1. Dumb Residents. Yes... they do exist with their idiotic order sets.
2. Management saying " Staffing will get better- we are working on it"
3.The PCNA who charts nurse notified re: crazy vitals and they never said a word, so when you check vitals half an hour later, you see a BP of 190/110.
- same PCNA who wont do a manual check.
- same who tells the POD #1 pt " 99.1 temp? oh you have an infection.we have to tell the DR"
4. Family members who come running to the front desk screaming "i need my moms nurse...she was supposed to have gingerale. its been 10 minutes. this is unacceptable"
5. HCAPS!
6.Other departments that won't lift a finger, and spend 5 minutes hunting down the nurse for something idiotic like a blanket...
Hey, I hear your frustration, but that stuff in the larger picture is really the easy part. Please consider where to spend that energy, your energy is too precious to spend on that kind of stuff if you want to make it for the longer haul. A blanket, gingerale, strict I/O q 4 on a pt w/out a foley who is confused and incontinent, etc. are all extremely manageable.
This merits repeating. I totally understand getting frustrated with most of what you mentioned. But trust me, as a partially-fledged nurse with a little over 1.5 years of experience, you cannot afford to waste your mental energy on stuff like this. There are more important things to worry about. There is NOTHING wrong with telling a family member why something that was promised is delayed. I am repeatedly shocked with how many patients/family members fail to understand the patient load. When I tell them that they are 1 of 5 patients, they usually respond with "Oh my, that is so many more patients than the nurses in the ICU had!" So take a deep breath, provide a reality check/education where needed, and move on with life.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
**VENT VENT VENT VENT **
5 months into nursing as a RN, not a student.....
1. Dumb Residents. Yes... they do exist with their idiotic order sets.
2. Management saying " Staffing will get better- we are working on it"
3.The PCNA who charts nurse notified re: crazy vitals and they never said a word, so when you check vitals half an hour later, you see a BP of 190/110.
- same PCNA who wont do a manual check.
- same who tells the POD #1 pt " 99.1 temp? oh you have an infection.we have to tell the DR"
4. Family members who come running to the front desk screaming "i need my moms nurse...she was supposed to have gingerale. its been 10 minutes. this is unacceptable"
5. HCAPS!
6.Other departments that won't lift a finger, and spend 5 minutes hunting down the nurse for something idiotic like a blanket...
Welcome to the crazy reality of being a nurse. Heck with the residents what about crazy attendings....
I did 31 years in telecommunications hell, i am looking forward to finally living the dream of becoming a Nurse, warts and all. You will have crap in any job-its just the real kind as a Nurse.
Maybe it's the previous jobs I had during High School- before nursing, and the way I was treated that make me cherish the authority to say, "Oh Yes, YOU put that there, and YOUR gonna figure out how to get it out."
:redbeatheBoston, [who was once a Stock Yard "Pilot" = Pile it hear and there. And, a Bagboy(a good one though;)!)]
OPEN VISITATION in an ICU drove me out of bedside nursing for a year. I now travel nurse and will only take an assignment with visiting hours that are upheld. Not that hard to find as some managers want nurses to believe.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Makes me look forward to making it to the five month mark. I am at two months and the things I hate most are how much I do NOT know and how tense my shoulders have gotten since starting. Oh. And how my sleep now is constantly disrupted with the imagined sounds of pump alarms, panicked moments of sitting up straight in bed thinking I fell asleep at work and missed the two hour window for med pass and thinking I have fallen way behind on charting. Again.
I hear you OP even if you have only been a nurse for 5 months. SO WHAT it is as valid an opinion as if it had been 25 years when it comes to this. I caught on the first 5 minutes ,so 5months isnt a little time at all!
Who cares how long the OP has been a nurse? And let them vent, geez...sometimes we need to vent and it makes us feel better. :shrug
OP, I can relate to your frustrations. Especially #3. Our CNAs always chart "nurse notified of vital signs" and some are really good with telling us abnormal vitals while others forget and 2 hours later tell me, "I forgot to tell you, 14's temp was 103" and of course it wasn't charted until the CNA tells me. I've also had issues with monitor techs either giving me a delayed call (I'm talking like over an hour later, "hey, 14 is tachy!") or I won't get a call at all. We've brought these issues up to management but so far I'm still seeing these same issues. I've learned to watch my own monitors as the nurse's station depending on which monitor tech is working. :icon_roll
beckster_01, BSN, RN
500 Posts
This merits repeating. I totally understand getting frustrated with most of what you mentioned. But trust me, as a partially-fledged nurse with a little over 1.5 years of experience, you cannot afford to waste your mental energy on stuff like this. There are more important things to worry about. There is NOTHING wrong with telling a family member why something that was promised is delayed. I am repeatedly shocked with how many patients/family members fail to understand the patient load. When I tell them that they are 1 of 5 patients, they usually respond with "Oh my, that is so many more patients than the nurses in the ICU had!" So take a deep breath, provide a reality check/education where needed, and move on with life.