We Are ALL On The Same Team

[Mully]

I'm talking about the constant complaints about everyone else in the hospital. Now granted, I've only ever worked at one hospital, but having talked to both my mom and my sister who both work at separate hospitals, it seems that it's the same no matter where you go.

It goes something like this ...

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RT giving attitude because the nurse calls them about a patient.

- Don't worry, I'm only assisting with an intubation. I'll be sure to rush to your 89% O2sat.

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The nurse is mad because the telemetry monitoring people keep calling them.

- I've got BM up to my elbows and all they care about is that the stupid batteries are dead.

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The telemetry people are mad because they can't see their patients.

- Replace the freaking batteries already, it's been 15 minutes!

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The ER's mad because they're on hold.

- Sure I'll sit and listen to the hold music for 10 minutes, I don't have anything to do.

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Everyone's mad at the ER for bringing them patients.

- Just before lunch, of course they're dumping all their patients now.

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Hospitalist is ****** because he's overloaded and you're calling him.

- I don't care about a morning K of 3.4!

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The day shift nurse is mad because the night shift nurse doesn't know how much O2 the patient is on.

- What do you even do at night, the patients are sleeping?!

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The floor nurses are ticked at the house shift manager

- We always get slammed when Suzi is on!

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Pharmacy is mad because the nurse is calling about the STAT med.

- Well they need to chill, the order got put in 2 minutes ago.

Are we getting the point? And this isn't even scratching the surface. I could go on for hours.

It seems like lately, absolutely everyone has an attitude with absolutely everyone else! Over everything!

I'm here to say I'M SICK OF IT. It makes for a hostile, unpleasant work environment that causes people to have more stress than is good for them, and is the main cause for massive burnout.

So what can we do to help it?

• Well for one, we can stop getting mad at everyone around us. The next time someone's giving report and they don't know something that you ask, instead of sighing or rolling your eyes, how about giving them a little grace? Maybe they had a really rough day. The next time you're getting a patient from another unit, maybe try giving them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they're getting another patient just like you are.
• Maybe we could assume that we all got into health care for similar reasons.
• Maybe we could value each others opinions, even if we don't like them.
• Maybe we could stop judging other units until we work a day or two on them.

We're all on the same team.

We all want what's best for the patient.

We need to start acting like it.

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

Guilty. I complain about the pharmacy all the time

[amygarside]

Well said! Everyone should read this!

[Altra, BSN, RN]

I think it's part of the larger societal flipness and "gotcha" attitude that I see all around me everywhere now. It's the prevalent form of humor and and popularity on the television which the vast majority of the population feeds their minds with - junk food for the brain!

Rx: Kill your television - love thy neighbor - and give co-workers the benefit of the doubt - take responsibility for your own frustration and stress without blaming others!

I would like this a thousand times if I could!

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I agree that we shouldn't take out our frustrations on co-workers. But I feel like its always up to nursing to pitch in when other departments are short but never vice versa. When housekeeping is short we strip rooms, when nursing is short I don't see housekeepers emptying linens and trash. No transporters? It's up to nursing to get patients to X-ray, but they can never assist someone to the restroom. My patient is respiratory distress and 3 bed alarms ringing but RT won't call the MD for orders for blood gases and BiPap.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

I was recently told to stand down about talking about this! Our transporters get called stupid, unbelievable, and get cursed at. they are treated terribly! Can you imagine if it were you being openly hated for every single thing you did? Each and every day? I spoke to some higher ups about it. They pulled the whole "well we can't do anything about it" card. Don't my friends deserve to come to work and not be hated for 12 hours a day?

Next to them I have it easy. I just get hated over the phone by the floor nurses. And each and every one says "I would never do that!" And goes on doing it.

This is really sad. It can't help but be picked up by patients. Psychological comfort is as important as pain relief.

We love our transporter and our lift team.

[rn undisclosed name]

I'm guilty of not knowing how much oxygen is on a patient. Sometimes you confuse who is on 2L and who is on 3L. Unless it's something more obvious like 15L or a nonrebreather. If I don't write it down I won't always remember it. I can have multiple people with pneumonia so I sometimes forget the exact number of liters unless I refer to my "brain". After your shift sometimes you're just a little tired.

I rarely get report from the ER in my facility. I receive very little notice about an admission. I would love to get report. I am told whatever information I need is in the computer. A lot of times it is. If I have a question the contact number for the nurse who is supposively responsible for that patient never knows anything or the patient comes up at the beginning of my shift and they've already gone home and nobody can help me. I write up incident reports for it. The ER nurse does get preliminary orders but sometimes they're incorrect. They just write down what the doctor says. I had someone admitted with severe abdominal pain and there was an order for a general diet. Luckily she didn't get anything. I talk to my manager but I am told to write it up. I have gotten patients on cardizem and heparin drips and had no idea.

I don't avoid getting report on a patient. If I am in the middle of something I take their number and call them back as soon as I finish. The majority of the nurses I work with at my current facility do the same. That is a great article and I have experienced most of that at the various places I've worked at. I'm lucky I don't deal with a lot of that at my current facility. I've been there 2 years and it is by far my favorite place.

[besaangel, ASN, BSN, MSN, CNA, RN, APRN, NP]

I agree that we shouldn't take out our frustrations on co-workers. But I feel like its always up to nursing to pitch in when other departments are short but never vice versa. When housekeeping is short we strip rooms, when nursing is short I don't see housekeepers emptying linens and trash. No transporters? It's up to nursing to get patients to X-ray, but they can never assist someone to the restroom. My patient is respiratory distress and 3 bed alarms ringing but RT won't call the MD for orders for blood gases and BiPap.

Depends. At my hospital, some ER nurses are just slackers. They send pts to X-ray fully clothed but want chest and t-spines. So we have to get them changed and prepped. Pt has a cut finger and order a stat trauma. Really? or the notorious calling housekeeping cuz pt mistakenly voided on the floor and nurse puts a sheet over it so they "have to clean it" and not her

We do help each other out for the most part though. If a pt needs to go to CT from X-ray, we take them. Pt needs to void, we help them and not leave it up to the nurse. But I think a lack of communication and staff (which we all are) is the major problem. We used to get our own pts but then the nurses were so unorganized (for lack of better word) that it had us making several trips to attempt to get pts while others waited. Became easier for nurses to take them to and we take them back. Darn, my techs have even cleaned pts :)

Yes Nurses do a bit of everything but that's what we do