Moving on up...
So last night at 11, we had two nurses leave to go home, leaving us short two nurses and leaving us with no nurse who was qualified to charge. Of the nurses who were working... the responsibility fell to me. Okay, I have a general idea of what to do. But try having an entire team of patients and do it! AHHH! My fellow nurses were awesome though, they helped me through it. My patients almost drove me crazy- I had 3 of them restrained and only one of my 5 patients was self-sufficient.
So, I didn't have much time to make out the assignment for day shift. Or at least to put too much though into it. It still bothered me to hear day shift come in saying "WHY DID YOU GIVE ME TWO PATIENTS WITH PEG TUBES?" "HOW COME ALL MY PATIENTS ARE BLOOD SUGAR CHECKS?" "WHY AM I WALKING SO FAR?" "WHAT WAS SHE THINKING WHEN SHE GAVE ME THIS PATIENTS." Etc. Sometimes I wish my coworkers would just grow up and work. I've been given rough assignments- you just make the best of it and do your job. I did the best I could last night. Yeah, I could have done better, but not with 5 patients!
Then the mean ER charge nurse called and tried to give me a patient when all of us were maxed out on patients. I stood my ground and told him that I was sorry, but I couldn't give him a bed because we didn't have any nurses to care for the patient. He was like "we'll see about that" and hung up on me to call the nursing supervisor. 3 min later, the nursing supervisor calls me and does the same thing. I remained adamant that we would not be taking another patient. 20 min. later we find out the patient went to the medical floor on remote telemetry. HAHA I WON! I later found out that under orders from our manager we were not to be given admissions last night. So, basically they were testing me. Hmmph.
One other thing happened in the morning. It's almost 8:00 and I'm finally about to leave. The monitor tech hands me a stack of telemetry strips and said, you forgot to put these out last night. It's the charge nurse's responsibility to read and put out any strips from nurses who aren't ACLS certified working on our floor. But there was no one there who couldn't read their own strips last night! So I look at the name... it's a day shift nurse who had worked 3-11 (who can read her strips, just forgot). And the strips were from 2 PM!!! I explain that to the monitor tech, who proceeds to go off on me telling me I better do my job and put them out. I just turned to the day shift charge nurse and told her they weren't from my shift. Maybe I should have put them out to be nice, but I was exhausted and emotional and had to leave. I heard from my friend who's working days right now that the monitor tech has been badmouthing me all day and telling her twisted version of the story. Lovely.
I don't like being in charge. The only good thing was how great my night shift nurses were.
Oh and to top it all off I discovered I'm going to be precepting someone again soon. I love how I don't even get asked anymore. Hmmph.
Okay. I think I'm done ranting.
So, I didn't have much time to make out the assignment for day shift. Or at least to put too much though into it. It still bothered me to hear day shift come in saying "WHY DID YOU GIVE ME TWO PATIENTS WITH PEG TUBES?" "HOW COME ALL MY PATIENTS ARE BLOOD SUGAR CHECKS?" "WHY AM I WALKING SO FAR?" "WHAT WAS SHE THINKING WHEN SHE GAVE ME THIS PATIENTS." Etc. Sometimes I wish my coworkers would just grow up and work. I've been given rough assignments- you just make the best of it and do your job. I did the best I could last night. Yeah, I could have done better, but not with 5 patients!
Then the mean ER charge nurse called and tried to give me a patient when all of us were maxed out on patients. I stood my ground and told him that I was sorry, but I couldn't give him a bed because we didn't have any nurses to care for the patient. He was like "we'll see about that" and hung up on me to call the nursing supervisor. 3 min later, the nursing supervisor calls me and does the same thing. I remained adamant that we would not be taking another patient. 20 min. later we find out the patient went to the medical floor on remote telemetry. HAHA I WON! I later found out that under orders from our manager we were not to be given admissions last night. So, basically they were testing me. Hmmph.
One other thing happened in the morning. It's almost 8:00 and I'm finally about to leave. The monitor tech hands me a stack of telemetry strips and said, you forgot to put these out last night. It's the charge nurse's responsibility to read and put out any strips from nurses who aren't ACLS certified working on our floor. But there was no one there who couldn't read their own strips last night! So I look at the name... it's a day shift nurse who had worked 3-11 (who can read her strips, just forgot). And the strips were from 2 PM!!! I explain that to the monitor tech, who proceeds to go off on me telling me I better do my job and put them out. I just turned to the day shift charge nurse and told her they weren't from my shift. Maybe I should have put them out to be nice, but I was exhausted and emotional and had to leave. I heard from my friend who's working days right now that the monitor tech has been badmouthing me all day and telling her twisted version of the story. Lovely.
I don't like being in charge. The only good thing was how great my night shift nurses were.
Oh and to top it all off I discovered I'm going to be precepting someone again soon. I love how I don't even get asked anymore. Hmmph.
Okay. I think I'm done ranting.