Im a new RN and I dont have a problem with anyone so far on my floor...but I noticed a few of the techs/secretaries were not as "welcoming" as everyone else...
I used to be a PCT, so I nipped that in the bud quick. When I got the attitude vibe from a couple of them, I just killed them with kindness...I asked them "how to" questions (where's this and that? do you have any better ways of doing this? Are you in school for nursing? I used to be a tech, etc) Theyre attitudes changed ALOT. They come and talk to me, tell me funny jokes, etc. I guess its working.
Anyway, a few of my fellow interns are having problems with some of the unlicensed personnel. One of the interns was saying how one PCT gets irritated when she asks him to do something (like hes too overqualified)....I think he flunked outta med school or something I dont know...hes just BITTER
On the other hand, another girl is a paramedic and she won't let us do ANYTHING. She calls each of us "the intern", she butts in and does procedures and tries to help the doc while we are already in there. I don't mind if she's in there, but she could at least offer to show me some things. For example, where the suture stuff is, dermabond, what this particular doc likes etc...
Plus, my first day there, all she griped about to me was how all the RN's there were LAZY and how she has to do everything. She said " I cant believe they aren't having you guys do more, blah blah, blah"
I dont get that...I was never rude to new RN's at my old job. I tried to help them as much as I could and in turn, they ended up doing the same for me.
Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
i agree with the posts that are similar to the one directly above mine! i was a tech too. i got so much garbage from cnas, business clerks, house keeping, rns, etc. despite the fact i was a tech at one point! i tried the kill-them-with-kindness routine and it did not work! the fact, is although i was a tech, rumor got around that i was also an "a" nursing student. keep in mind i had nothing to do with the rumor... i never discussed my grades in ns or out of nursing school with anyone!!! however the rumor got around. so guess what? i got treated like dirt. the fact is some people not only do not want a newbie to tell him/her what to do, there are some envious people who want to see the newbie fall on his/her face! new grads are prime targets of horizontal harassment and i agree that it is no place of ours to have to psychoanalyze and coddle our harassers in the work place! so, i have taken another approach. i am professional... period.
as a tech i did my job and did not question the rns or treat anyone of any level like dirt. however, i am getting treated this way. therefore, i have cut out the nice-girl routine and have come down hard. now that i am 8 months in i am much more organized and able to follow up on the lazy techs. my way of getting him/her to do their job i nag them to death. if they want to blow off a rn they are learning quick it won't be me! i am no one's buddy or pal at work. i do not talk about my personal life or business (similar to men)... and i do not gossip... i also do not run to management when i have a problem because some techs are entrenched like ticks on these floors that they are not going to leave before the rn is run off. knowing this i will make my charge nurses find them before i go looking for them. knowing this, i will perform x,y,z task if i need it done right away and let the lazy tech know, that i did it because they did not get to it fast enough. these tactics usually ticks the lazy techs off because they have spread the rumor that they are hard working and i have shown them to others to be lazy through actions and not words. i could go on… but now when i start a shift on the worse floor in my hospital, i do not get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach based upon the tech on duty… i am now the one in charge. they can gossip and spread lies all they want. i am the rn and i have not fallen on my face!
Great point MBARN. There is some real value to being professional. I work in a small ICU/CCU with 14 beds totally full. It's so hard to pull off this kind of professionalism without any personal involvement day to day. It's a long twelve hours if it's just you and another nurse sitting next to each other at a desk. You have to break up the day with some conversation. Still, being kind, always kind, is the one thing that has saved me. Even with difficult techs/other RNs I (usually) am able to hammer out a relationship.
Specializes in ICU/CCU/Oncology/CSU/Managed Care/ Case Management.
I think alot of it may be resentment that they may not be in that role of being an RN. Or alot of times they don't see you in that role as RN yet. As you continue to do your job well you gain respect and that speaks volumes overall. Don't go to work with the mindset of turf terriotory--nurses vs. techs. Not saying you are but I have seen that happen.
But remember we all our a team and when one of them steps out of line again--I would address it with them and if that doesn't resolve let your charge nurse know.
i agree with the posts that are similar to the one directly above mine! i was a tech too. i got so much garbage from cnas, business clerks, house keeping, rns, etc. despite the fact i was a tech at one point! i tried the kill-them-with-kindness routine and it did not work! the fact, is although i was a tech, rumor got around that i was also an "a" nursing student. keep in mind i had nothing to do with the rumor... i never discussed my grades in ns or out of nursing school with anyone!!! however the rumor got around. so guess what? i got treated like dirt. the fact is some people not only do not want a newbie to tell him/her what to do, there are some envious people who want to see the newbie fall on his/her face! new grads are prime targets of horizontal harassment and i agree that it is no place of ours to have to psychoanalyze and coddle our harassers in the work place! so, i have taken another approach. i am professional... period.
as a tech i did my job and did not question the rns or treat anyone of any level like dirt. however, i am getting treated this way. therefore, i have cut out the nice-girl routine and have come down hard. now that i am 8 months in i am much more organized and able to follow up on the lazy techs. my way of getting him/her to do their job i nag them to death. if they want to blow off a rn they are learning quick it won't be me! i am no one's buddy or pal at work. i do not talk about my personal life or business (similar to men)... and i do not gossip... i also do not run to management when i have a problem because some techs are entrenched like ticks on these floors that they are not going to leave before the rn is run off. knowing this i will make my charge nurses find them before i go looking for them. knowing this, i will perform x,y,z task if i need it done right away and let the lazy tech know, that i did it because they did not get to it fast enough. these tactics usually ticks the lazy techs off because they have spread the rumor that they are hard working and i have shown them to others to be lazy through actions and not words. i could go on… but now when i start a shift on the worse floor in my hospital, i do not get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach based upon the tech on duty… i am now the one in charge. they can gossip and spread lies all they want. i am the rn and i have not fallen on my face!
sounds like a good coping mechanism but be careful you don't get burnt out too quickly.
i also experienced this from pcts and a few nurses but six months into my job as a new grad i can now say i have none of these problems anymore and i just play surface friendship with everyone. i pretend as if i don't understand even when they are mean.
i just want to do my job and go home. a lot of these difficult people have underlying problems or no peace in their homes and hearts.
For me, I think it was difficult for the CNAs that I had worked side by side with as a fellow CNA to take delegation from me as a nurse. Also, I think there was a perception that since I had been a CNA, that I could handle doing CNA stuff with my patients in addition to my LPN/RN level stuff. What the CNAs didn't realize was that I was struggling so hard to keep up with my LPN/RN level workload, that I *needed* their help even more than a nurse who had been a nurse for a while. While I have walked in the shoes of a CNA, the CNAs have not walked in the shoes of the nurse. I think that is the main cause of any problems I had with the CNAs when I was a new grad, in addition to my feeling weird "delegating" to people that had I had once worked shoulder to shoulder with.
That's precisely the reason I did not stay as an RN at the same place I was a tech. I knew the nurses would still see me as a tech, and want me to do all the 'tech' things, and I knew the techs would not find me believable as a nurse.
Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
sounds like a good coping mechanism but be careful you don't get burnt out too quickly.
i also experienced this from pcts and a few nurses but six months into my job as a new grad i can now say i have none of these problems anymore and i just play surface friendship with everyone. i pretend as if i don't understand even when they are mean.
i just want to do my job and go home. a lot of these difficult people have underlying problems or no peace in their homes and hearts.
i understand your point and basically i was saying the same thing. i do not act like i know that they do not like me. i pretend that i have no idea... however, i refuse to discuss my personal business with them because they are very very hateful people. i know because i know them... besides, i know of none of the male nurses on my floor that are buddies with the techs outside of work and yet they seem to get stuff done. i choose to be the same, not as a coping mechanism but as a career enhancer if that makes sense. btw i agree... they are miserable people. all hateful people usually have a horrid life and poor ability to adjust to problems. i am just stating that i am no longer allowing them to affect my work performance as i did when i started as a rn.
Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
that's precisely the reason i did not stay as an rn at the same place i was a tech. i knew the nurses would still see me as a tech, and want me to do all the 'tech' things, and i knew the techs would not find me believable as a nurse.
i tried... i really did!:) there is only one hospital in my town and so i attempted to work on a floor where no one would know me as anything but a new rn. i was successful briefly until my floor shut down and all the nurses were scattered to the wind. i was shifted from one floor to the next and ended up on the floor, where i was an extern at one point. it is also a floor where many of the techs and nurses knew me as a tech.
i plan to leave this small town once i earn my bsn. i will apply to every ed and cardiac step down in the country and move to the first one that says “yes”, assuming i do not receive a commission from the army (i am trying to land active duty assignment and train and work in emergency trauma nursing, where i belong).
btw, congrats on landing an icu right out of school. since i remained in my hospital i did not have the opportunity to land the ed out of school. heck, i did not even get to remain on the tele-step down unit that cross-trained me!!!! i know that my rejections are completely personal and not professional. if i had the opportunity to leave this town after graduation i know i would never had to deal with this garbage. i would have been treated as all new grads, poorly but it would have been due to being a newbie rather then a former tech. this is better because at some point newbies are no longer new, whereas former techs are always former techs. in any case, until my bsn is complete, i am making the best out of the lemons i am given and making the techs take care of the patients he/she is assigned on my load even if he/she does not like me.
i was lucky. i went to an icu with no techs!
it sounds like heaven. actually i started on a unit like that as a new grad... good times.. everything i wanted done was completed without back talk, gossip, or complaints!
That's precisely the reason I did not stay as an RN at the same place I was a tech. I knew the nurses would still see me as a tech, and want me to do all the 'tech' things, and I knew the techs would not find me believable as a nurse.
I was lucky. I went to an ICU with no techs!
I didn't want to work on any other floor except cardiac. :redbeathe The other nurses were really supportive and helped me a lot. At the same time, they expected me to pull my weight as a nurse right out of the gate, and never treated me like a CNA once I was one of them. Nurses that I hated working with as a CNA suddenly became my colleagues and my allies; my support system. It took some time, but the CNAs finally started to see me as a Nurse who used to be a CNA, not a Former CNA who is now a Nurse. I do not regret starting out on the same floor that I was an aide on, nor do I regret starting out in cardiac as a new grad. Both were very sound decisions, and really helped to pave the way for me to learn the skills I've learned, and to develop as a nurse. There have been a lot of moments along the way, but those moments happen everywhere.
Thanks for the replies! It makes me feel better that Im not the only one who notices the attitudes of some of the other healthcare workers against new nurses. I guess it just boils down to this--THEY feel insecure about something and its crapped on their self esteem. Maybe they've tried constantly to get into nursing school or PA school or whatever...(Dr.s treat nurses like dogs too sometimes but I have a different explanantion for that)....Anyway, for example, I know that I have no desire to get a masters in physical therapy...therefore, when I go to work PRN in the rehab facility I have no problems with the therapists? Silly explainantion but why else??
moments along the way, but those moments happen everywhere.
SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN
3,376 Posts
i agree with the posts that are similar to the one directly above mine! i was a tech too. i got so much garbage from cnas, business clerks, house keeping, rns, etc. despite the fact i was a tech at one point! i tried the kill-them-with-kindness routine and it did not work! the fact, is although i was a tech, rumor got around that i was also an "a" nursing student. keep in mind i had nothing to do with the rumor... i never discussed my grades in ns or out of nursing school with anyone!!! however the rumor got around. so guess what? i got treated like dirt. the fact is some people not only do not want a newbie to tell him/her what to do, there are some envious people who want to see the newbie fall on his/her face! new grads are prime targets of horizontal harassment and i agree that it is no place of ours to have to psychoanalyze and coddle our harassers in the work place! so, i have taken another approach. i am professional... period.
as a tech i did my job and did not question the rns or treat anyone of any level like dirt. however, i am getting treated this way. therefore, i have cut out the nice-girl routine and have come down hard. now that i am 8 months in i am much more organized and able to follow up on the lazy techs. my way of getting him/her to do their job i nag them to death. if they want to blow off a rn they are learning quick it won't be me! i am no one's buddy or pal at work. i do not talk about my personal life or business (similar to men)... and i do not gossip... i also do not run to management when i have a problem because some techs are entrenched like ticks on these floors that they are not going to leave before the rn is run off. knowing this i will make my charge nurses find them before i go looking for them. knowing this, i will perform x,y,z task if i need it done right away and let the lazy tech know, that i did it because they did not get to it fast enough. these tactics usually ticks the lazy techs off because they have spread the rumor that they are hard working and i have shown them to others to be lazy through actions and not words. i could go on… but now when i start a shift on the worse floor in my hospital, i do not get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach based upon the tech on duty… i am now the one in charge. they can gossip and spread lies all they want. i am the rn and i have not fallen on my face!