4/23 Head Twat(work post)
Yesterday was one of those tough shifts. It definitely didn’t aid in my A++ positive mood for today. *wink wink* THAT ONE CHARGE NURSE One of the charge nurses on my unit is like, the ring leader of the “Hot-Nurse Gang” of my floor. I’ll call her “Madeline”. Madeline is married with no kids. She wants to think of herself as young but like, when you really look at her you see the lines and she doesn’t actually look that great. She has great hair that I am envious of… but she’s so into herself. She loves drama and LOVES to gossip. I’ve been told she’s best friends with our supervisor. I can’t say that I’ve SEEN any special treatment but she’s always name dropping that she is texting her or something. Here’s a list of things I really dislike about her: *She’s always on her phone. *She almost NEVER leaves the nurse station. *She is always playing with her hair at the nurse station. *I can count on one hand the number of times she’s been in a room with me assisting in patient care. (I couldn’t begin to count how often the other charges on my unit are rounding and helping me and other RN’s out). *She orders food for lunch almost every day that she works and it becomes a big to-do about asking other nurses what they’d like but she very pointedly doesn’t ask EVERYONE (if you get what I’m saying). *She plots to take her lunch at the same time as her bestie friend nurses regardless of if that leaves the unit like… deserted…. Anyway, Madeline makes multiple employees uncomfortable. I have had quite a few employees complain to me on days when she’s working about how she makes them feel nervous because she’s always trying to find things wrong with them during her shifts, like they’re picked on. And they are scared because it’s a direct line to our supervisor. I’ve actually witnessed her step into the breakroom (cause I was in there) and call the supervisor to just ‘let her know’ about an event that wasn’t that serious… it was literally to gossip ...so annoying. Basically the bitch doesn’t DO anything because she’s too busy sniffing every one else’s assholes to see if she can find people fucking up. BUT SHE NEVER finds fault with the members of her “clique”. iNtEReStiNg .
So moving on to the story.
One of the RN’s on my unit continually has a heavy load of patients. She gets like, 4 Max Assits/Q2 turn patients EVERY fucking shift while some nurses have like, 3 As&Osx4 pts and a hip fx. And dude, this lady kicks ass… she’s usually almost running through most of her shift. She never misses meds, she’s always turning her pts, always cleaning them up. I know because I help her. The downfall is that she is from another country with a thick accent and due to the accent and the culture difference, I think the immature, insecure “hot nurses” interpret her as incompetent. But she is not. So she had the usual set up of 3 max assists and then one pt who was going to be discharging but his discharge was a MESS right? So she’s busy. At some point she goes into one of the rooms and starts calling for a code stroke. And I was like, shocked at how slowly the team jumped into action to help her. It was weird. Anyway. Turns out the patient wasn’t having a stroke… nobody really knew what was going on and they said that they thought he just became severely dehydrated….?
So an hour or two later, this foreign nurse and I are changing the patients wound dressings and the door is closed (and he’s completely out of it sleeping and what-not) and she starts to tell me how she knows nobody likes her and they’re always trying to find things wrong with her work. And she is just going off about it, so sad like. She started crying so much she had to stop bandaging this guy. And I was like, “lady, I see you work hard. You consistently are given a crap assignment and hard patients and then NO ONE helps or supports you. I see it. I think you are one of the best nurses on this unit. I know it. I take care of all your patients all the time and I see what you’re doing. Forget the charge nurse, it’s her prerogative to find only negative things. Where is she?? She should be here supporting you and helping you. You had a potential stroking patient? Why wasn’t she delegating tasks to other nurses to help with your other patients? Why wasn’t she HELPING instead of HARANGING?” And this nurse was like, “I know I know I’m only telling you because I know you’re a good person but I just want someone to understand how hard it is for me to get out of bed on the days I work. I don’t want to be here. I feel hated. I always feel like my job is in jeopardy”. THIS BROKE MY HEART. I hadn’t decided whether I liked Madeline yet… I knew I didn’t trust her. But hearing how her behavior affected one of the best nurses we have all because she isn’t part of the clique, made me hate her. I can’t stand her. That’s really all there is to it.
And this is one of the struggles in nursing, I realized. There are absolutely cliques of “hot nurses” who have some weird obsession with being the popular nurses. And going out of their way to judge and degrade the nurses around them who they think are inferior. Madeline is not alone. She has a crew of about 4 or 5 people and when they’re ALL at work together, it’s literal hell. They of course have other nurses who aren’t considered as “hot” or “popular” as them… but are “approved of” and then there is every one else. And you can tell who is and isn’t approved of because those that aren’t really do keep to themselves and try to stay “unnoticed”.
I know other people experience this. It gave me a lot to think about. For example, how I want to present myself. I have no interest in being in that clique. But I also refuse to live my life in fear for my career because someone doesn’t like me. I need to make sure that I am unfuckwithable at work. Like, her opinion of me should not affect my career since it’s a game she plays with everyone there… and I will be respected for my work ethic, my effort, and my integrity. If you try to create problems for me, you will learn the hard way, not to. I will stand up for myself, unlike my co-worker (it’s just not who she is to be confrontational… confrontation in her culture is like being disrespectful and she would never).
But…. Homie don’t play that mess. xoxo – Gossip Girl
Jk but so apropos
xoxo- Nic