Budget cuts
I cannot believe the day I had at work yesterday. We're a floor of 14 beds, all private rooms, and we take surgical patients. We usually maybe 3-7 admissions each weekday, with several discharges preceding them, of course. When the floor is full, we have three nurses, 2 with 5 patients each and the charge nurse should have 4 patients.
It's hard to be in charge when my manager is there. When I go to her for advice on something to do with being in charge (because let's face it, I don't have as much experience as the other girls have) she has a way of either acting like 1) I should already know the answer, 2) I should figure it out for myself, or 3) makes the decision for me. I hate this.
There were only 2 of us there to start the day yesterday, because the census of patients was 9. I was in charge, had 4, and the other nurse had 5. None of our discharges were going until later in the day, but I took the first admission so that we had 5 and 5, and according to our grid for ratios, that's fine. But then we got another admission. I had said to Jen earlier in the day (amidst tons of stuff that I was trying to do) that we should call in the third nurse. But she didn't want to. I guess she wanted to wait because she's under pressure with all the budget cuts and such and doesn't want to pay the extra person. But then our doctor called with 2 direct admissions from this office and they came within an hour later in the day. My manager took them both. They were coming and beds weren't ready and people were running around at the nurses' station looking like chickens with their heads cut off. It was completely insane.
I got overwhelmed and stressed and my manager said something to me along the lines of that she couldn't believe I was stressed even though she was helping me so much. She had done some things for my other patients, etc., but not all that much. This made me so angry. If she had done what I'd wanted to do in the first place, the day would have gone more smoothly. But no. So later in the hallway when she came up to me to talk about things, I really did get mad at her. I had 6 patients at that point because I'd taken the direct admission that had come when she was on break. I was waiting for 2 of my patients to leave (which didn't happen until the end of the shift). She told me I shouldn't have taken that patient, that he could have waited for her and that I did this to myself. That's when I got red in the face and just said, "look, it's not just that, it's a whole slew of things. I can't talk about this right now, we can talk another time." and I turned my back on her and walked away. I can't believe myself now that I did that, but it had to be done. I was getting overwhelmed with everything I had to get done with all of my other patients and I didn't have time to chat. And it was a whole slew of things. Our secretary from 3-11 is completely incompetent. She's cocky and thinks she owns the floor. When people call for pain medication or a beeping IV, she says, "Your nurse will be there," and never freaking tells me! I am so sick of this!
Anyway, I am just tired of dealing with my manager. I feel now like I did the right thing, but I don't want to be fired.
It's hard to be in charge when my manager is there. When I go to her for advice on something to do with being in charge (because let's face it, I don't have as much experience as the other girls have) she has a way of either acting like 1) I should already know the answer, 2) I should figure it out for myself, or 3) makes the decision for me. I hate this.
There were only 2 of us there to start the day yesterday, because the census of patients was 9. I was in charge, had 4, and the other nurse had 5. None of our discharges were going until later in the day, but I took the first admission so that we had 5 and 5, and according to our grid for ratios, that's fine. But then we got another admission. I had said to Jen earlier in the day (amidst tons of stuff that I was trying to do) that we should call in the third nurse. But she didn't want to. I guess she wanted to wait because she's under pressure with all the budget cuts and such and doesn't want to pay the extra person. But then our doctor called with 2 direct admissions from this office and they came within an hour later in the day. My manager took them both. They were coming and beds weren't ready and people were running around at the nurses' station looking like chickens with their heads cut off. It was completely insane.
I got overwhelmed and stressed and my manager said something to me along the lines of that she couldn't believe I was stressed even though she was helping me so much. She had done some things for my other patients, etc., but not all that much. This made me so angry. If she had done what I'd wanted to do in the first place, the day would have gone more smoothly. But no. So later in the hallway when she came up to me to talk about things, I really did get mad at her. I had 6 patients at that point because I'd taken the direct admission that had come when she was on break. I was waiting for 2 of my patients to leave (which didn't happen until the end of the shift). She told me I shouldn't have taken that patient, that he could have waited for her and that I did this to myself. That's when I got red in the face and just said, "look, it's not just that, it's a whole slew of things. I can't talk about this right now, we can talk another time." and I turned my back on her and walked away. I can't believe myself now that I did that, but it had to be done. I was getting overwhelmed with everything I had to get done with all of my other patients and I didn't have time to chat. And it was a whole slew of things. Our secretary from 3-11 is completely incompetent. She's cocky and thinks she owns the floor. When people call for pain medication or a beeping IV, she says, "Your nurse will be there," and never freaking tells me! I am so sick of this!
Anyway, I am just tired of dealing with my manager. I feel now like I did the right thing, but I don't want to be fired.