Be Responsible

One of the committee's I am a part of on my unit meets once a month and discusses issues that come up on our floor and we brain storm ways to improve them. We also talk about magnet stuff, patient satisfaction scores and all the other stuff like falls, CAUDI, CLAPSI, and VAP scores. At the end of the 2 hour meeting we have what we call "round table" where we go around the table and it's basically an open floor for the reps to bring up any issues that were not on the agenda that we want to address. A reoccurring theme is nurses complaining about things like other nurses not putting out vitals machines from their patients rooms for the next shift, not placing the bar coders out of rooms before the next shift, not keeping their patients rooms clean and tidy, nurses giving attitude to their colleagues when they ask them for help, and nurses not prioritizing well and dragging everyone else down. These problems to me personally cannot not be fixed by management or anyone really. These types of problems are individual issues that each nurse needs to take responsibility for her own actions. Management nor your coworkers need to be NOR want to be your mother. It should be part of your practice when you are done with your vitals machine put it out in the hallway and pull it in to charge. When you are done passing your meds and scanning your pts place that bar coder back on the charger. Clean and tidy your pts rooms when you are in there every night. It shouldn't be messy if you keep it tidy from the start. If you have a personal issue with another nurse giving you attitude approach that nurse NICELY and say something like, "Hey Suzie, I am not sure if you were really stressed last night but it seems like you were upset with me last night when I called to ask you to help me pull my patient up in bed. Is there anything you want to talk to me about?" Most of the time Suzie will come up with a reason why she reacted that way she did. Give Suzie the benefit of the doubt. Maybe SHE WAS stressed because she had a heavy assignment that night and you didn't realize. Maybe Suzie didn't even realize her tone of voice came off that way. Don't take things so personal. It will make your personal life and work life much easier. We have a stressful job as it is. Don't add unnecessary stress voluntarily. Also, as nurses we often feel like if we dont do all the work ourself we are "bad nurses". That is NOT true. If you are drowning, ask for help! Learn how to delegate. Often times your coworkers are not as busy as you are and are more than willing to help take a set of vitals or pass meds for you if you are drowning. This is another source of animosity between nurses. When one nurse feels like she is drowning but does not ask for help and her coworkers are sitting in front of the computer looking at facebook or pinterest and are supposed to just magically know she is drowning and needs help. You cannot be mad at your coworkers if you never even gave them the chance to help you. So ask for help!! Ultimately, we are all grown adults working a professional job. Take responsiblility for your actions and act like an adult because are you are one. I don't like to feel like I am the oldest nurse around when in fact I am the youngest of my colleagues. Nursing is stressful. But if we work as a team and stop the blame game it would be THAT much less stressful. So next time you go to work. Be positive, smile, and if you have some down time ask if someone else needs help. Your work environment will drastically change and you will be much happier. A happy nurse = happy patients. Corny, I know :).

Until next time.

-Norah