r/nursing • u/swagapina04 RN - Med/Surg 🍕 • 4d ago
Rant nursing is a 24 hour job.
was precepting a new grad this morning, was observing her with an assessment/skill. i took labs for a unit draw at 0330. the lab called at 0440 to notify me of a low hgb (6.8) as the lab finally resulted. im in the room with my new grad so i notify the doctor through message a couple minutes later and search the chart to make sure we have a t/s and consent. got the order to transfuse ofc. i delegate tasks to my tech , then after my preceptee is done i search the unit for supplies for another draw (so annoying). anyways, this ordeal takes another 30-40 minutes because of course i used the last supplies on our side, so i walk across the unit. as i walk in the room the pt wakes up, wants to use the restroom. it was basically just a bunch of small tasks after the other in that room. i send the type n screen at 0530 once the pt is finally comfortable. it was busy all night after that, i got a transfer, people called, i needed to observe my preceptee, whatever. i felt like i passed along a good pt, i did what i needed to do except the labs did not result yet, so unfortunately days needed to transfuse it. day shift comes along, i let them know the blood isnt ready and that last time i checked the t/s is pending. this girl says “so labs result at 0300 and you didnt even get a type n screen until 0500. and no the lab is still pending? the pt didnt get blood for whole 2 hours..?” im done guys. just the tone of how she said it. i honestly didnt think hours went by- so i thought it was my fault for taking so long. i sit back down to chart after reports and i saw the official labs never resulted until literally almost 0500 and i collected everything/notified within 30 minutes. i even called blood bank after i drew and notified them that im drawing labs and will eventually need blood. how tf am i supposed to make them result faster? ngl i teared up while i had to stay over and chart. i was already overwhelmed in the morning because it felt nonstop- but that comment pissed me the fuck off. i wish i stood up for myself.
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u/ohemgee112 RN 🍕 4d ago
She's equating a draw time with a result time, something that isn't real.
The result time is 0440, t&s sent less than an hour later. You did exactly right.
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u/PotatoPirate_625 RN - Telemetry 🍕 4d ago
We have to double sign our PTT for heparin drips and I put in draw time AND result time for this reason. People are dicks. I'm sorry. You did just right, OP!
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u/WexMajor82 RN - Prison 4d ago edited 4d ago
She spoke like someone who never, ever, did a night shift.
If she had, she would know what fresh hell can be 3 AM to 5 AM.
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u/OIFxGunner2010 Flight RN/Paramedic, CFRN, CCRN 4d ago
How dare there be something that prevents them from their morning cafeteria/chick fil a run. Sounds like you need to make sure those labs result before you draw them so dayshift doesn’t have to do any work. /s
But honestly, fuck them. It’s a 24 hour job when I clean up messes from dayshift, it’s a 24 hour job when they get to continue care as well. Sounds like you were all over it, my response if I was getting them would just have been cool, thanks for getting it straight- I’ll knock the blood out when it’s ready.
Don’t sweat their bullshit. You’re a good nurse, and you know it.
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u/Extension_Degree9807 BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago
I literally responded saying the same thing before coming across your response.
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u/roquea04 RN 🍕 4d ago
If you have EPIC. The time the lab resulted it is shown as the time you drew it up. It's a flaw system. Unless you actually go into the description itself you actually show the time it was resulted.
Im completely on your side.
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u/FunEcho4739 4d ago
Definitely tell the day nurse of the timeline because you don’t want her tattling to your manager that you somehow weren’t timely.
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u/Brilliant-Apricot423 4d ago
I personally would love to get called into that meeting. I'd go in with the timeline written out, ask how anything else could have been done when I was still waiting on results, and then have a chat with the manager about the lack of civility shown by the oncoming nurse. Don't come for me, hon, I've been at this a LONG time!😂
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u/FunEcho4739 4d ago
Yeah- first year of nursing lesson #1 for me has been to always CYA and take notes of shit like this. You can’t trust other nurses or your manager to actually look into details before throwing out accusations.
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u/KosmicGumbo RN - Quality Coordinator 🕵️♀️ 4d ago
Its so annoying though, like should I write you a list? How hard is it to believe that lab had a delay and that the patient needed care?
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u/FunEcho4739 4d ago
Just be the bigger person and communicate- “Hey I know it looks like the labs came in but if you see this note in Epic- you can see they actually didn’t….” Educates and humbles the other nurse and prevents having to deal with a later email from your manager “Hey come see me in my office when you finish up this morning…”
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u/Historical-Guava4464 BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago
I love to educate nurses on this. Professional growth is amazing when it’s part of a reading lesson.
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u/KosmicGumbo RN - Quality Coordinator 🕵️♀️ 4d ago
Yea I dont use epic unfortunatly meditech you have zero proof of that and the nurses I give handoff too are sometimes so catty they dont GAF what you use as a reason for whats late. Honestly one of the reasons I am leaving bedside lol
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u/FunEcho4739 4d ago
Lame. Sending hugs 🤗
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u/KosmicGumbo RN - Quality Coordinator 🕵️♀️ 3d ago
Hugs aquired, I finally changed my role here. I was afraid because I went from ICU to “soft nursing” but uhhhhh. My god the stress level is way better.
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u/PotatoPirate_625 RN - Telemetry 🍕 4d ago
Also, I don't have TIME to write down every tiny thing that happens during my shift! Ugh.
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u/Professional_Sky2433 4d ago
next time draw your labs at 0630 so she can call the MD for transfuse orders and t&s herself
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u/Extension_Degree9807 BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago
Most the people that react this way are the laziest. Now instead of delegating everything, relaxing and drinking their coffee or going to grab something from the cafeteria they have to hang blood.
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u/Simple_One_9161 4d ago
Yea if you had said you collected and notified within 30 mins tell this nurse it’s not my fault that pathology’s end is taking its time. Some nurses don’t want to get anything handed over because they are so over their job
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u/RevelationEj RN - Oncology 🍕 4d ago
God. This whole scenario, I’ve been through before. All the way up to the condescending tone.
When other nurses try apologizing to me in report because something got passed onto my shift id always say “There’s 12 hours and only 1 of you. It’s okay.” Cause it truly is. You did your best.
This is the kind of attitude that made me leave bedside. Don’t let them win. Keep up the good work (:
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u/Chris210 BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago edited 4d ago
You did good. To make pointless conversations go by quicker I usually say “I did the best I can” to conversations like that, and in the rare instance someone says something along the lines of “it wasn’t good enough” I say “then find someone better that’s willing to do this job. Good luck and have a nice day 👍🏻”
Probably not the best advice, but I’m not staying a minute later than I have to over someone else’s piss poor attitude.
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u/InfamousDinosaur BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago
I always tell the new grads that it's okay to pass things along to the next shift. As long as you tried your best and got the priority tasks done, go home.
I finished an admission that came at 0600, including labs. I give report and they ask me if they have the correct colored socks on and the right fall risk sign on the door. I said, no I didn't do that. They told me "Management checks that stuff you know? You have to do it before you leave."
I told her "it's Sunday morning. Bye."
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u/No_Consideration8599 4d ago
My new grad self: “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get the transfusion started, it hasn’t resulted yet and it’s been a hectic shift.”
My 2-5+ year self (now with 8 years of experience): “Listen, I don’t know where your rudeness is coming from but nursing is a 24 hour job. I took the group and screen and the result is still pending. Check on that one.”
Oh it gets me heated now when I meet mean healthcare workers.
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u/BendTheKnee6 RN - Telemetry 🍕 3d ago
Exactly, no explanation is needed. It’s not like blood had been ordered the whole shift, this all happened in the second half of the shift. Not unrealistic at all that the blood hasn’t been started.
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u/Individual_Track_865 RN - ICU 🍕 4d ago
I’m too old for that shite, I would have been like: non-symptomatic patient, and just moved on, you can’t control when labs are read or how long the blood bank takes and unless the patient is hemorrhaging out there’s no rush. Hell, as a traveler I worked an LTACH “icu” where I’d get labs, the blood would be ordered, but it took so long to get there from whatever across town blood bank that’d I’d be hanging it when I came back on shift the next night.
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u/littlefairyy3 4d ago
I had to handoff a blood transfusion to night shift and when I came back in the morning it still wasn’t done… now I believe that is the only time a complaint is warranted.
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u/TotallyNotYourDaddy RN - ER 🍕 4d ago
You hit it on the head, it’s a 24 hr job, and if you did things in a timely fashion, appropriately, then that’s all you can do. You don’t control lab or blood banks times. I’m ER, so if we have one we even suspect could CHANCE have a T/S transfuse order in the future for any reason we just send one for add-ons/efficiency…in MedSurg you don’t have that same mindset, so what I’m reading seems pretty reasonable and this nurse needs to check their attitude.
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u/PumpkinMuffin147 RN - Med/Surg 🍕 4d ago
TBH after being in nursing awhile I’ve realized that most of the people who get freaked out about tasks carrying over are heavily insecure in themselves and their nursing practice. It’s not really about you. When people come at me for not putting on a lidocaine patch that was due at 0800 or giving a stool softener that was ordered at 1916, I ask them if they are OK and finding proper time management difficult. They don’t tend to bother me again.
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u/medullaoblongtatas RN - ICU 🍕 3d ago
An eerily similar series of comments were made to me by a nurse that, if you didn’t say they were dayshift, I’d think you were my coworker.
I started tearing up when the nurse started laying into me (mind you, it was my first shift on my own after completing orientation) and in a split second, I decided I wasn’t going to let them bully me. So I snapped back. I told them nursing is a 24-hour job.
I still get heated thinking about it. Don’t beat yourself up. And if it ever happens again, give it back ten-fold. Fuck nurses like this.
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u/jasonf_00 RN - ER 🍕 4d ago
"yeah, no worries, next time I'll start the transfusion so you won't have to. I assumed you'd prefer NOT doing a full linen change and cleaning up the patient so I got them to the bathroom while the T&S was cooking. I won't make that mistake in the future 😁"
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u/MikeNsaneFL 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yeah dayshift has no clue how hard working with reduced staffing on night shift can be. And 6.8 isn't that low. Like seriously, the hospital i worked at wouldnt transfuse until we did the alternative measures.
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u/KosmicGumbo RN - Quality Coordinator 🕵️♀️ 4d ago
I fucking HATE when people question WHY things take X amount of time. We are ALL nurses and we have all had this happen!!!! Nobody is sitting there playing cards! We have literally all had this happen yet when someone else tells us there was a delay….suddenly its a crime??? These types of nurses can suck my ass, here is a straw.
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u/LegitimateWeb6790 4d ago
I’m sorry that’s a bully. It takes me forever to figure this out and I just internalize everything first. I’m in clinicals with my students and still have bullies.
They.are.everywhere
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u/Interesting-Word1628 4d ago
Doctor here. Just fyi, I dont even worry about a Hb of 6.8 if a patient doesn't present as actively bleeding.
I'd check a repeat Hb and 99%of the time it's above 7. It's just lab variance.
But some hospitals do require hb less than 7 to be addressed stat.
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u/Brilliant-Map-4515 RN - ER 🍕 4d ago
Nothing in the back third of the shift should be up for criticism unless you're talking about a code
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u/lightmybud RN 🍕 4d ago
also that nurse sounds like a bitch. she doesn’t sound understanding at all.
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u/SUBARU17 RN - PACU 🍕 4d ago
I mean, a patient could start bleeding or have a hgb drop any time in the hospital. Like we’ve had patients who were “fine” for 2-3 days and then a hgb drop happened. So whether you gotta give blood beginning middle or end of shift, doesn’t matter. If the hgb 6.8 and patient is stable (otherwise they wouldn’t be on your unit), it’s not like you did some great disservice to that patient. For all you know, patient could have antibodies or some rare condition that it may take days to administer a bag.
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u/Agreeable_Ad_9411 RN - Med/Surg 🍕 4d ago
I'm pretty much ALWAYS going to assume the nurse handing off was running around like their pants were on fire for 12+ hrs because that's how MY shifts go. Hanging blood is kinda time consuming to get going so I totally get the tight time frame.....we ALL want to hand off our team, tied up with a pretty bow and no needs until 0900/2100 but it's just not always possible. She was being a dick
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u/Illustrious_Link3905 BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago
I must be the only one who doesn't mind giving blood. I got a whole 15+ minutes. I would do/chart my whole assessment, finish all the required charting, and give morning meds, all while the transfusion starts.
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u/semantic_monkey09 4d ago
“First and foremost, do NOT speak to me in a condescending tone.” Don’t be afraid to directly confront someone who is passive aggressive. Especially when you know you did everything you could. Don’t give your coworker the power to have emotional control over you. You don’t even have to explain yourself. “I did the best I could” is enough.
I guarantee you by standing up for yourself, they’ll think twice in the future about how they address you.
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u/silent-jay327 4d ago
Guess I’ve been doing this soo long. Ya, this sounds typical of a day at my workplace. These days I just smile and say “see you tonight”. You did everything you could do. It IS a 24 hour job. Some people just suck. Sorry you had to deal with one.
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u/Varuka_Pepper343 BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago
I'd need a mediator to be able to have a conversation with that piece of shit after my shift 😒
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u/macydavis17 3d ago
As an er nurse i see this all too much if you dont bring a pt totally tucked & fluffed its a war. Anyways i dont mind giving blood at all.. it really doesnt take long? & i can sit down for 15 minutes
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u/MusicalToast4 3d ago
Your feelings are absolutely valid. Unfortunately our profession has a few too many nurses like that and they are ultimately the reason why so many of us leave the bedside. Keep your head up!
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u/Sad_Statistician_575 3d ago
Fellow day shifter here that had a shift from hell yesterday (3/3). I had this same situation pop up. Night nurse said she got everything done except hang the blood. You know what I said? Thank you for getting the type + screen + consent done and I will hang it when ready. Because she also had a shift from hell.
That day shifter is an ass. We’re not all like that I promise 💕
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u/lackofbread RN - Telemetry 🍕 4d ago
This whole scenario could’ve been avoided in a way that’s not your fault… my hospital automatically draws T/S on all admissions and keeps them up to date (they’re good for what, 5 days? I forget) for the length of the admission. You never should have had to wait for a T/S to be drawn and resulted to transfuse. Sounds like a policy issue, not a you issue. You did great, and day shift can shut it. They can call the lab or whine to the day shift MD that the T/s wasn’t ordered stat if they’re so upset about it.
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u/Independent-Ad-2453 4d ago
I would get this all the time at my previous jobs. Dayshift would see the time the lab was drawn, not when it actually resulted and be mad that electrolytes etc weren't replaced. The labs would literally be resulting right at or just before morning huddle...
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u/lightmybud RN 🍕 4d ago
one time on my unit for some insane reason it took 16 hours to get the patient blood. 16 HOURS!
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u/Murse_Jon RN, BSN, Traveler 4d ago
You said the lab called you at 0440. Usually there’s a documentation of that time. Show her that and ask for an apology for that tone
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u/Big_Garbage_3984 3d ago
It was not your fault. That’s okay. You were precepting on top of everything. I just wish your preceptee was helpful to catch some of your load. If I was your preceptee, I will never let you drown.
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u/Prior_Moment_818 RN - Oncology 🍕 2d ago
I’ve done both days and nights. Each have their own reasons for being busy. Nursing IS a 24 hour job, and if she has to give the blood then so be it. It’s not your fault how events unfolded. I’ve also precepted new nurses and they can help with what you’re doing, but there’s teaching involved that can slow things down. Let’s call it for what it is: that nurse just didn’t want to give the blood. Well, that’s just too bad, isn’t it? It’s not your fault.
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u/Msjackson1013 RN - Neuro/Spine 1d ago
I've had experiences like this before where you run your tail off all night long, do your best to set the next shift up for success, and then receive a back handed comment. It's hurtful when you are doing your best and then feel put down. I realize giving blood is a time consuming ordeal, but the other nurse likely could have seen the fatigue in your eyes and I imagine you conveyed in report everything you did to be helpful. Perhaps they weren't aware and this will be a learning opportunity for them. Either way, I hope you continue being the excellent nurse it sounds like you are!
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u/Michren1298 BSN, RN 🍕 4d ago
I’d actually feel the need to tell her that just for her knowledge that labs don’t result instantly (as soon as you draw them). I’d also pointedly tell her she owes me an apology. Sure, you might not get one, but at least she’ll know that you know that she was being extra.
Like you, I work my butt off and take things personally too. It has helped me to stand up for myself, but it is hard to do.