Working with the nurse in charge - Essay Example

Reflection Journal On my fourth day on th emedical surgical floor, I was privileged to have been assigned to work with the nurse in charge. She had a tremendous amount of administrative privileges and responsibilities that kept her off the floor and in the backroom office instead. Her job description was different from the nurse that I shadowed the previous week. Having mostly administrative tasks meant that I did not have as much to do either when compared to the activities that I did the previous week.

Since this nurse did not interact with the patients, I formed the opinion that she did not really want to be saddled with me as she went about her clerical duties. She would not even look at me or answer my questions. Basically, she let me sense and feel that I was an encumbrance that she was saddled with and the best thing that I could do was to just stay out of her way. Eve though I offered to help with her clerical duties, she refused and said that it would just take longer if she had to redo the things that she asked me to do.

Needless to say, we just tolerated each other for the length of time necessary for me to complete my duty hours. The attitude of this nurse led me to the realization that just like the patients, the nurses that I will be working with in the future will have different characters and dispositions that I will also need to learn to adjust to if I am to have a successful working relationship with my nurses in order to ensure the proper treatment and overseeing of my patients assigned to them. We only had one patient to take care of so I assisted the nurse with the feeding and performed a head to to assessment of the patient while also doing my part in helping to medicate the patient.

The patient was a 94-year old female who was quite nice to the nurses. Prior to my approaching her, I was warned that she was having trouble distinguishing between persons, places, and the time. However, I did not pick up on any of those traits while I was interviewing her. Rather, I found her to be quite open and entertaining as she spent some time on her phone talking to her 73 year old son who was her primary care taker. She asked me once to assist her in increasing the volume on her phone while she was using it.

She was basically a very nice and cooperative patient who, at the end of my time with her asked me to do only one thing when I asked if there was anything else I could do for her. She replied, “Yes, just leave me alone.” She asked so nicely that I found myself smiling at her as I accomodated her request. Basically, the 94 year old patient made what could have been the worst duty day of my life one of the best. She taught me that not all patients will be cross and that I did not need to humor them all the time.

The nurse taught me that working with the staff nurses and clerical nurses meant that I would have to navigate the waters of office politics if I wanted to gain their respect and cooperation. Thus, I had a very productive and learning 4th day on the floor.