Please help me, I am a wimp!

[amandalovesryan]

Okay, ladies (and Jason and Jean-Marcus), I need help! I am a nurse and I am getting so burnout! I love my job and I love my patients but some of my coworkers are working my nerves! I have one in particular that I work with most frequently that I cannot handle. She is my tech which is basically a nurse's aide. Her job is to get vital signs and help me with things like bedpans, incontinent patients, bathing patients, and drawing blood, that sort of thing. She thinks her job is to play solitaire and bad-mouth everyone!

She does not want to do her job. When I ask her to help me clean an incontinent pt, she'll say, we just cleaned her, we can do it later. This is not acceptable, would you want your mother laying in urine or poop? When I ask her to help me reposition people, I get attitude.

When she answers call bells and she thinks that the pt has their bell on too much, she will tell the pt to stop ringing their bell. I have even heard her yell at pts. SHe will talk about work related things and bitch about things while cleaning a pt. I even heard her tell a pt (pt was very combative, but still with it) that if he did not stop hitting at her, she was going to take him up to the third floor with the rest of the bodies. (I was in the hall, so I did not directly hear this).

Now, I realize that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and I am going out of my mind! Please help me! My problem is further increased by this fact, if I go to my boss, she will proceed to say something to this person and say, "Amanda says". THis person is someone I have to work with almost every shift and she is the kind of person who can rally people to support her and stop talking to, i.e. helping out, people she thinks are out to get her. I could also talk to her about it but I am such a wimp and I know that she will get aggitated and start being aggressive. And then, there will be the shunning where she stops helping you and ignores your requests. I could be a real sissy and write an anynomous letter to my boss but that does not seem credible then, does it?

I need this girl's help to do an efficient job, but i don't need her to be yelling at the pts! I do not need to go home with a knot in my stomach because I can't handle her attitude! Please give me advice! Thanks!

 

[starchild]

Eeeew! At my job when one of my support people isn't doing their part, I talk to them about what they need to do and what they aren't doing. But there comes a point when I involve my superiors if their behavior continues.

 

If you aren't comfortable talking to her directly (and depending on protocol maybe it isn't something you are supposed to address anyway?) what about telling your boss about her behaviors and asking that they monitor her themselves?

 

Your boss shouldn't go and say "Amanda said...". Personally I think that is unprofessional, but, if you know your boss will then present it to her in a way that may make her refrain from bringing you into it. Can you tell them that you want to ensure that it isn't a personal problem you have with the lady, so you would like them to see if they notice the same things?

 

What she is doing cannot be acceptable behavior, right? If she is told that you mentioned this, and it gets worse, shouldn't someone step in? I don't know how hospitals work and how staff is evaluated. I have come across a surly nurse or two but never pursued a complaint. As a co-worker it would drive me up the wall. That is a totally unacceptable standard of care!

[CarrieRN]

Surely others have complained about this person? I think you should talk to your supervisor or unit director. Use the term "patient advocate", you know they love that one. If you stress that you don't want your name personally brought up because you want to maintain a working relationship with her, do you think your supervisor will follow through with that? Your situation totally sucks because you do need her help but you certainly don't need extra stress. Enough comes with the job.

[Sarah]

Oh honey, I feel your pain. I have issues with other nurses I work with though, not techs- there are some seriously lazy people out there!

 

Anyway- are you in a union or non-union hospital? It seems like in union hospitals people seem to get away with wayyyyy more. I guess it doesn't really matter either way, but there is definitely some way you can take this one "to the top" if she's making threatening statements about patients and impeding your ability to give adequate and appropriate patient care. Do you have occurence reports or a way to write things up? I'd write her up every time she doesn't follow your instruction (you are an RN, she's a tech- your job is to delegate to her so you can better do her job) even if you have to write her up every day! Or, is there a way you can report her extracurricular activities i.e. solitaire? I know some units have policies about "down time" and it's appropriate usage.

 

I do not understand the mentality of some of the support staff we have to work to as Rns. Seriously. Do you have many friends on your unit? If you do, hopefully they will rally around you if this person tries to cause trouble. If not, it's no great loss if they don't like you- just go to work and do your job. I'd definitely report your manager or supervisor or whomever to the higher-ups in your organization if they rat you out to this tech. That's soooo unprofessional. Just be tactful and say what you need to say- you're right!

 

Good luck...boy I'm glad I work in OB

[lambert13]

That's a tough one. If going to your boss is not an option the next best thing might be going one step up the ladder from them. You would have to be real careful with that though as that could piss your boss off in a big way.

[amandalovesryan]

It is a non-union hospital so I don't know if that is better.

Someone did get fired because of me several years ago because he was sexually harrassing me at work (rubbing up against me, saying inappropriate sexual things to me, in front of pts, yuck). So since this happened, the techs say that they can't trust me anyway.

I really wish that if I did tell my boss not to use my name, she wouldn't but that has been said in the past and she does anyway. It gives me a headache when I think about it.

Some of our pts are very sick and dying. When this a-hole yells at them to stop using the call bell, how does that make them feel? I should suck it up and talk to the boss. I know that, because if it were my G-ma, I would want someone to stick up for her.

Bright side, I only work 3 out of 4 weekends and this is not one of them so I have off for about 10 more days! YAY!

[beachbride08]

Does this tech report directly to you? If yes, and you are the primary person responsible for her performance reviews you absolutely need to talk to her. If you have some kind of write up policy as in verbal warning, then write up etc. I would follow that. If she does not report to you then I would have a conversation with your manager, or go to HR if can't talk to the manager. They should be able to give you some guidance on how to do deal with it. It doesn't sound like it is going to improve until you say something, and you shouldn't have to deal with that crap at work.

[AmyInMI]

Hey there Amanda! I am sorry to hear you are having such a tough time with this girl. I currently work as a "tech" while I finish up nursing school and know that it can be very stressful but there are no excuses for her behavior.

 

If I was in your shoes, I would take it up with your boss, that is what she is there for. This must be brought to her attention because this tech is compromising patient care by not cleaning them up promptly, harassing them, ect. If your boss will not maintain confidentiality, I would make HER boss aware of it. An employee should not feel intimidated to report something so important to her boss because she will not keep your name confidential. There is no reason she can not keep your name confidential!

 

It is more than likely that you are not the first person to complain about this tech. I would assume she would act this way no matter who the nurse is, correct? Be thankful that you are non-union, sometimes it is a pain in the butt to get anything resolved when you are union because the union will attempt to protect the employee at all costs.

 

I would just try to sit down with your boss and tell her everything that is going on. Maybe even have some of the other nurses who have witnessed this behavior talk to your boss as well. I think if you approach the tech yourself, there could be more conflict than if you have your boss do her job and talk to her. GOOD LUCK!!

[jajajaja]

Ok if I were you I would definitely report it. It sounds like this is something you can't handle anymore. It wouldn't make much sense for your boss to tell the person who told on them. It creates hostility among the team and even more issues may arise from this. Some bosses are chicken shit though and like to make someone else the bad guy.

 

Maybe even confront the tech too. Next time hear/see her doing something inappropriate let her know that she is out of line and you will not be keeping her actions quiet any longer if she continues to act this way.

[jean-marcus]

HAHAHA first of all i LOVED taht you made a special shout out to me and jason cause you knew i was getting fed up with all the brides saying "girls this and girls that" and forgetting about us guys

 

secondly.... nothing more furstrating then someone who makes your job more difficult. such a pain. and there really isnt anything you can do either. not like "tattling" can do much. you'll just have to figure out ways to make her job hell so she'll quit