She was obviously a douchebag, but it still bothered me for some reason. I started to think about it when I got home when I realized that is possibly one of the worst things you can say to a nurse who actually does care. It sounds weird, but I would actually rather face a barrage of C-bombs than to have a patient ever say that to me. And I think it's because I see what nurses like that are actually like.
Nursing really is one of those careers where you have to in some fashion, feel a calling to your job and care about what you're doing. You have to care about people and want them to do well. You can do the job, I suppose, by possessing the necessary knowledge and skills to get it done, but if you're not really into what you're doing then you're probably gonna be pretty shitty at it.
We have a nurse on days that's a pretty classic example of this. She's been a nurse for quite a while, she understands what she's doing and why she's doing it, she's not incompetent- but she obviously could care less. She clearly has no interest in her patient's comfort, or even their outcome. It's pretty much expected when I take report from her that I'm going to have to get everyone's pain meds, etc, but this is seriously the douchebag I took report from one day who hadn't started a Heparin drip on a patient with NSTEMI and active chest pain for over an hour because the order hadn't crossed over to our Pyxis yet and it would have generated a report for an unlinked order in her name (i.e. she didn't feel like screwing with the math involved with a weight based drip.) Whenever she sees a call light in front of one of her rooms go off, she actually gets up and walks the other direction. So far she hasn't killed anyone, but if she did I doubt she'd be upset about it.
I guess I really just don't understand this mindset. Why would you get into this profession if you don't care? There are plenty of other jobs out there that pay more and don't require you to clean shit. Especially ER. Why? Why work in on of the busiest and most challenging ERs in the city if you just want to sit on your ass and not deal with people? Even if you don't wanna switch careers, almost any other nursing job is easier than this one.
I'm really feel like if you really have no investment in what happens to your patients then you should GTFO of the profession. Seriously. I don't care if it makes the shortage worse. I would rather double my patient load and get my ass handed to me every night than to work with a someone who would sit at the nurses' station and text while their patient sits in their own waste in pain. There's no worse insult in the world than being lumped in with assholes like this.
Wow, fortunately, nurses like you are the majority (at least so far for me) and that jerk hopefully is in the small minority.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I know lots of young women who take the relatively easy CNA course and graduate without ever touching a patient. How they do is beyond me yet I have heard them bragging amongst themselves as if it were a badge of honor to remain “touchless” and still get your certificate.
wv undcarin weird how sometimes it almost makes sense
My CNA instructor was an old school nurse who would have kicked our butts if we avoided touching the patients. That said, it is depressing how many nurses get into it for a paycheck and do not care about the patients. There is nothing wrong with wanting money. I would not do this for free. However, some compassion on occasion would be nice.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I hated it when patients would hit below the belt. I remember one guy who called me the anti-Christ of nursing; not exactly sure what brought that one on, but it stung so bad- I don't think I'll ever forget it. I tried not to let it bother me, but spent the entire shift wondering what I had done to make him feel so strongly. I consider pt care of highest priority and I'm always in there cleaning, turning, 3P-ing; I don't mind getting my hands dirty- "tasking" is one of my favorite things, it's the charting that can go to hell, lol....so when you're compared to those nurses who literally turn the other way when needed, or say, pull up meds from an ampule without a filter needle because it takes "too long", your heart hurts. We didn't get into the profession for glory, we do it for love.
ReplyDeleteWow the antichrist of nursing hahaha. I think I'll start calling myself that...
ReplyDeleteI hear you. After 35 years in nursing, it still bothers me, I guess when you try so hard and you still get that kind of verbage thrown at you...well...I suppose it is a gauge of sorts that shows you are still human.
ReplyDelete:)
Man, just remove RN and put in RRT and you could cover a number of respiratory therapists I have seen over the last few years.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the hating to hear comments on how we don't care. It's so dang hard not to care too much sometimes. I remember when I was in nursing school and how depressing it was to have a nurse say to me "oh god, why would you want to (or don't) do that. It still really bugs me.
ReplyDeleteYour little comment about unlinked meds though gave me shivers. I'm fresh from the epic hell of new computer charting programs that are kicking my but a little.
Yes, amen to that. And I am 100% positive that NO NURSE goes into the profession for the money. That is laugh out loud stuff.
ReplyDelete-Alliecat (Aussie RN)
Meh. I had a few classmates (graduated this May) who mostly went into nursing because of perceived job stability and it's a decent middle class income. From what I can tell, they're pretty miserable. Nursing seems like a pretty soul destroying job to have if you don't like it. (At least the more traditional bed side nursing gigs.)
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the girl who went from teaching into nursing to land a hot doctor hubby seems to be having fun.
^yeah. I think a lot of people get into nursing because of the nursing "shortage" that we all hear about all.the.time. Sure, maybe there will be a nursing shortage, but that doesn't mean hospitals are going to start hiring more. And if people want an easy job, they are loony if they think nursing is where it's at. This whole "nurses are fat and lazy" stereotype needs to stop. Where does that even come from?
ReplyDelete^Well, that's also true. Guess I was talking about my friends who actually got hospital jobs. I have one friend who landed a sweet ICU day position in the highest paying hospital in the area and she left after three months to go back to waitressing. I have a few friends who went back to their first job (stuff like accounting, pharm rep, etc.) AFTER graduating with a BSN and passing the NCLEX because they realized that they weren't going to land that sweet high-paying ICU position.
ReplyDeleteMe? I'm working the McJob of nursing jobs making what many hospital CNAs make in pay but I enjoy the patient interaction/caring aspect.
I understand your feelings on the below the belt comments. I had a pt that came in during a busy shift and was cussing and swearing because she had to wait. While trying to assess the pt I told her she needed to watch her language as there were young children in the department. The pt stopped mid rant and informed me that I should find a new job if I couldn't take being cussed out. Don't know why but that comment still rings in my head and pisses me off. As for the RN's that don't care...they are every where and scary as hell. Why would you want to be in this profession if you don't want to be with people!!! And the filter needle comment makes me cringe. If I'd ever see a nurse do that I would be writing them up so fast.
ReplyDeleteI'm more scared of the PSWs/CNAs that don't care. It is absolutely sickening to see them have to be nagged repeatedly into doing their job by the RN, then playing the victim and taking out their anger on the patient (not beating them up or anything, but mean inconsiderate things like leaving the poor little 90lb old lady barely covered up and not drying her off after a cold bed bath). It really, really sickens me when I see CNAs/PSWs/RPNs/RNs/MDs/etc like that. If you don't care, get the hell out. Health care is not the line of work where doing the bare minimum just to get your paycheque should ever be acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI have been accused of not caring by a patients family because of a really unfortunate mixup and paperwork hell. To this day, it still bothers me and it probably always will. I was having a conversation with some fellow students the other day about the other students that are getting into this just for the money and supposed job stability ("there will always be sick people so they'll always need nurses!"). Someone commented that "well at least they won't make it through the course." Sadly, I know many of them will. Even if they only work for a month as an RN, having people like that representing nurses is just infuriating.
I don't enjoy cleaning up shit. I don't enjoy spending 20 minutes hunched over cleaning a senior citizen's feet. I don't enjoy watching people die. I don't enjoy earning horrible pay, and I don't enjoy sinking myself into a steep debt just so I can do all that and more. But I do enjoy knowing that even if just for a moment, I made my patient and their family's life more comfortable.
I'm not usually this sappy, but it's been a long, frustrating day.
I think I give a shit about 40% of the time. The rest of the time, I'm just processing bullshitters (sort of like working in the area of the police station where you fingerprint a criminal and do their mugshot) so I can get to the 40%.
ReplyDeleteExactly. You care about being a nurse, as opposed to a waitress, or the drug seeker Dilaudid fairy, or the ride home coordinator. I seriously work with some people who just give their patients all the same level of shitty care regardless of how legit they are, and go out to smoke when they know they have sweet little old people in their rooms that are hurting, and they don't care. Fuck them.
ReplyDeleteAs a former manager, I must say that pervasive "I don't give a shitedness" is oftentimes a management problem. No one giving them feedback/progressive discipline, no one from management working the shift they work to "observe" the shitty care and tell them to get off their ass, no charge nurse willing to tell them to work and risk being "hated". I was always haunting the night shift, taking phones away, and generally pissing everyone off, but, guess what, people weren't sitting on the Internet shopping for shoes when it was busy either because they knew that was an instant trip to the office.
ReplyDeleteMy ongoing joke was, "The first time I see you on your phone, you can go put it in your locker. The second time, I'm plugging it in in the office and responding to every single text that comes through and updating your Facebook status with whatever I see fit."