Vent

[TheMoonisMyLantern]

So, I have got to get this off my chest. All day today I was at a mandatory inservice that was provided by non-clinical staff for nursing staff. As I have come to expect from our in person inservices and classes addressed to nursing staff, the day was filled with games and activities complete with cutesy pictures and language. The material was presented as though we were all in kindergarten. I am all for using various tools for education when the material warrants it, but the information we were going over today was very basic and not rocket science. If the topics had been convoluted or difficult to grasp, sure, use an activity or prop to make them more tangible, otherwise just tell me what I need to know and don't make me participate in some infantile game. Yes, I'm being paid, so maybe I shouldn't complain but I would much rather be giving patient care and actually working. I just can't help but wonder if they would have used the same approach with physicians, accounting, or some other department and I say this because my entire career required educational meetings and inservices have always been presented this way as opposed to adhering to a professional or academic format. Have other people experienced this or is it just common in my area?

Another thing, off topic but in the same vein, why do things related to nursing have to feel so demeaning? Pizza parties by management, a pen with the company logo for nurses's week, hell even our award for recognition is called the DAISY award! It sounds like an award a girl scout would get, not a skilled, educated professional.

There, I got it out of my system.

I do realized that I could just be a stick in the mud, and that's entirely possible too, I just prefer to embrace my inner child at home, not at work ?

[JKL33]

36 minutes ago, Lil Nel said:

I have to attend an in-service later in morning, which is all about boasting Press-Ganey scores.

The answer is simple: boast staffing.

A 9 to 1 ratio means patient call lights will be ringing for a while.

Especially when you have a patient with explosive diarrhea at the start of shift, as I did on Sunday.

The tech and I spent 45 minutes cleaning up that mess.

Call bells went unanswered during that time.

Oh, please do give us an update when you get back @Lil Nel.

I wait with bated breath to hear what the already-decided interventions will be!

Please, don't tell your diarrhea story at the meeting; just don't. It makes us look dumb when we try to talk facts and it becomes clear that we haven't yet figured out nobody cares. Plus it gives them a chance to note that you are a complainer and not a team-player. Just save it.

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[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

1 hour ago, JKL33 said:

Oh, please do give us an update when you get back @Lil Nel.

I wait with bated breath to hear what the already-decided interventions will be!

Please, don't tell your diarrhea story at the meeting; just don't. It makes us look dumb when we try to talk facts and it becomes clear that we haven't yet figured out nobody cares. Plus it gives them a chance to note that you are a complainer and not a team-player. Just save it.

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Good point. We can't win no matter what we do, whether it's presenting TPTB with facts about our workdays or letting it go. Nobody's listening anyway.

[Oldmahubbard]

On 2/19/2019 at 7:47 PM, Been there,done that said:

Been there done that.. many times.

I recall one mandatory in-service called "WOW the patient". Somebody thought it was cute to serve those low-fat WOW chips. Some nurses got the runs from the fat substitute.

The real kicker? The outside company was paid one million bucks to present it.

Where I live, the chips are no longer available. They were decent, too. This is a sad day for nursing all around

[Katillac, RN]

What the nasty passive aggressive side of me wants to do is say sweetly with a huge smile, "Oh, dear! I think you have the wrong room, or maybe the wrong building. We are a group of hospital RNs who learned about the bronchial tree in A&P - not middle schoolers. We deal with patient respiratory issues every shift. Now, did you have information on best practice new therapies?"

[Davey Do]

To quote Gomer Pyle, "Surprise, surprise!" The 8 hour inservice wasn't all that bad.

We started with introductions and we were to give our name, title, and home unit. I sat at the back of the room, so I was the last to introduce myself and said, "I'm Richie Cunningham, CEO, your boss, Ivory Tower, and I proclaim 'No Inservice Day'! "

It got a laugh.

The initial presenter, Chrissy RN, is a supervisor with whom I respect and she said, just to make sure no one would get up and leave, "That's Davey Do. He likes to kid".

Lo and behold, she gave a really interesting presentation which centered on a new type of rating scale for suicide called the Columbia. It's an evidenced-based rating system which will soon be implemented at our facility. The Columbia system will change the manner in which we assess potential patients and, subsequently, the type of interventions we employ.

The subject was so darn interesting to me that I asked many questions and cited information from collateral resources which supported the Columbia's rating system. It felt neat to know a system was being implemented which didn't cause me to roll my eyes and say, "Oh gawd!".

Another neat thing about it was seeing Chrissy's excitement rise as I asked questions which allowed her to share more of her knowledge about the subject.

So, the first two hours of the 8 hour inservice held my interest.

I'll probably share more as I sit in my art room going through my notes, editing my sketches, and reliving the day...

[Davey Do]

Years ago, a buddy of mine owned and ran a Head Shop in downtown Anomaly Illinois where he sold paraphernalia under the guise of a tobacco shop. He was closed down one time by the police but was allowed to reopen and operate because nothing he sold was in and of itself illegal.

One part of the inservice was on contraband patients may bring into the hospital. A video was of a police chief who showed examples of how some dangerous contraband could be disguised as ordinary items. One particular item was a surgical steel blade disguised as a common ink pen. The police chief said, "One of these can be purchased for about seven dollars".

I wondered how distributors could advertise such an item on the up and up:

[Davey Do]

Of course some of the inservice was the same old song and dance.

Maybe it'd be more interesting if the made a Rock Opera out of it.

[Daisy4RN]

2 hours ago, Davey Do said:

Years ago, a buddy of mine owned and ran a Head Shop in downtown Anomaly Illinois where he sold paraphernalia under the guise of a tobacco shop. He was closed down one time by the police but was allowed to reopen and operate because nothing he sold was in and of itself illegal.

One part of the inservice was on contraband patients may bring into the hospital. A video was of a police chief who showed examples of how some dangerous contraband could be disguised as ordinary items. One particular item was a surgical steel blade disguised as a common ink pen. The police chief said, "One of these can be purchased for about seven dollars".

I wondered how distributors could advertise such an item on the up and up:

I guess that assumes that you are allowed to look for said contraband. Last hospital I worked at we were not allowed to go through pt belongings even after nurses were physically attacked with knives that pts brought in, UGH!!

[TriciaJ, RN]

11 hours ago, Lil Nel said:

I have to attend an in-service later in morning, which is all about boasting Press-Ganey scores.

The answer is simple: boast staffing.

A 9 to 1 ratio means patient call lights will be ringing for a while.

Especially when you have a patient with explosive diarrhea at the start of shift, as I did on Sunday.

The tech and I spent 45 minutes cleaning up that mess.

Call bells went unanswered during that time.

Now if you were able to think like an administrator, you'd know that you should have left that poor person in poop while you answered the other eight call lights. That way you'd get only one bad Press-Ganey score and eight good ones. Silly you!

[Davey Do]

The psych division of Wrongway Regional Medical Center (WRMC) is primarily housed in its own building adjacent to the medical center. Geriatric psych is housed in the medical portion of WRMC, so I don't know the psych division building as well as I do the medical side.

We had the last part of our inservice, the portion of CPI having to do with take-downs, restraints, etc in the gym of the psych division basement which has a gym. When we done and informed the inservice was over, we headed out the door like Bob Seeger leaving a Disco.

Some went for the elevator, while I asked Colby, a big gentle bear of a male RN who usually worked in the building, "Is that the door to the stairwell?" I pointed, Colby told me it was, and I opened it only to set off an alarm. Colby yelled, "Let's get out of here! Quick!"

Colby and couple of others bounded up the stairs with me in the lead. I came to a half gate, tried it and said, "It's locked!" and jumped over. Colby came up behind me, took hold of the gate, opened it and and calmly said, "Dave- it opens the other way".

Embarrassed, I said, "Yeah! But weren't we just like the Beatles in the stairwell scene of 'A Hard Day's Night'?!"

Nobody replied and I said, "You know- The Beatles? There were four of them? From England?"

I tell ya. Kids today!

[Davey Do]

15 minutes ago, Daisy4RN said:

I guess that assumes that you are allowed to look for said contraband. Last hospital I worked at we were not allowed to go through pt belongings even after nurses were physically attacked with knives that pts brought in, UGH!!

I know! And I'm sorry to hear that, Daisy. At least routine, non-invasive searches need to be done on all patients.

B tells me stories all the time of ludicrous stuff medical patients bring into the hospital! One time they found a jug of vodka in patient's belongings!

[Golden_RN, MSN]

20 hours ago, TheMoonisMyLantern said:

I can appreciate the challenges that educators face, but a lecture doesn't have to be childish to be interesting. For example, outside of the games and activities the presenters were talented speakers and insightful had the forgone the shenanigans not only would the class been more efficient but it would have been effective. People go to sleep and look at their phones because half the time they're night shift workers who are forced to rearrange their sleeping patterns to attend the class.

I totally agree with your response. Sometimes I had an audience that was a mixed group - CNAs to RNs - and you don't want to get deep into A & P that is over some of the group's heads. It definitely would be insulting as an RN to be shown hand-drawn anatomy though!

And we made tons of exceptions for people on night shift. I often came in at 6am, or flexed my schedule to an evening shift to prevent noc shift from having to come in during their sleep hours for mandatory trainings. It is possible for educators to get creative to reach everyone.