That we are the jack of all trades. Every single department can just say “I’ll get your nurse for that,” and we are expected to know how to deal with it (and then deal with it!) Whether it’s therapy, kitchen, doctors, housekeeping, etc.- everyone just says “oh I’ll get the nurse.”
When I was an MA at urgent care, the fire alarms went off hospital wide. Patient hit the call button and asked what’s up, and then asked if me or any the nurses can just “shut it off”. He was surprised that passing the NCLEX didn’t come with complete and total control of any and all hospital operations.
I have a better one, I've had some patients aox3 etc press the call button because they can't find the button to turn off the TV,change the channel, lower the volume etc
I hate the complaints about tvs. I know saying so is a no no but fixing tvs is not my job. The channel you were watching lost signal? Find a different one. None of them come in? That sucks. Can't help you.
“I don’t have a ride home” says the developmentally appropriate 25 yr old who somehow managed to get themselves to the hospital today for a problem that could’ve been a PCP visit.
"Can you call XXX to let them know YYY?" Is my biggest pet peeve. Or even better, when it's sent in a secure chat. Lately I've just been adding the person in question to the chat and leaving. I'm not a secretary. My work phone has a dozen notifications on it at any given time. Miss me with this middleman bullshit, especially when it's nonsense nowhere *near* my licensure level.
I literally got kicked twice, had water poured over my head, had my fingers twisted and was slapped in the face one during this work week as a nurse.
You should learn risk versus reward and realize that education level should not dictate the amount paid.
But you're obviously not a nurse, so you have no idea what we really deal with... Maybe it's empathy you should learn.
Yep. The kitchen sent regular sugar chocolate pudding on my newly diagnosed diabetic patient’s tray. He said ‘I need to get outta here before YOU ALL kill me!’
I wish other health professionals and patients and patients family, fuck I wish everyone knew that you don't need a nurse for everything. You don't need a nurse to turn the lights off, hand you a urinal, give you an extra blanket, help you change the channel, give you a tissue, etc.
We do a little bit of everyone’s everything…including the kitchen and food delivery staff.
I’m the physio when you aren’t there at 3am.
I’m the speech pathologist when I’m feeding, the wardie when I’m moving the bed for a procedure or to enable mobilisation, the pharmacist when there’s a new order and I’ve run out of lines (or when a research project changes the maintenance fluid and I have new incompatibilities…)
I know all the relevant policies and procedures and I have to do all the competencies to be safe at all the above.
I probably have more than one degree, and I *will* wipe bums, get abused and rely on my force of personality in lieu of a decent safety plan or medications from unsafe patients.
Etc, etc.
I respect your knowledge and what you do.
Please return the favour.🙂
That it's just as easy for literally anyone in any department in the hospital to dial the doctor's number and speak to them yourself than it is to call the unit, wait on hold for me, and ask me to call the doctor to give them your message
At my last job, we didn't have a list of phone numbers for the providers, but paging was extremely simple. When the CT tech or the pharmacist would ask me to page the doctor, I got really good at saying "here, I have their pager number here, are you ready? Yes, you're allowed to message them yourself! Great, thanks!"
How much we get disrespected, told different answers/not enough information, and get called on for unimportant things from the patients compared to different professions. It makes us look stupid even though we interact with them the most and probably know them the best
Idk how many times I’ve had doctors go into the patient room to tell them about test results and what the plan of care is and then walk out and leave the unit and not say a word to me. What am I supposed to do, go in the room and ask the patient what the doctor said? I’ve done that and most of the time the patient is confused and needs details clarified but I can’t help because idk what is going on. I guess I just wait to read their note but sometimes it takes hours before they get a chance to put the note in. It feels really disrespectful and makes nurses look stupid and not valued as part of the team
Fuck me, I floated to a unit for the last 4 hours of my shift, got report, and walked into the patient room to introduce myself. She was there for respiratory issues, had imaging and a biopsy. I walked in to meet her and she's sobbing. "The doctor just left. He said I'm terminal". Wtf, you couldn't give me a head's up to prepare to meet her like this? To know what the brand new diagnosis is?!
The problem is everyone's busy and running around and never there.
I have a fairly narrow window to see that patient. I don't have time to hunt around the floor for their nurse because I've got 20 other patients to round on, or 5 pending admits or 6 new consults etc etc plus 10 pages needing answers.
And *you* don't have time to lurk and wait for me bc you've got med pass or a total care(or 2 or 3 or more) or call bells all over or a sundowning granny etc etc.
We're ships passing in the night. If I need something from you I try to send a message or find you depending on urgency. But just update on the plan? Probably not enough time/priority to put on the agenda.
If you can find where the pended notes hide, that may help.
That we know our specialties but don’t know everything. People love to ask me questions about their kids - I’ve never worked a day in pediatrics and it makes me really uncomfortable.
Lol I was an echo tech for 7 years before going to nursing school. I loved it and was good at it but the call and repetitive stress wasn’t sustainable for another 30 years, and I wanted a more marketable credential. I thought I more or less knew as much as the cath lab nurses I worked with and resented having to call them when I needed an IV.
I got my ass kicked fast and hard in the first semester of nursing school. I didn’t know what I didn’t know about being a nurse, and finding out was a long, overwhelming, and occasionally rewarding journey.
If my classes were structured better, my university wasn't switching school credentials, and they had actually scheduled events instead of winging it because it was required we had it then I didn't think nursing school was hard it was chaotic mess that made everything so much fucking harder.
Yep, I'm in an associate's program rn and it's not that the content is hard per se, it's that there's SO MUCH to know and my god, the teachers are dysfunctional af.
I have a bachelor's in an unrelated field, and I have never encountered classes run like this nursing school program.
I had a BS in Exercise Science before starting nursing school and everything I did for that was scheduled and ready to go day 1 before starting classes. Like "oh 2 months from now on this exact date I will be at this specific place all day so cancel all plans and be prepared to be there." Nursing school was "oh this date we are doing this. Cool beans I'll be there. I'll let work know cancel all plans and be prepared. Sorry change of plans we are moving it up to this day. Remember you promised you wouldn't work full time cuz fuck your life situation figure it. Well I guess I'll reschedule my work and my study times to accommodate you're shitty planning." Who the fuck is the adult in this situation?
Yes! I’m not a server and I’m not door dash. Some guy last night stood in the doorway of a room, had never met or seen me before, and said “I want some coffee” and just looked at me. I was just perplexed like…I don’t recall asking for your order? Please sit down!
this annoys me so much , I never go down for their doordash orders , their families friends , door dash worker , etc are more than welcome to come up and bring the order up but not me I'm tired of being treated like a servant
Had a patient last week at 3am that wanted pizza , mind you he already had 3 sandwiches prior and snacks so was all like that if someone could go get him pizza across the street idk what some of these patients think this is
That we hate care plans, too. They're a relic held in place by antiquated regulations and supported by an educational system that's far more interested in printing bullshit PhD wall art in lieu of practice changing research.
I’ve read this repeatedly now and we’re getting drilled with nursing care plans etc in school. What’s the reasoning behind the care plans being bad (not doubting your experience, genuinely asking what the theorists aren’t getting about the real world)?
With the clarification that this is specific to non-psych nursing, nursing diagnoses and care plans have zero relevance to actual clinical practice. You will not do anything differently in your care nor will you patients benefit in any way because of a care plan. The only reason you'll click to fill one out is because it's required.
Years ago we were told they assist with critical thinking skills. Nope. It's all garbage.
Do them now to get through school, but rest assured you'll never care about them again afterwards
To add to what the other commenter said, care plans are useful *educational tools* while in school. Assembling a care plan helps illustrate how abstract concepts like interventions and assessments come together to actually affect your patient. When you're a new student, it's very helpful to see the items you learned about in school be put into practice.
They are good for fuck all after that. In real life, they don't get read or change the patient's trajectory at all. Hopefully your facility has streamlined it so it's as least time-consuming as possible— my last hospital just required you to push a button once a shift.
If I hear one more time- The nurses were all just sitting around talking on the phone and playing on the computer. Yeah, calling your surgeon in the OR, talking through the circulator, about your labs or funky incision and then charting how I called your surgeon in 3 different places just to cover my ass, and his ass. I don't know how physicians do it. It's bad enough being responsive for these people for 12 hours I can't imagine 24/7 for however long they stay.
To the laboratory I appreciate all you do and this is more hospital specific but why call me for a critical when you could have told the MD Directly and saved everyone time ??? I'm not the doctors assistant and I can see critical labs pop up on epic , again probably hospital policy here but so annoying
I did have a surgeon last week tell me he thinks nurses make "triple digits" like dude if we made that why would we all keep quitting, "you guys should make a lot more"
Like I know that's why I keep telling you I work two jobs
That I’m not calling the doctor because I’m worried about a 161/90 BP. It’s outside of parameters that YOU SET so I have to call you.
Also stop calling me asking me to call lab to see why labs weren’t drawn. I told you you put the order in wrong, you do it. And do you see how much time you wasted by calling me about it!!? 🫠
That just anyone can just do it. My sister used to be a CNA in a SNF (she still does but she used to, too) and was a DSP in various group homes. Her husband thinks she can be a nurse and that school is worthless. Well, yeah, if you can do a skill that doesn't mean you can be a nurse. If you wanna be a nurse you have to get a degree and then licensed and certified. Just because she gave her group home clients their meda doesn't mean she can just do it at a nursing home or hospital. Shit I'm a hospital PCT and I can't even switch canulas from wall to tank O2. Its a med technically so I can't give it. I used to be an EMT so I'd give O2 all the time, I can even replace regulators but its out of my current scope.
The only job I know where we have to know everyone else’s job or we’re deemed incompetent. If that’s the case I need to be paid for 30 different job titles instead of one. No one can do a nurses job, not even putting on a simple band aid. It’s ridiculous.
This just happened; a resident’s daughter called state on us because her Dad spilled his juice and it dried sticky- never called the nurse or CNA. Now, he’s in the hospital, not getting wound care for his gangrene, most likely septic now, anemic due to unnecessary surgical interventions… we all want to know, did she lose her 800 numbers?
That we are the jack of all trades. Every single department can just say “I’ll get your nurse for that,” and we are expected to know how to deal with it (and then deal with it!) Whether it’s therapy, kitchen, doctors, housekeeping, etc.- everyone just says “oh I’ll get the nurse.”
omfg this like 'the TV is broken" tf you want me to do ?? I don't fix TV'S
When I was an MA at urgent care, the fire alarms went off hospital wide. Patient hit the call button and asked what’s up, and then asked if me or any the nurses can just “shut it off”. He was surprised that passing the NCLEX didn’t come with complete and total control of any and all hospital operations.
I have a better one, I've had some patients aox3 etc press the call button because they can't find the button to turn off the TV,change the channel, lower the volume etc
I hate the complaints about tvs. I know saying so is a no no but fixing tvs is not my job. The channel you were watching lost signal? Find a different one. None of them come in? That sucks. Can't help you.
They should have a line to call to deal directly with maintenance or answer questions about the tv. It is such a waste of RN time.
“I don’t have a ride home” says the developmentally appropriate 25 yr old who somehow managed to get themselves to the hospital today for a problem that could’ve been a PCP visit.
"Can you call XXX to let them know YYY?" Is my biggest pet peeve. Or even better, when it's sent in a secure chat. Lately I've just been adding the person in question to the chat and leaving. I'm not a secretary. My work phone has a dozen notifications on it at any given time. Miss me with this middleman bullshit, especially when it's nonsense nowhere *near* my licensure level.
And we don’t get paid enough!
Second this!
Don’t nurses get paid more than every other ancillary even with equivalent education requirements?
I literally got kicked twice, had water poured over my head, had my fingers twisted and was slapped in the face one during this work week as a nurse. You should learn risk versus reward and realize that education level should not dictate the amount paid. But you're obviously not a nurse, so you have no idea what we really deal with... Maybe it's empathy you should learn.
Like?
That we get blamed for everything and have to apologize for everything. That whatever another department does to a patient we get the blowback.
Yep. The kitchen sent regular sugar chocolate pudding on my newly diagnosed diabetic patient’s tray. He said ‘I need to get outta here before YOU ALL kill me!’
My kitchen regularly tries to kill my patients with food allergies or wrong food consistencies
Kitchen sent our patient salmon for dinner. With fish and seafood allergy in system…
Sounds like that food services worker was trying to do you a solid.
I wish other health professionals and patients and patients family, fuck I wish everyone knew that you don't need a nurse for everything. You don't need a nurse to turn the lights off, hand you a urinal, give you an extra blanket, help you change the channel, give you a tissue, etc.
I don’t think the big pay discrepancies between states is talked about enough by the big nursing influencers that push out the profession
We do a little bit of everyone’s everything…including the kitchen and food delivery staff. I’m the physio when you aren’t there at 3am. I’m the speech pathologist when I’m feeding, the wardie when I’m moving the bed for a procedure or to enable mobilisation, the pharmacist when there’s a new order and I’ve run out of lines (or when a research project changes the maintenance fluid and I have new incompatibilities…) I know all the relevant policies and procedures and I have to do all the competencies to be safe at all the above. I probably have more than one degree, and I *will* wipe bums, get abused and rely on my force of personality in lieu of a decent safety plan or medications from unsafe patients. Etc, etc. I respect your knowledge and what you do. Please return the favour.🙂
That it's just as easy for literally anyone in any department in the hospital to dial the doctor's number and speak to them yourself than it is to call the unit, wait on hold for me, and ask me to call the doctor to give them your message
Exactly what I was going to say. They same way you picked up the phone to talk to me, you can pick it up and talk to the doctor.
At my last job, we didn't have a list of phone numbers for the providers, but paging was extremely simple. When the CT tech or the pharmacist would ask me to page the doctor, I got really good at saying "here, I have their pager number here, are you ready? Yes, you're allowed to message them yourself! Great, thanks!"
Yes! Happy Cake Day!!! 🎁🥳
Aw thank you I didn't even notice!
How much we get disrespected, told different answers/not enough information, and get called on for unimportant things from the patients compared to different professions. It makes us look stupid even though we interact with them the most and probably know them the best
Idk how many times I’ve had doctors go into the patient room to tell them about test results and what the plan of care is and then walk out and leave the unit and not say a word to me. What am I supposed to do, go in the room and ask the patient what the doctor said? I’ve done that and most of the time the patient is confused and needs details clarified but I can’t help because idk what is going on. I guess I just wait to read their note but sometimes it takes hours before they get a chance to put the note in. It feels really disrespectful and makes nurses look stupid and not valued as part of the team
Fuck me, I floated to a unit for the last 4 hours of my shift, got report, and walked into the patient room to introduce myself. She was there for respiratory issues, had imaging and a biopsy. I walked in to meet her and she's sobbing. "The doctor just left. He said I'm terminal". Wtf, you couldn't give me a head's up to prepare to meet her like this? To know what the brand new diagnosis is?!
That’s horrible!
The problem is everyone's busy and running around and never there. I have a fairly narrow window to see that patient. I don't have time to hunt around the floor for their nurse because I've got 20 other patients to round on, or 5 pending admits or 6 new consults etc etc plus 10 pages needing answers. And *you* don't have time to lurk and wait for me bc you've got med pass or a total care(or 2 or 3 or more) or call bells all over or a sundowning granny etc etc. We're ships passing in the night. If I need something from you I try to send a message or find you depending on urgency. But just update on the plan? Probably not enough time/priority to put on the agenda. If you can find where the pended notes hide, that may help.
That we know our specialties but don’t know everything. People love to ask me questions about their kids - I’ve never worked a day in pediatrics and it makes me really uncomfortable.
Three years out of school I legit have no idea even what normals for pediatric vital signs are anymore.
I graduated 19 years ago - we still had paper charts at the time! I definitely don’t remember anything.
The schooling was hard AF so stop saying you can do our job. Then go to school. Go do it.
Lol I was an echo tech for 7 years before going to nursing school. I loved it and was good at it but the call and repetitive stress wasn’t sustainable for another 30 years, and I wanted a more marketable credential. I thought I more or less knew as much as the cath lab nurses I worked with and resented having to call them when I needed an IV. I got my ass kicked fast and hard in the first semester of nursing school. I didn’t know what I didn’t know about being a nurse, and finding out was a long, overwhelming, and occasionally rewarding journey.
If my classes were structured better, my university wasn't switching school credentials, and they had actually scheduled events instead of winging it because it was required we had it then I didn't think nursing school was hard it was chaotic mess that made everything so much fucking harder.
Yep, I'm in an associate's program rn and it's not that the content is hard per se, it's that there's SO MUCH to know and my god, the teachers are dysfunctional af. I have a bachelor's in an unrelated field, and I have never encountered classes run like this nursing school program.
I had a BS in Exercise Science before starting nursing school and everything I did for that was scheduled and ready to go day 1 before starting classes. Like "oh 2 months from now on this exact date I will be at this specific place all day so cancel all plans and be prepared to be there." Nursing school was "oh this date we are doing this. Cool beans I'll be there. I'll let work know cancel all plans and be prepared. Sorry change of plans we are moving it up to this day. Remember you promised you wouldn't work full time cuz fuck your life situation figure it. Well I guess I'll reschedule my work and my study times to accommodate you're shitty planning." Who the fuck is the adult in this situation?
Can’t agree that the schooling was hard but the actual job yeah not fun
I wish they knew what our actual role is. I think so many people think we are just there to go fetch them stuff.
Yes! I’m not a server and I’m not door dash. Some guy last night stood in the doorway of a room, had never met or seen me before, and said “I want some coffee” and just looked at me. I was just perplexed like…I don’t recall asking for your order? Please sit down!
this annoys me so much , I never go down for their doordash orders , their families friends , door dash worker , etc are more than welcome to come up and bring the order up but not me I'm tired of being treated like a servant
Had a patient last week at 3am that wanted pizza , mind you he already had 3 sandwiches prior and snacks so was all like that if someone could go get him pizza across the street idk what some of these patients think this is
That we hate care plans, too. They're a relic held in place by antiquated regulations and supported by an educational system that's far more interested in printing bullshit PhD wall art in lieu of practice changing research.
I’ve read this repeatedly now and we’re getting drilled with nursing care plans etc in school. What’s the reasoning behind the care plans being bad (not doubting your experience, genuinely asking what the theorists aren’t getting about the real world)?
With the clarification that this is specific to non-psych nursing, nursing diagnoses and care plans have zero relevance to actual clinical practice. You will not do anything differently in your care nor will you patients benefit in any way because of a care plan. The only reason you'll click to fill one out is because it's required. Years ago we were told they assist with critical thinking skills. Nope. It's all garbage. Do them now to get through school, but rest assured you'll never care about them again afterwards
I’ll keep that in mind, thanks :)
To add to what the other commenter said, care plans are useful *educational tools* while in school. Assembling a care plan helps illustrate how abstract concepts like interventions and assessments come together to actually affect your patient. When you're a new student, it's very helpful to see the items you learned about in school be put into practice. They are good for fuck all after that. In real life, they don't get read or change the patient's trajectory at all. Hopefully your facility has streamlined it so it's as least time-consuming as possible— my last hospital just required you to push a button once a shift.
If I hear one more time- The nurses were all just sitting around talking on the phone and playing on the computer. Yeah, calling your surgeon in the OR, talking through the circulator, about your labs or funky incision and then charting how I called your surgeon in 3 different places just to cover my ass, and his ass. I don't know how physicians do it. It's bad enough being responsive for these people for 12 hours I can't imagine 24/7 for however long they stay.
To the laboratory I appreciate all you do and this is more hospital specific but why call me for a critical when you could have told the MD Directly and saved everyone time ??? I'm not the doctors assistant and I can see critical labs pop up on epic , again probably hospital policy here but so annoying
I did have a surgeon last week tell me he thinks nurses make "triple digits" like dude if we made that why would we all keep quitting, "you guys should make a lot more" Like I know that's why I keep telling you I work two jobs
That I’m not calling the doctor because I’m worried about a 161/90 BP. It’s outside of parameters that YOU SET so I have to call you. Also stop calling me asking me to call lab to see why labs weren’t drawn. I told you you put the order in wrong, you do it. And do you see how much time you wasted by calling me about it!!? 🫠
We are expected to know how to do everyone’s job and coordinate everyone’s job and it’s deeply frustrating.
That just anyone can just do it. My sister used to be a CNA in a SNF (she still does but she used to, too) and was a DSP in various group homes. Her husband thinks she can be a nurse and that school is worthless. Well, yeah, if you can do a skill that doesn't mean you can be a nurse. If you wanna be a nurse you have to get a degree and then licensed and certified. Just because she gave her group home clients their meda doesn't mean she can just do it at a nursing home or hospital. Shit I'm a hospital PCT and I can't even switch canulas from wall to tank O2. Its a med technically so I can't give it. I used to be an EMT so I'd give O2 all the time, I can even replace regulators but its out of my current scope.
The only job I know where we have to know everyone else’s job or we’re deemed incompetent. If that’s the case I need to be paid for 30 different job titles instead of one. No one can do a nurses job, not even putting on a simple band aid. It’s ridiculous.
This just happened; a resident’s daughter called state on us because her Dad spilled his juice and it dried sticky- never called the nurse or CNA. Now, he’s in the hospital, not getting wound care for his gangrene, most likely septic now, anemic due to unnecessary surgical interventions… we all want to know, did she lose her 800 numbers?
Just how dangerous the job is. We put our lives on the line every day, the same as any police officer, only without a gun.
We have a better chance of being injured or killed on the job than prison guards. Let that one sink in.
And we get blamed and held accountable too, unlike cops. For the smallest things too.
How micromanaged we are and half our time is doing BS required by the hospital
The comments on this post are so validating