifts there does not earn you any brownie points or incentives, its just kinda expected and 4)I rather enjoy my weekdays off with my babies. So how do I get them off of my back. So far Ive just been ignoring their phone calls (and they are getting crafty using their personal cells to call me now). I hate to make up some excuse but Im not sure how honest to be in telling them I dont want within 100 feet of that place till saturday??

Thanks

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Did management get rid of these 2 nurses or in some way make their lives unbearable so that they left?

If so then it is all on them

If it was just coincidental I would give them maybe one extra day a week during a tough time if i could....

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

If extra shifts don't earn you brownie points, what do you think you are going to earn if you constantly ignore your supervisor's calls? Honestly, ignoring their calls seems unprofessional and a little childish. I'm not saying that you should go in everytime they ask, but as a professional you should be able to communicate with your supervisors and explain what you are willing to do and what you can't commit to. They keep calling because they need your help and you haven't given them an answer. You really haven't even had the courtesy to return their calls. If you really are the only one who knows the system, it would be helpful to your entire organization if you would go in for an extra shift and help teach the system to someone else. You can negotiate some terms, such as overtime pay or the weekend off. Whether or not you are willing to go in is completely up to you, but don't expect your supervisors to stop calling you if you don't give them an answer.

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

Just say no.

It is their responsibility to find replacement nurses. Do not take on that responsibility. They'll milk you for all it is worth. Plus, you coming in to rescue them will allow them to back off trying really hard to find replacements.

You are allowed to say no.

This.

But, "Just say no" means.......actually saying no, not ignoring your phone when it rings. Its hard, I've had to do it too but........eventually you have to pick up the phone and tell them how you feel and to quit calling. Be assertive about it. The more you play this phone tag game and give them the impression you are afraid to say "no".........the more aggressive they will become (hence, your phone is being blown up and "They won't stop calling me!").

I was in this situation. My first job ever, I lived walking distance from the hospital. Sure enough, some of the charge nurses knew this and targeted me every time there was a hole in staffing that needed filled. One was obnoxiously aggressive about it, called me 12 times in a three hour span once. I finally told her one call per request was adequate and not to make multiple calls to me anymore. She gave me attitude and a knee jerk "Your not the boss, I will call you however often I deem fit" response so I informed her next time it happened, we'd be discussing harassment with HR. It never happened again. Its that simple.

[G MA RN]

Good Advise. A true Nursing Professional.

[Rntr]

The next time I would go in to work and they "complained" to me, I would tell them when I am not on call and when not at work, I don't answer the phone..

[melmarie23, MSN, RN]

This is why hospitals should invest in New Grad RNs. With the right training and orientation we can fill those spots for less pay too.

I agree that hiring new grads help. But I am a new grad in my first position (per diem) and I am already working 24-32hrs for them a week, most often with huge patient loads (to the point where I often don't feel that safe) and I still get calls daily because they are still so short staffed.

I am also a mother and a wife. I need my days off to dedicate to my family and friends-for my own sanity and the health of my personal life. Getting calls and/or emails every.single.day is exhausting and its borderline harassment.

I already agreed to the days that I can work for you. I wont be taking any more. No amount of calling or emailing is going to change that.

so yes, giving new grad RNs a chance could be helpful. But we too get taken advantage of.

[melmarie23, MSN, RN]

Its not their responsibility that you have children either. Special Training cost money, you do hold some responsibility to pick up the slack when the need is present. We as Nurses have had to pull 2 or 3 shifts, many weekends, Holidays away from family. Why do you think you are so special? That is what the Medical Field is all about, giving of yourself no matter the difficulity. We do it for the GOOD of the PATIENTS not ourselves.

we cannot do good by our patients if we do not do good to ourselves. Maintaining a healthy balance between work and personal life is key. Its not healthy for us to be overworked. Thats when errors occur.

If hospitals and management were really that concerned with quality patient care, they'd adequately staff the floors and give the RNs safe nurse to patient ratios. But I dont really see that happening much...

[rn/writer, RN]

The quickest way to burn out is to disregard your own personal boundaries.

It is not the "problem" of the employer that one wants to be with family either. Have you read the Nurse Creed Lately?

It's no one's "problem." It's the employee's choice. She does get to decide that.

We are not slaves. We are not nuns. We get to figure out how much we have to give and under what circumstances. Setting boundaries is a healthy thing. Occasionally, we can stretch ourselves a little, but only if we choose to. Employers who expect others to continually spread themselves thinner than normal without doing any giving on their end create bad situations. And employees who push themselves out of guilt or fear or whatever become highly prone to burnout and bitterness.

What Nurse's Creed are you referring to?

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

And whom do you think should do the extra work while looking for replacements or training the new nursing staff. You do not seem to know much about "wound care."

It is a highly "Specialized" field and not all can be trained to do this position.

The ones calling her usally means they have not had this traind and there for can not preform the duties. Not answering the calls is not the soultion.

I have worked in the feild for more years then I can count. When did it become OK to over look the Patients needs for our own. With this attitude, the medical field is in a very bad place.

Its not their responsibility that you have children either. Special Training cost money, you do hold some responsibility to pick up the slack when the need is present. We as Nurses have had to pull 2 or 3 shifts, many weekends, Holidays away from family. Why do you think you are so special? That is what the Medical Field is all about, giving of yourself no matter the difficulity. We do it for the GOOD of the PATIENTS not ourselves.

With that attitude, you may not keep a job for long.

G MA RN, you sound a lot like me a few months ago in another thread that was..........loosely related to this one. In it, I offered the idea that nurses were as much to blame for poor staffing as management and administration, and that we were in more of a position to do something about it than them.

Now, I can relate to how you feel. The reason I even posted that thread was because I detected a lack of commitment to the bigger picture in my facility. A nurse on my unit, while expressing gratitude for me doing a double and keeping them from having to work with awful ratios, also said "I'd never do what you did. I do my scheduled hours and go home. Management can deal with all that stuff. They don't pay me enough to care about other shifts being staffed."

As she said more and more on the subject, I got the impression that she refused to help her co-workers because it was her way of thumbing her nose at management. She felt she was "teaching them a lesson" to pay more attention to the staffing because "it's their job." Truth is, said lesson never will get across because their antennas are not tuned into that radio station. We the nurses are the ones who suffer from poor staffing, not admin. and management.

Sure enough...............the posts came flying in from nurses defending their right not to have to lend a helping hand when it was needed. 80% of these posts confirmed, to the letter, my suspicion that a lot of times, people refuse to help their co-workers because they get a warm fuzzy feeling from thumbing their nose at management when they don't.

But......then there was that other 20% who were against my views but not because of what I described above. They tended to be the more experienced nurses who had their lives together and were happy with their jobs/work. That group can not be ignored.

What they offered me, advice wise, was: "Stop playing hero all the time, it will not further your career, it will not win you brownie points, it will not make the patients safer. The only purpose doing constant OT and always being the one to change your schedule serves is.....to get you a bigger paycheck. If you don't need the money, don't do it."

I took this to heart, reevaluated my approach and realized, yes, I gave up a lot in my personal life to play hero for my facility. Me not playing hero isn't going to make the hospital crumble to the ground all of a sudden. They will get by just fine without me donning the tights and hero costume. Since then, I am much more careful about when I do OT, and I am still more flexible than the average Joe but...........I'm not a door mat anymore either. My personal life has improved a bit too, and I think this is part of the reason. I'm more going back to school, I'm trying to lose weight, I'm having a great time with my parents while I still can. I don't see this happening if I were chronically fatigued from trying to be a hero that I'm not.

I said I took the advice of the experienced nurses to heart, and I mean that. I did some "introspective" thinking (the thread title was "Time for some introspective thinking" or something) of my own. What I came up with was this:

My desire to play hero came from my lack of confidence in my value as a nurse. I felt I needed TO BE ALL TO EVERYONE when it came to schedule needs. I felt inferior hence I thought I had to "make up ground" by being "Captain Flexible". Truth was, my nursing was lacking in some points (as is everyone's, we all have something or other we could do better) and a lot of my deficiencies as a nurse could be traced back to simply being too tired. I was too tired because..........my schedule was always changing and I was doing way too much OT. So, I fixed it.

I relate to you on a lot of levels. Nursing is INFECTED with a passive aggressive mentality that leads many to believe refusing to help is a kick in the pants for admin./management. These people need to grow up, and that's the nicest thing I can come up with to respond to that.

On the other hand, nursing also is infected with people like me who chronically feel inferior and are "helping" for all the wrong reasons. This doesn't help the problem. Being a door mat does not solve anything, for yourself or they system as a whole.

[tma0312]

Any time you recieved "special corporate training" you are pretty much at their beck and call. Not answering or ignoring the calls can and will cost you your job. Many medical facilites have no replacements in line when some one leaves or is fired. It is up to the regular staff to pick up the slack. Working in the Medical Field holds a different level of responsibility and commitment then the other work force. Just think for a moment, what if your child, mother, brother, or other family member had a nurse like you that did not answer the call for help to do her job. How would you feel? It is Nurses like you and others like you that give the patients cause to complain. Nursing is not a job its a calling and if you are not prepared to fully commit to your duties as a health care giver, find another career.

If nursing is such a calling, then where are the managers pulling overnight shifts to cover units when they are short staffed? And where are the managers every weekend and holiday when staff nurses are working? Since when does having a career and fulfilling a calling mean that we become married to our jobs and therefore put our work before our families? I love nursing, but I did not sign a contract anywhere stating I will now be available whenever they should so please. There must be boundaries set, otherwise someone will always try to take advantage of the person who is willing to help out.

Working weekends may not be overworking for some, but when you are raising children, managing a household and then working on top of that, life becomes extremely stressful.

[G MA RN]

Thank you, I found your post to be kind. Please forgive me if I came off harsh. It was not meant to be. I have been in this game a long time and sometimes forget others have a different view then me. I love my profession, my patients, Doctors I have worked with, and learn most from the families of patients and the patients themselves. I don't work OT for the glory of the pay, I do it because in my time that is what was expected, but most of all I do it for MY patients. :)

[optimist]

Working weekends may not be overworking for some, but when you are raising children, managing a household and then working on top of that, life becomes extremely stressful.

Thank you for pointing that out! I catch a lot of flack for only working 2 days a week, but when you add children,family,household and school into the equation, pulling grueling consecutive 13 hours shifts isnt a walk in the park. I do not recieve any on-call pay or incentives for coming in during the week, I actually am paid less. Weekends come with the perks of shift differentials and a weekend bonus, weekdays are flat base rate. So if they called me with a small bonus, or could offer me a day off during the weekend, I may very well consider helping. Heck, after paying the babysitter for a full day, it really wouldnt be all that financially benificial.And for all those who are going to say 'it shouldnt be about the money', Im sorry, thats why I work. I love my patients and do all I can for them but I go to work for a paycheck just like everyone else does.