What Is the Problem With These Nurses?

MultipurposeRN · Nov 29, 2006

Where are the instructors in these situations? When I had students I tried to put them with nurses who didn't mind students and also nurses that could teach them a lot. I was pretty fortunate in finding staff who fit both criteria. I figured they weren't going to learn as much from a staff member who wasn't keen on them, though I couldn't always avoid it. Then I just had to tell the youngns that there were people who didn't care for students and we'd just deal with it the best we could. I was a pretty visible and available instructor, though. I know not all programs were able to have instructors stay on one floor most of the time.

Mulan · Nov 29, 2006

We have a couple nurse interns on my floor. I began working there a couple months ago, and the few times I have worked with the nurse interns, they have belittled and berated me, which I found to be bizarre. I think they are picking up on the attitudes of the nurses who have been working there for a long time. It's "ok" to beat up the "new" nurses. I was just really taken aback when a nurse intern rolled her eyes while transferring a patient, and yelled at me from across the fresh post-op "UH NO YOU DO NOT DO IT LIKE THAT> JUST FOLLOW MY LEAD."
I was so shocked, I just did whatever she told me to do and then got out of that room.
The next weekend, she informed me that a patient of mine was nauseated. As I was standing at the PYXIS getting the meds a few minutes later, she popped her head in the med room and said "UM, if you dont have time to take care of your patient, just give me the drug and I'll push it."
I was appalled. Not only that she really is a beast, not just a one off, like I was hoping, but that someone has most likely been allowing her to push IV meds. I mentioned this to the nurse manager, in case the nurses on the floor were actually allowing her to push IV meds.

I think I'd have to follow up on that too. That is totally inappropriate, for you to be spoken to that way.

Unfortunately, I have seen that some new nurses get paired with a preceptor that has an attitude and they become (or maybe they were like that to begin with?) just as nasty as the one that is precepting them.

Sheri257 · Nov 29, 2006

The instructor only drops in for a couple of minutes once a week. We don't see much of her. I've talked to her about it but, one of the hospitals dropped out of precepting at the last minute and they had to scramble to make other arrangments for a bunch of students with limited preceptors available so ... I couldn't switch preceptors under the circumstances.

As for nurses not wanting to precept students and doing it anyway ... I found out why: the school gives them CE hours for this.

Although ... quite frankly, maybe this preceptor would be better with another student. Maybe it's just me ... I haven't done anything I know of to offend her but ... maybe I just rub her the wrong way. It could be one of those personality things.

Regardless, I have been working my butt off for her ... that's for sure.

:typing

Simplepleasures · Nov 29, 2006

Heh. I lost my job on SUnday, and realized that something I had suspected was true. I have been an LPN for 5 months, 4 on nights, at a SNF. They moved me to days to give me more back-up and the day charge nurse, and LPN of 20 years and an age peer of mine, had been slowly poisoning the upper echelons to view me as incompetent. Little comments, constant small complaints.... often in front of the CNAs.
I'm quite disillusioned.
(Edited because I can't type.)

Yes I have seen this happen time and time again in the 27 years I was out there.I really think that it may be a form of the Stockholm Syndrome, in which the prisoner starts identifying with the Captors. Its a way to ingratiate themselves , so when/if they make a mistake , they think they will have "protection" by the higher ups. I have actually seen this happen , that no matter what they have done ( yes even a patient death) they have sometimes been "excused". BUT in other cases I have seen nurses who thought they were "in like flint" get booted out so fast their heads spun. I say be true to your fellow nurses, dont really trust anyone explicitly and CERTAINLY dont think by being the good little company gal and stabbing your fellow nurses in the back it will always get you protection.

GardenDove · Nov 29, 2006

hey i know what you are talking about they do eat there young i became an LPN at 20 yeah i know what was i thinking its what i wanted to do i am 23 now and there is this nurse who works 3-11 i work 11-7 and she talks to me like i am freaken slow now i have done every shift i have been a nurse for going on 3 years now and i must have know what i was doing to graduate i must have know what i was doing to pass my boards i do know what i am doing i have that confidence now i know i am human and i do make mistakes and i own up to them learn from them that is how we grow in nursing but this nurse will harp on it the only thing i can think is she is jealous because i have what she has at such a younger age then her and i am good i love what i do i love my patients and when there is something that needs to be done i do it i dont cry about it i just do it i dont know what to do about this nurse i have confronted her told her to talk to me as a peer and not as a child i am getting sick of it !!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH cant we all just get along!!

Is this a serious post? I'm wondering this because of the total lack of punctuation.

GardenDove · Nov 29, 2006

As far as the topic at hand, the nursing field is populated by many different personality types. There is also a great variety in the student nurses. I agree, it's very hard to confront an aggressive type of person when you are the new kid on the block. A very difficult situation. It's good to learn to deal with it, however, because once out of school, it will repeat itsself in different forms throughout your career, such as when changing units, floating, etc.

Freedom42 · Nov 29, 2006

Ingelein: I find your Stockholm Syndrome theory at once hilarious and totally plausible. It's the best answer yet that I've seen on this board to the question of why nurses eat their young (if, in fact, they do). I find the prisoner analogy entertaining. But I think you're right. After all, we all acclimate ourselves to behave according to the culture that we're in.

Still, I'm baffled: Where are human resource people when all this is going on? Allowing hostile work environments is a legal risk.

I've never worked in a hospital. I truly wonder if I will be able to fit into the culture. The degree of hostility that's permitted -- at least as it's described on these boards -- seems outdated compared to the typical corporate climate these days.

Simplepleasures · Nov 29, 2006

Still, I'm baffled: Where are human resource people when all this is going on? Allowing hostile work environments is a legal risk.
I've never worked in a hospital. I truly wonder if I will be able to fit into the culture. The degree of hostility that's permitted -- at least as it's described on these boards -- seems outdated compared to the typical corporate climate these days.

The HR department is part of the corporation and the only kind of hostile work environment is the kind they can be sued for and that is sexual harrasement and maybe some of the other protected classes of employees. Yes, I have talked to my son in law who is a CEO and is on top of corporate trends, he is also shocked at how outdated the corporate phylosophy of healthcare facilies are. Even he as a CEO thinks nurses are FOOLISH not to work under the protection of a union, and he is generally anti-union!! I believe we nurses have been the "enablers" in this sense.We have allowed this to go on much too long.

augigi, CNS · Nov 29, 2006

Look, I'm not suggesting you be a doormat and take a lot of bad treatment. I just think it's often a problem from both sides, and we're not getting both sides of the argument. As a student you are there to learn. No doubt the OP's preceptor is a PIA. However, you can be assured that once you graduate, WHEREVER you go, there'll be another PIA know it all. Learning to deal with this while you're a student is just as much as skill as learning to give meds. Nursing is a female-dominated profession, and it's generally got at least a few cows in every ward. You have to deal with it. I'm not suggesting crawling up their butt, but just dealing with it as pleasantly as you can, for YOUR sake. You get to leave when clinicals are over, they don't. If you can compromise a little and try and work out what they want from you, what does it cost you?

smk1, LPN · Nov 29, 2006

I've always thought the "nurses eating their young" phenomenon was somewhat of a misnomer, since we're not their children and I know students can impose a lot of burdens on nurses. But, when you're pretty functional and helping out with most of the work, and some nurses still beat you down to a pulp, I just don't get it.
What's the point of being so mean? I'm running my butt off all day, I'm giving all of the meds, doing all of the charting, aide work, etc. for most of the patients. Yet, no matter how hard I work, there's still a constant barrage of criticism ...
Of course, I make mistakes and I definitely need to improve in a lot of areas. No question about it. Nevertheless, I am not a total novice and, despite my shortcomings, I do know I'm making their day a hellava lot easier.
But ... I'm only human, and I do tend to make even more mistakes when I know I'm going to get slammed no matter what I do. After awhile, no matter how tough you are, it's difficult to concentrate and do everything the nurse wants when you know she's hostile and looking for any opportunity to jump on your case ... even when you do things right.
I actually don't need nor do I expect praise or reassurance but, like a lot of people, I don't tend do well when I getting slammed all the time either.
I can't wait to get out of there and let them get back to doing all the work. Thankfully, my days of slave labor will soon be over. I hope they got their jollies because if this is how they make themselves feel better or whatever it is ... good riddance.
:typing

Yeah some people are just ridiculous. The ones that really get me mad are the ones who just graduated maybe 1 or 2 years ago and they act like they have NO IDEA what it is like to be a student. I also get frustrated at the nurses who tell you to go ahead and do something that you just told them you can't do, or try to get you to take short cuts when they know full well that when you are in nursing school, many of the common shortcuts are frowned upon. Some people act like they never had to go through nursing school or jump through the hoops and get annoyed when at the student when they have to stand by and watch you give meds or put in foleys start IV's etc...I don't understand that. Every nurse knows what it was like to be at clinical and move slowly and not know everything, forget the names of equipment etc... Many of the nurses are very good teachers and don't seem to mind us, but some just look sick as soon as they see us come through the door. I try to be as prepared as possible, gather my equipment together and get everything taken care of so the nurse isn't wasting time watching me fumble around, but sometimes I just don't know where something is, or the brand name etc... I seriuosly think things would go a lot smoother if there were a 15 minute-half-hour orientation with the actual nurses and CNA's on each unit at the beginning of the term. Give them the list of what we CANNOT under any circumstance do. What we can do on our own, and what must be done in the presence of an RN. Get an orientation to the lift machines that we haven't used before etc... We get an orientation to the clinical site, but I still see so much confusion from the staff that I feel like we need them to tell us what they expect and we can modify those expectations if they are not in line with what we can do.

Sheri257 · Nov 29, 2006

I hear you SMK. Some of these nurses who've worked at the same hospital for years seem to forget that every hospital's gear is different. Everything from the IV sticks to the pumps has little quirks that make things work (or not) differently. I've been in so many facilities now ... I can't remember each and every little thing ...

Yet ... there was my nurse scolding me about some little contraption I'd never seen before. Turns out ... to get the syringe out of this thing ... you have to smack the top down on the table so it will pop out. How was I supposed to know that?

But, of course, her response was ... "don't they teach you anything in nursing school?" When I asked around, none of the nurses had seen this thing anywhere except this particular hospital. So, of course, I'm supposedly an idiot for not knowing these things.

:rolleyes:

Mulan · Nov 30, 2006

I hear you SMK. Some of these nurses who've worked at the same hospital for years seem to forget that every hospital's gear is different. Everything from the IV sticks to the pumps has little quirks that make things work (or not) differently. I've been in so many facilities now ... I can't remember each and every little thing ...
Yet ... there was my nurse scolding me about some little contraption I'd never seen before. Turns out ... to get the syringe out of this thing ... you have to smack the top down on the table so it will pop out. How was I supposed to know that?
But, of course, her response was ... "don't they teach you anything in nursing school?" When I asked around, none of the nurses had seen this thing anywhere except this particular hospital. So, of course, I'm supposedly an idiot for not knowing these things.

You'll find that as a new employee also. Some old fossils have worked at the same place so long, (it may be the only place they have ever worked) that they have no concept that there may be other ways of doing things.

They really ought to get out more. :roll