Firstly, I am 39 years old and a new nurse of five months on an extremely busy med/surg floor which focuses (somewhat) on solid organ transplant.
I am still learning to put things together, and in fact I learn something every single day. I have a full patient load of 5 most days. I take my job very seriously and I NEVER stop. I am not at the nurses' station looking at clothes on the computer, or gossiping. My main goal when I walk in there is to do everything I can as efficiently as I can so that I can get out of there on time. Which means, as close to 7:30 as humanly possible.
This doesn't always work, however. I live an hour away from the hospital, and by the time I drive home I have worked a 15 hour day, if I have to come back the following day I am pretty well ready to drop. So getting out on time is important, and so is doing my job well.
Okay, enough prelude. So the other day I had everything sewed up. All my charting up to date, everyone taken care of, meds current, orders taken off. I was feeling really good. Then something happens after 5 pm. Everyone wants something and everything suddenly has to be done. I had an order for a heparin drip, which I had never done before. I was trying not to stress, because I knew there were lots of nurses that could help me. Trouble was, they were all busy, too, and couldn't get free to show me how to do things. It requires a second nurse check to hang heparin, anyway, so I had to have someone. The heparin wasn't up in the tube station yet, so I couldn't give it, and a nurse told me I needed an aptt to be able to start the drip anyway. So I call to have lab come do this. Meanwhile, transport comes to take my patient to CT. The heparin comes up at the same time. I ask another nurse what to do, and they said to let it wait because, hey, CT will just turn off the heparin drip anyway. Fine. Obviously when the lab came to do the blood draw, the patient was gone.
Pt comes back up, I instantly call to have her blood drawn. We wait for the results, get them, and I'm ready to hang the drip. I have to get a nurse to help me, because I don't know what I'm doing. Other patients are asking for stuff, I'm running to take care of their needs. One patient had stomach contents dripping out of his NG tube all over his bed, I flush the tube and call for the PCA to come change the bed. Meanwhile, a new admit just arrived. It is now 6 pm. Trying not to stress, here.
I asked THREE nurses to help me with the drip, they are busy but one finally comes to help. As I am waiting for her I find that my patient is STILL in his stomach contents in his bed, a half hour after I called for the pca. I find pca sitting at nurses' station, looking sad and forlorn and reading stuff on the computer. I say, "Did you get the page about that patient?" She says yeah, what about it? I said, "It really needs to get done. I understand you're not thrilled about it but it's important to get him cleaned up." She sits there. I am ****** beyond belief.
Still waiting for the nurse to come help with the drip, I talk to my manager about the pca. She says this is the stuff she needs to know is happening and goes to inform pca to get her work done. Pca now hates my guts, as evidenced by the look of hatred as she goes to said room. Oh well...what's new.
Finally at ten till the nurse comes to help me with the drip. Informs me that the info I had gotten from another senior nurse is completely wrong and had to show me the correct way to do it, and she was right. We're working on it, trying to get things done. It is 7:40 before we get out of that room. I am flustered, exhausted, angry, and now I have to give report on 5 people.
The nurse I get to give report to is a pain in the orifice. She's particular, critical, harsh, and loves to show new nurses how smart she is. I was not in the mood. I begin report with the heparin lady, and when said nurse finds that I have hung the heparin she begins firing questions...what is the dose, I tell her, what is the rate? I can't even remember. I said I don't recall what it was but it was double checked and the pump sets it automatically. She huffs and puffs and rolls her eyes. I sigh, "Do you want me to go see what it is?" "YES!" she replies, so once more down the hall I go to get the number that she would have had herself the moment she walked into the room and looked at the pump. I come back with the number, she then asks if the pt has an order for fluids. She does, and she informs me that means she has to have a separate line put in. I am sick inside. It's now 7:45, I wasn't aware of this info before, and she's looking at me expectantly. I said, "Are you wanting me to do that?" she says back matter-of-factly, "That person needs a second line put in." I sigh. Continuing on with the painful report, because I was so tired and so frustrated that I just felt like my report was going all over the place, but still, I answered 99% of her questions. She began instructing me on what causes NG tubes to back up, which I don't mind being given useful info and being taught. But now it is after 8pm.
After report, as I am gathering things up and go to give my paperwork a last glance, make sure all is okay, she is still firing questions at me about things that she really should go and check out herself. I am really at the end of my rope.
Okay, after this long story, what I wonder is this...when does my shift end? I mean, if there were a med I hadn't given, or something like a documentation issue that needed taken care of, I understand I would need to take care of it before I left. If I was in the middle of some patient care thing and it was time to leave, obviously I wouldn't just drop it and walk away. But the thing about the IV and having to run back to the room to get the rate at which the heparin was running really got to me. My manager says that nursing is a 24 hour job, you do the best you can on your 12 hours and when the next bunch comes in it's time for them to take over. I can't work all night just because they don't want to be inconvenienced by an issues that might have started on my shift but has now bled over to theirs. I don't feel it was my responsibility to start that second IV, and I didn't. I left.
My experience is that some nurses will keep you there until hell freezes over, doing little tasks, calling doctors, etc. as long as you put up with it and bow down to their superior experience. I feel I am being used and run to death, and people have told me I need to be more assertive and stand up for myself. I will do anything I need to do, I work my orifice off, but there are two or three nurses that want me to stay for 40 minutes into their shift and take care of anything they think I should have gotten before. Well, I don't always have the luxury of things flowing so well that I can get EVERYTHING perfectly sewn up. It doesn't always work that way. What, so that's my problem? My shift just keeps extending into whenever because of days like that? I don't feel this is right, but I am looking for other opinions on it.
Gee, sure, why didn't I just stay until about 10pm and finish that guy's new admit paperwork. After all, he DID come in on MY shift!! Oh, and she rolled her eyes on the fact that I didn't get that paperwork done, too, and had to pass it to her.
Thanks for reading...
Hoosiernurse:no:
bellehill, RN
566 Posts
Unfortunately there will always be nurses who make the new ones feel inferior. I don't know why nurses do this to each other but it isn't going to change. All you can do is your best for your 12-hour shift. Your manager is right, nursing is a 24-hour process. Anything that doesn't get done is passed on to the next shift. Your shift ends when you are done giving report, in my opinion. If you can honestly say you did everything you could possibly do during your shift then walk out the door and feel good about yourself. Don't let other nurses make you feel inferior, they were new once too.