As promised this next entry is about for the 3rd or 4th time the willfully ignorant Nurse Bass and I have had a run in. In the recent past Crusty ER Tech had yet ANOTHER run in with her. Crusty has tired of this and decided once and for all to slap his cards onto the table and in the most figurative sense slap some sense into her.
Other techs have approached me about her she has said some real hum dingers one of which I will include here:
"Honey we want you here but we don't NEED you here."
this comes from an experienced charge nurse in a large urban ER. Nurse Bass is of the opinion that staff that is certified like EMT, Paramedics and others are not necessary to running an ER. That the nurses, docs and midlevels can do effective patient care with out us.
Let's put it straight the ER tech does a lot of the scut work that is needed to make the ER run effectively. I ain't talking about code browns either. ER techs stock the rooms run paients to the floor and to various places in the hospitals. Meet the ambulances in the ambulance bay. Dispatch ambulances, answer the EMS calls into the ER and direct them (at least in two of the ERs I have worked) Go get oxygen tanks, find anything you need in the ER. In many places the ER tech is taking over the ward clerk job because the paper push is no more. You just need a dedicated person to field and make phone calls and help direct patients ER techs can be cross trained to do that. Need a suture set up ER tech can run down everything the doc needs. Warmers and linens need to be stocked, ER tech has got you. Need scrubs because you are covered in some sort of human goo, ER tech can find you another set of clean scrubs. Need a pelvic set up ER tech has it all on hand. That way the nurses, docs and midlevels can do their jobs and frankly not sweat and worry over menial stuff. All of this is just stuff off the top of my head. So if the ER tech is needed to do the smaller things that help make the ER run smoother.
I think I have proven my point.
Nurse Bass decided to yell (yes yell) at me in front of patients in the waiting room when I was doing something that our bosses boss told me to do. The details are not important but needless to say her tone was condescending as usual and I was in a foul enough mood not to let it pass. Knowing that trying to reasonably resolve things with her proved futile in the past (Which included her calling me a liar and denying the incident took place) I had no other option except sit down and bring in manglement.
I don't really like bringing in manglement because it can turn into a mess and things get put on a back burner. Lately though I have done somethings for manglement that shows the true effectiveness of the ER tech and shows how we are valuable assets to the dept. Plus I have tried to back channel this problem to manglement and still this problem persists.
We got called into the office and there I took off the gloves and dismantled her verbally. At one point I called her an ignoramus. Now it helps that I've been working with manglement a bit more lately and it helps that this particular manager REALLY likes me and is keenly aware of how Nurse Bass is and has been privy to some of Bass's back stabbing attempts to me. As one unit clerk told me recently "Crusty ER Tech you're a sneaky fucker."
Indeed I am.
I won't go into the details of the entire nearly hour session but at one point Nurse Bass tells me:
Since then I have worked with Nurse Bass once and she was rather pleasant. Will this hold? I have no clue I honestly don't know. For now it's good enough for me. I had to expend some political capital in the department which is fine if it makes my day to day in the ER more tolerable.
Lessons learned:
Over the years I have had numerous run ins with nurses of this ilk. Rarely has it turned out for the positive for me. In actuality in rare cases are ER Techs respected. There is a lot of ignorance surrounding what we do and what we are capable of. Many nurses are really do not know and a few like Bass are willfully ignorant and only see us as gophers who need to shut up and do what we're told. With that said me spending now a few years in this urban ER and knowing manglement as well as I do got me a bit of favor with them. I am by no means an ass kisser but I have shown my worth to the department time and again. This got me a nod and because I followed guidelines, because Bass did not know when to shut up got me a favorable nod. Write shit down and if you're being treated like shit don't blow up esp after trying to calmly resolve an issue just keep plugging way eventually you'll be heard.
Now hopefully Bass will go work in some clinic in the suburbs some place.
