the 100% directionless thread

usalsfyre said:
Aprz...welcome to CCT and working with nurses. The majority of providers are hard working and willing to educate. The rest of them are passive aggressive a-holes with a chip on their shoulder who think they deserve reverence because they're "special".

(Caution: Wholly anecdotal opinion here)
Nursing has a serious issue with conflict resolution. The whole darn profession is passive aggressive. Ever heard "nurses eat their young"? This is it.

Bail. Change units. Your unlikely to win this fight, he's more experienced in fighting these battles and more valuable to the company.
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Thus my career in EMS.
 
Aprz said:
I'll try not to be bias, but this kind of upset me.

I've been working on a dedicated CCT rig every other week the same nurse, and it's burning me out a little bit. He always jokes around about my partner, in my opinion inappropriately, he gave me a nickname I absolutely hate, and always disagrees with me about anything. I'm just an EMT (only 110 hours of training) and he's a Paramedic/RN (a bizillion hours of education)with many years of experience including in 911 so I feel like I have to respect his wishes, but at times I just feel like it's just a title, that he isn't as good as the title. Maybe he can sense that. When I first started working with him, I'd always kind of give him my thought, but now I stop. I allow him to do things I consider wrong e.g. administer oxygen to patients that don't need it, him not doing his own 12-lead on a STEMI patient, incorrectly perform certain assessments (e.g. most recently a TIA patient that we responded and transported CODE 3 red lights and sirens, when he did the pronator drift, he didn't ask the patient to close their eyes, he didn't have their palm face up), he didn't want me to use a head block when we backboarded a patient, we just taped the patient's head of the patient to the board (and he had me tape their chin too when I was taught not to do that, but I told him, and he told me again to do/not to argue with him), and he fakes the times and respiratory rate (e.g. took a blood pressure at 2204, but he wants me to write down 2345) because he wants it to look good on paper (he got mad at me for writing down the true times and that all the RNs with a lot of experience do this, it's a common mistake new people do). Since he always disagrees with me even if I have evidence of it, and I've given him the impression of "wants to be perfect, deny ever being wrong, it's never my fault" sorta attitude, I stopped saying anything. The things I mentioned are bugging me because I allowed him to do it without me saying a thing now, I looked at his PCR (cause I was copying his vital signs instead of the right time - instead of me writing it down what the actual time and respiratory rate is, I turn my head as if he actually has the right time and respiratory rate) and allowed him to incorrectly spell ecchymosis (he put "echymosis") because I am tired of being labeled as a know it all. When I read that expert vs. know it all post, I related because I felt that I am a know it all for stepping in when not wanted.

Anyhow today we were told to start heading to a certain hospital, we might be upgraded to CODE 3 (red lights and sirens). I have no other information on the call. I opened the window and yell back there "hey, dispatch just informed us to start heading to such and such hospital, they might upgrade us to CODE 3. Just wanted to give up a heads up." I thought he said "So? Why are you so excited?" which in my opinion he just thought I was excited to go CODE 3, I told him "I'm not excited. Don't make it more than what it is." He said "Did you just give me attitude?" I'm not perfect, I joked "Yes" and my partner started laughing and I said "nah, I just wanted to give you a heads up". He didn't saying anything en route there, but I knew from the tone when he said "Did you just give me attitude?", he sounded mad. Later on, I asked him "Is this standby?" because I saw him making a phone call with our nextel which I was assumed to dispatch because we were heading a STEMI center that we usually do standby for STEMI patients (it was explained to me that they were a low level cath lab, and if things didn't go right, we transport them to a higher level cath lab). He said "I don't know" in what sounded like an angry tone to me. I asked dispatch, and it was. They sent us a page with the information when we got to the hospital. I went to the back "Here is my pager" because our pagers have all the information on the call and his wasn't working. He said "I don't need it." I said "Okay." I got the impression he was mad because he didn't want my pager, which he usually wants a heads up on the calls, and usually asks for my pager/I give it to him, so I told him "Hey, I'm sorry if I offended you early. I didn't mean to. I was just trying to give you a heads up and I guess I did sorta snap. I'm sorry." He said "I'm not offended, we'll talk about it after the call."

We ended up not getting the call so it was probably successful, but we did get another call immediately after that was canceled, literally they canceled us and told us about the other call at the same time.

After we finished that call, he slept the entire time. We didn't talk.

When we got back to station, another crew needed to start checking out our ambulance, all our paperwork and everything was done, I clocked out, and left.

He called me when I got home, he told me that he meant to get to me before I left, but this is the best he can do. He wanted to let me know that he wasn't mad, he wasn't offended, but he is frustrated with me, and that it is an ongoing issue, he doesn't know what's going on. Every time he talks to me, I cut him off or don't understand him even though he is speaking plain English to me. He said he only wanted information about the call "Where are we going? What's wrong with the patient?" He thought it was ironic I asked him if it was standby because he wanted to know information earlier on, but that I snapped back so he didn't have any information. He has decided that the best solution is that when we talk, it will be strictly business and professional, we will keep conversations limited. He doesn't want things to escalate. Next time an issue happens, me, him, my (EMT) supervisor, and his (RN) supervisor will sit down and talk. In the future, he will try to not be on the same unit as me.

^^By the way, that paraphrase is closely matching what he said to me like the "you don't understand me even though I'm speaking in plain English to you".

I told him I was really sorry, yeh, I'll try to keep it professional and business only. Sorry. I understand.

He said "great, well, I guess... when is the next time I see you?"

"Not next week, but the week after that."

"Well, see you then."

"Bye"

I texted my partner right away telling him the same deal, but now I am pretty upset. I almost want to be like "No, f that. That's a toxic environment. Maybe one of us should get off the unit now." I am not a believer in sitting down and resolving things. At my previous fast food company, we did that, the people kept doing the problem anyhow, and I ended up getting fired eventually, and then they kept me, and then I had a gun pointed at my face even though technically I was fired several weeks before. I feel like that kinda BS will just repeat if we sit down and talk.

I kind of have that anger in me right now just wanna call him back and say "f that", but at the same time, I am holding myself back.

I was talking to my partner about this how it's complicated for me because I've learned a lot of things, but I am just an EMT so my credibility is not so good, but then at the same time, credibility doesn't make your right or wrong, it just makes you more credible, but then I always think about what Usalfyre said about the Dunning-Kruger effect and how maybe I don't even realize that what I am saying is completely stupid.

I do also feel like there is a problem with me.

Maybe it's just time for us to be on different units. I did try making it work for both of us too. With me and my partner, I decided that if I wanted the real time to happen for vital signs, we gotta be quicker when we get the first set (that's our RN problem, he thinks that it's bad if it doesn't look like we got our own set of vital signs <5 minutes after get on scene) so I talked to my partner about choreographing what we do on scene ( got the idea from choreograph CPR) so... while he gets a report from the other RN, I'll ask AO questions, determine how we move the patient over, my partner should be writing down what the hospital VS are on their monitor, then we'll move the patient over, I take the heavy side, she takes the light side (she's not strong). Once he is on, I'll take the right side of the patient, she'll take the left (cause the monitor wires are on the left), I have them all wrapped up so we can take everything out, put it on the patient, I'll get the blood pressure and pulse ox on, she'll get the electrodes on. Prior to even walking into the room, the monitor I have is already on, I already prefilled it with all the patient's information (full name, gender, and age) and set to take vital signs every 15 minutes, once the BP cuff is on, have it start getting a blood pressure immediately, and write that down and hopefully it will be less than 5 minutes since our OS time. (we've only tried this for 2 days now, I think with more practice, we will be quicker).

I'm just mad. I think this is bull:censored::censored::censored::censored:.

To me, it's sort of a **** move too cause he's acting like the professional one "I'm not mad. We are gonna be professional" sorta deal. This to me screams "I'm mad" without actually screaming.
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Why didn't you just tell him you misunderstood what he was saying?

A lot of the times I laugh and go "sorry im deaf, what did you say?"

I talk fast, but I don't listen fast. Communication is something I have to put a lot of effort in, if you don't understand what they said dont be scared to ask them to repeat it. It is easier to be a little embarrassed that you didnt hear then to say the wrong thing.
 
Sasha said:
I talk fast, but I don't listen fast. Communication is something I have to put a lot of effort in, if you don't understand what they said dont be scared to ask them to repeat it. It is easier to be a little embarrassed that you didnt hear then to say the wrong thing.
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I'm the same way. I usually repeat what a person says back to me to make sure I understand as well.
 
Both me and my partner agree that he said "So why are you so excited?" I say with confidence that is what he said and that I didn't mishear him. I am saying that I thought because he said differently over the phone and I didn't argue with him. I just told him I was very sorry and I didn't mean to offend him. I also believe that he believes that it was a miscommunication error because he did tell me that that has been an ongoing issue (well particularly me not understanding him when he speaks in plain English).
 
Afternoon treat for Rufus. And he stayed in this position for at least three or four minutes.
 

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Do other people complain of having trouble communicating with you?
 
Sat down at my drum kit for the first time in about 18 months, only to find my snare has three broken lugs :(
 
Chimpie said:
Afternoon treat for Rufus. And he stayed in this position for at least three or four minutes.
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That is a pretty puppy!

My aunt has an elderly lab who needs daily meds that she gives him in peanut butter. I went to make a sandwich, and she busted me with the dog peanut butter. Gross!
 
Spent the morning turning wrenches (replacing brake caliper and bleeding brakes) on a friend's Land Cruiser. Somehow I filleted my finger open so now I gotta clean blood of my wrenches. She freaked out, I said meh and kept working. Im gonna have nasty hands at work on tuesday even after multiple Go Jo scrubbings.

Oh and had to order a new mower yesterday as my 36 year old Lawn Boy finally gave out. Turns out my wife has an Amazon Prime account and 1 day shipping was only $4. I didnt know she bought enough thru Amazon to need a Prime account. Hmmm.
 
Also it sounds as if you are judging this guy.

I estimate respiratory rate. A number isn't important, if it's eupneic who cares is its 18 or 16. Sometimes I write the wrong times because I write them down and forget to time then then estimate back. I also have crap spelling. I try to look up words I'm unsure of but if I don't know it's wrong then eh. It's gonna be spelt incorrectly.

Maybe there is a reason the patient is on oxygen that youre not seeing or aware of. he is a nurse, he did go to school a lot longer than you. That isn't to say that you're wrong just something to consider.

If you don't like a nickname, say something. If you don't like the way he is talking to your partner, say something. Dont expect people to change if you let their problematic behavior continue. If he calls you it and you've told him before you don't like it, don't respond. When he gets mad "sorry I only respond to my name, which is Aprz."

You should probably get off the truck. You've said you don't think he's a good nurse and you seem to be nitpicking of him. Thats hard to hide. The problem is just going to get worse til it gets explosive.

And if I was ever invited to coffee and you brought me print outs I'd throw them in your face an then go demand you get taken off my truck immediately.
 
Big pet peeve of mine. Partners who have a problem and don't say something to me and I hear second hand through a super or other employee.

I'm not a mind reader. If something is wrong tell me.
 
Did anyone hear about the Polish fish?
It drowned :P
 
Well.... I wander back this way and find this thread still going... Figures :p
 
TransportJockey said:
Well.... I wander back this way and find this thread still going... Figures :p
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Well don't let the door hit where the good lord split you on the way back out. :rofl:

How's NM treating you?
 
medic417 said:
Well don't let the door hit where the good lord split you on the way back out. :rofl:

How's NM treating you?
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So well that I'm trying to figure out the quickest ways back out ;p I'm waiting on my Colorado and Texas medic certs to come in the mail... But I might stay here and at least get my AAS before I move on.


Anjel1030 said:
Yay you're back!
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Yep :p You may now run for hte door again


fast65 said:
Welcome back, congrats on getting your P!
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Thank you! Took long enough huh?
 
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What do you call a cow with no legs??


Ground Beef.......
 
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