12/5: What I've learned this week - No, I don't have "just a second" to help you

[ixchel]

If I make it out of this weekend without losing my mind completely, it will be an absolute miracle. The last few months seem to be trying their best to do me in completely. I could really use a vacation. Just me, the kids, and sunshine. I'd be a happy girl.

So, some lessons from this week:

Someone posted something on Craigslist that was offensive.

It's surprising how surprising hallucinations AREN'T to some people. (Although on the flip side, it's kind of amusing seeing people get confused when I describe my own olfactory hallucinations.)

We have a tech who is a nursing student. He just finished his first semester. Of all of our techs, he's the most bold (abrasively?) in his approach to patient care and has been the only I've worked with who has made decisions "above his pay grade". I hoped with all my heart that some nursing school would add caution to his approach and performance. I've learned tonight that it hasn't. I genuinely like this person, but am afraid for him (and, unfortunately, patients).

Fitbit needs a NOC mode. Or... Is there a way to change its time zone maybe?

It's weird showing up to work with 6k steps already in for the day.

I'm apparently allergic to something I've put on my face in the last 12-18 hours. Love going to work looking like I have two swollen, black eyes.

Insecurity can turn people into monsters. I already knew this. What I didn't know was how much better it feels to ignore it, rather than engage it. (This is not patient-related.)

We have a tech who would rather cause an injury to a patient (pretending she didn't hear what you said), than increase her workload (by taking a BP cuff off, walking around the bed, and reattaching it to the other arm).

If a coworker is charting in a darker, quieter space, YES, they are are hiding. Go away.

If a coworker calls you and says, "I'm in desperate need of uninterrupted time so I can chart. I'll be (insert place here). Please don't tell anyone where I am - I just want to make sure you know where I am if I'm needed", this does NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT mean it would be a good time to go chart and chat WITH them.

"Really quickly": adj., meaning to occupy a very short span of time

Ex., "Because literally every single person and patient has needed me to help them with something 'really quickly', I have literally not even begun to do MY OWN JOB yet, and it's 0200 now." You keep using that phrase, and yet your definition of "really quickly" has become my definition of "I am now going to be here over an hour late while you and everyone else I helped get to leave on time." AND I CAN'T EVEN HIDE!

I am so overfilled with my quota of rude people that I just clocked out knowing I'll have some notes to finish when I go back. I may be royally p'ed off at my job right now, but I like being employed.

The charge nurse who told me I am inconsiderate of others' time (by taking too long to give report - apparently I'm not supposed to answer peoples' questions?) spends over an hour and a half receiving and giving report from the off-going and on-coming CNs. (Even when she and the other CN are both mid-way through a 3-day stretch together - so mostly updates only.)

Regarding report, when you interrupt report that you are receiving to ask questions, you're probably asking something they were going to tell you anyway. This will cause you to get an unorganized report. This will also cause report to take longer. Rather than interrupt, you could be a polite person and wait until the nurse is finished giving you reports. If you still have a question at that time, then by all means ask.

And...

Please...

For the love of God...

Don't do your assessments while you are receiving report! That is so rude that I have no words for it! The person giving you report has been there for over 12 hours and may have to be back in less than 12. This is not what bedside report is for!

What do I need to learn...?

When there is literally no one and nothing in the caregiver's "face to face world" to actually give that caregiver care, help and respite, how does the caregiver go about finding those things?

Sorry, guys. Majorly cranky OP this week!

Did you learn anything good?

[Farawyn]

So everybody's right!

Although syllabi rolls off the tongue so much easier than syllabuses.

Oh deers!

[Alisonisayoshi, LVN]

I've learned that seasoned nurses "really do eat their young" which I don't understand because I would never treat a new nurse like I have been treated by some, not all seasoned nurses.

I've learned that karma really does exist.

I think it's a company/unit culture thing. The facility I started in welcoming to me as a new grad. They treated me with respect and dignity, corrected me, taught me new things, and all around supported me completely when I felt unsure. Really. I graduated with MANY who did not have my first job experience. They dealt with nurses who didn't want to be bothered to help, orient, or precept them. Some were remarkably respectful people, many were older when they began nursing school so it wasn't an age/respect thing. It just was a "I don't want to deal with this new, and nervous, person" they walked into units where it was okay to be cliquey, to bully, or to just be a jerk. That wasn't acceptable at my first facility.

To say this never happens is to ignore a problem that happens in many industries/professions. It happens. It happened in my last career too. It's a top down issue, when management only cares about a bottom line, the staff can tend to feel angry and take that out on those under them. When management gives a crap about the people that work for them, it happens far less, because there is a culture created of actually caring about the people under and around you. There is a cultivation of training and learning in those kinds of enviroments.

All that being said, with the stress of nursing the bad behavior I saw in my former career to newbies, it's amplified with us. It deserves to get talked about, just not in a way that blames the nurses that participate in it. It's really not on them, crap is just rolling downhill so to speak.

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

So everybody's right!

Although syllabi rolls off the tongue so much easier than syllabuses.

How about hippopotamuseses?

/dang. Guess what's going on your morning montage tomorrow, FAr!

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

Oh deers!

Nat King Cole's version of The Christmas Songs looks to see if reindeerS really know how to fly.

Thought of you this morning when I heard it.

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

I learned that bossy, nosy, colleagues of my preceptors can bring me to almost cry in clinic. Then make me shake my head as they do a 180 and play nice.

I learned that the doctor who (haha , Doctor Who) recommended me for my new job when I graduate is out possibly with pancreatic cancer, just had a whipple. That really saddens me.

I learned that I care so much about my virtual friends that virtual shouldn't even be part of the descriptor.

[RainMom]

So everybody's right!

Although syllabi rolls off the tongue so much easier than syllabuses.

But what I want to know is...

What is the plural of pyxis? Pyxi? Pyxises?

I prefer to think of them as pyxies...with magical elixirs & ativan sprinkles...

[gemmi999]

I learned that eventually "new grad" rn just becomes "rn" and people (charge nurses) start seeing you as more then capable of pulling your own weight without help. I thought it'd taken longer but I'm really not a new grad anymore. It's been about 6 months and wow, what a 6 months its been!

Which means that when I'm working in the back of the ER on the "non-critical" beds and I have a 4 year old with an appy and two other patients, including a pregnant woman who'd been hit in her belly, I can and will be given an 18 month old SOB who is not responding to RT treatments and steroids. And that I can handle it, even if it means I tell the ER doc that the pt. is too sick to wait for ACLS and needs to be flown out now. And that the ER doc trusts my opinion and doesn't need to look at the pt. again before he orders lifeflight.

[Farawyn]

I realize that nursing school didn't teach me everything.

I respect and I want to learn from the older nurses, they have seen a lot more than I have.

I don't want their schedule, because there is no such thing as a "plum schedule" in nursing and the schedule I have suits be just fine. But when "some" not all treat you like they don't have the time to be a preceptor then don't be one.

"Some" are assigned, and don't want to be preceptors.

Hang in there.

[Farawyn]

I learned that eventually "new grad" rn just becomes "rn" and people (charge nurses) start seeing you as more then capable of pulling your own weight without help. I thought it'd taken longer but I'm really not a new grad anymore. It's been about 6 months and wow, what a 6 months its been!

Which means that when I'm working in the back of the ER on the "non-critical" beds and I have a 4 year old with an appy and two other patients, including a pregnant woman who'd been hit in her belly, I can and will be given an 18 month old SOB who is not responding to RT treatments and steroids. And that I can handle it, even if it means I tell the ER doc that the pt. is too sick to wait for ACLS and needs to be flown out now. And that the ER doc trusts my opinion and doesn't need to look at the pt. again before he orders lifeflight.

Good for you!!!:)

[BecomingNursey]

I learned that I'm on the verge of burnout.

I've learned that I must take care of myself first, everyone else does!

I'm learning that a new hospital might be a good opportunity for me. I may need a change to change my attitude and get my fire back for nursing.

I've learned I've recently lost my fire for nursing and I want it back because I love my profession. I'm proud to call myself a nurse, but I'm not proud of what out profession is becoming.

I'm learning that I do have a voice and I need to be more vocal and use it to try and change what I can that I don't like about where our profession is headed.

I've learned that sometimes stepping away from the desk, crying for a minute, coming back and picking everything back up again can be needed.

I've learned that I'm so glad I've always helped others when they needed help, because this week has sucked and I needed their help and guess what? They were there to help me and support me.

I've learned that I'm so glad to have AN to read about others experiences and share my own when I need somewhere to vent.

I've learned that even though I feel burned out, I'm not a lost cause because I still care. If I didn't care it would be time to take a step back.

[Farawyn]

I've learned beyond a reasonable doubt that School Nurses are insane, in an amazeballs kind of way.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I've learned beyond a reasonable doubt that School Nurses are insane, in an amazeballs kind of way.

Hey, you resemble that remark! :sofahider

And us OR nurses are the same way.

I've learned that I absolutely hate when a certain nurse is in charge- she'll send main OR people home early before lunch, and then expect the cardiac team, who is completely clueless when it comes to neuro and ortho procedures, to cover lunches. Yet we never get help in return because nobody in main OR knows how to do cardiac.