I walked past a co-workers room today and noticed that her patient was blue. Probably because he was not breathing well as evidenced by the oxygen saturation of 57% and snoring respirations. I went in the room and tried to stimulate him to wake up and breathe without any success. I yelled for help and started to open the ambu bag - which was difficult because there wasn't one. One of the other nurses grabbed one off the crash cart in the hall. I opened the airway box on the wall to get an airway only to find it was empty, I ran into the next room to find that box only had pediatric sized airways in it, I finally found an airway in the third room - the patient was bagged until the MD could intubate him and everything turned out OK, luckily.
I have no patience with laziness. If you are working in an ER then you damned well need to be ready for an emergency. If your patient decides to stop breathing that is NOT the time to start looking for an airway or an ambu bag. Your suction always needs to be put together and ready to go. Check your rooms at the beginning of your shift and make sure all the equipment is there.
If you can't do that maybe you should go work at a nursing home.
Friday, November 28, 2008
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19 comments:
irritating isn't it - I end up restocking all the time - and have had a complaint from a fellow RN (usually found sitting at the desk) on the grounds I wasn't doing work.
No suction, no fluids, no cannulas, no swabs, empty IV trolley - so I restocked - then I get called down to management and asked to explain why I restocked when I should have been with patients (other nurses sitting at desk playing on computer and not busy).
Why are nurses
1. lazy ??
2. backstabbing ???
3. Downright cows ??
All I did was my work when the others were at the desk gossiping and on the computer.
To be a nurse you need a thick skin. I have had enough.
I agree with that i spent seven months in the nicu with our son and it is the same way there. I truly believe that if we were not there he would not be here to this day because of pure laziness. The nurses would rather sit on myspace then to take care of these poor babies that cant help them selves. We were more prepared when our son would stop breathing than them. We new the issue. It just makes me mad that they get paid to do it and I am the one that is so post to be asking the questions not telling them what to do and what he needs every time. And if you no you have someone with all of these problems wouldn you wanna make sure you have everything on hand at all times. It only takes some common since.And i really think that anyone who really doesn't like what there doing regardless of what dept. you should not be there if you don't care go get a job at wal mart.
Something is not adding up. I went to "Kayla's" blog b/c I was curious to see her writing after reading her comment (lots of misused and incorrect words).
Her blog reads like a medical journal (perhaps she just copies/utilizes/quotes articles) and her comments read like a middle-school child trying to figure out which words to use ("common since" instead of "common sense" and "so post" instead of "supposed").
I am a nurse. I am not lazy. I am also well educated, well spoken and well written. Sorry you had such a bad experience, but I'm betting there is more to the story than you wish to tell. I hate that you've coloured all nurses with the same brush because one or two of them didn't meet your expectations. I doubt you could do their job, day after day after day, with difficult families and sick patients and little reward, but lots of complaints.
Look after ill patients for 12 hours. Look after their family (who often demand more attention than the patient themselves) for 12 hours. Take one 30min break in that 12 hour shift. Then tell me how well you do.
Ont-RN, you get a 30 minute break??
Amen! I firmly believe if you get your rooms all stocked at least with the airway stuff (ambubag, suction, O2) - then, you won't need to use it! You will only have patients crash in rooms that are not well-stocked. Works for me anyway. And don't leave dirty suctions on the wall for the next nurse to find. That's just gross, people!
-whitecap nurse
Amen to restocking..come on, its nursing 101!!
And I used to wonder where the anti-vaccine, "I- got- my -medical degree -on -the- internet" crazees came from..now I know that there are hordes of them just like Kayla...scary, very scary!
Patti, RN
Try to read this post at Karla's blog. Wow...just wow! I knew our educational system was in trouble but I had no idea that it was that bad.
http://www.kaylapearson.com/myself/i-just-dont-understand-at-all.html
Okay, all; I'll be the one to bite. What's the point of the snarky comments about Kayla? Is it just to show that we nurses know how to be snarky and stick our noses in the air, rather than deal with the substance of someone's position? Is someone's lack of education a reason to then conclude that their opinion is surely invalid?
Let's face it, I've got a few colleagues whose communication clearly shows a lack of successful education. I cringe when I have to read something they've written. Even moreso when we have to write on the same chart. Yet, some of them possess good common sense and provide pretty good patient care. And they have a good heart; an all-too-rare commodity. So, do I discount or demean them; or do I admit that despite my snobbish discomfort with their lack of sophistication (as I see it) I need to listen to them and consider their comments based on their merits?
I don't know about Kayla's earlier comment here; but I see no reason to discount her entire blog just because she lacks polished communication skills. Oh, and when's the last time any of us had to contend with a scary medical situation that we were unequipped and lacked the education to understand well? If you don't like the blog, don't go there; but what's the need to poke fun or demean?
Lighten up, y'all. I see no reason to target someone here. Certainly not for the reason at hand.
Okay, that's my $.02 .
Amen, Medic09. Just because you aren't a fan of a person's comments doesn't mean you need to rip them to shreds. Just read it and move along.
All I can say is AMEN. Before I was a "paper nurse" I was Nurse Manager on our Medical Unit and the first thing that I did if nothing was going on at that moment was check my equipment. I was nuts about my equipment and stock. It can make you or break you. How embarrassing to go in a patient's room with the family there and they need suctioning and you reach for it and it's not there and you have to run out......it only happened to me one time.
Or they can go become a school nurse.
Nurses are the backbone of the medical industry and don't receive nearly the amount of credit they deserve in keeping the entire medical industry from caving in on itself.
But I do nominate the overnight nurses at UCSF as the worst I've ever experienced in my 28 years of being a patient.
If I had been dying in my room they wouldn't have known until morning.
And they acted like I asked them to wash my ass whenever I asked for anything, attaching a huge sigh to everything.
Post #2 kidney transplant, that was the last thing me or my sister needed.
Yeah, my comment was snarky. I posted at the end of a long, bad day and her criticism of nurses (not just one or two but all of them who took care of her son) just got on my last nerve.
Some nurses are lazy.
Some patients and relatives are affected by it.
The lazy nurses have to read this post.
The not-lazy nurses should direct the lazy ones to read this. (not sure how)
Majority of nurses I work with really do work hard, including me, AHEM, I have to lift my own chair here.
My god, I am so sick of the arrogance of nurses in general. Some days it seems all they live for is to be a jerk to co-workers. We are far from gods, we are mearly trained and practiced and most normally developed people could do what we do. This whole "special heros" crap is old. We are doing our job as best we know how, nothing more. Plus, If we "love it" so much there shoulnt be so much to bitch about now should there?
(just venting....)
I am an ER nurse myself and I completely agree with the blog. There are so many nurses that are working in ER's to socialize and not take care of patients. It literally sucks to get a patient going bad and not have the materials and supplies you need to take care of them. Not to mention, it is frustrating to the entire team and things do not run smoothely. As to the comments made by Ont-RN, I agree to some extent. Not all nurses are lazy although the ones that are give the good ones a bad rep with patients and their families. And even though we have been dealing with patients and demanding families for 12 hours, in my ER sometimes without a lunch break or even so much as a bathroom break; we made a decision in our lives to be nurses and to make a difference in other peoples lives, and we make decent money at doing so. So the least we can do is try to make a bad situation the best experience it can be for patients and their families.
I like your blog but you refer - every now and then - to geriatric nurses as less competent and lazy. Having worked as a geriatric nurse for many years (and yes, I have ER experience, too), I know we handle really sick people too and that we also are busy most of the time. Where I've worked, you can very well be responsible for 120 old, mostly really sick people at a time - and a doctor on call.
so often do i see the same. just the other day i had been getting my butt kicked left and right while another nurse in the ed continued to shop online. and during one of the many moments that she was missing i was asked to help out with some of her load, then to find out she didn't even stock her rooms with the basics. some people really shouldn't work in certain areas
Hey all... be nice to long term care nurses. Everyone gets old someday and who was the first one to say that there is no dignity in taking care of those of us that are near the end of our long lives?
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