Last night I worked overnight, and boy was it busy. I helped deliver two babies that were healthy and happy. The downer to my job is when I work at night there isn’t any housekeeping on our unit. So after each birth my job shifts to cleaning up the mess. Blood, puke, amniotic fluid spills, you name it I’m either wiping or mopping it all up. Top to bottom, left to right, including the bathroom. Sometimes the nursing staff helps but not often.
Last week one of the nurses made a comment when she was helping me “I’m an expensive housekeeper”, she said. Then she walked out of the room. I literally was looking around left and right to see if she meant the comment towards me, or if she was just airing out her frustrations. She must have just been frustrated because she didn’t come back to help me finish cleaning the room.
Listen the last time I looked I wasn’t hired to be a housekeeper either but you have to do what you have to do to get the job done. If you leave a mess until housekeeping comes in the morning, you lose out on admissions coming to your floor, not ideal if you want to stay busy working all night. If that means you spend a little time cleaning than by all means get a rag and put some elbow grease to action.
In her defense, she did have a lot of charting to do but still why say something like that and then walk out of the room?
*sigh* Isn't it frustrating when people are just unhappy? Good for you for not letting her get you down, though, and for doing the right thing to get the job done. If I was a patient, I'd definitely want you around.
ReplyDeleteHm, sounds similar to what happened to me the other day. I am taking a CNA class & we're not allowed to transfer patients alone. Well there was this woman who wanted to go back to her bed & no CNA's could be found. So I went to the nurses' station & told the nurse there that a lady wanted to go back to her bed but that I couldn't transfer alone. What did he say? He said "Well just wait until you find someone." I was flabbergasted! I mean seriously? I should wait around for a CNA while you sit here at the nurse's station? Meanwhile that poor patient is still sitting in her wheelchair waiting for SOMEONE to help her back in her bed. :(
ReplyDeleteArgh! As an RN, I do have a lot of charting. However, when I work with my nursing assistant to bathe a patient and change the bed linens (as in yesterday I did this), I get to listen to posterior lungs and inspect the skin more throughly than peeking under a gown here and there. Also, ambulating a patient to the bathroom you see how well they ambulate and other assessment components that a nursing assistant might not note and tell the nurse. Important things!
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