Since I've been working as a nurse, in my first job (all of 5 months), I'm really surprised at all of the rules and expectations - and how the list is CONSTANTLY growing... I'm wondering if this is just my unit or is this how it is everywhere?

  • taking away purewicks due to "overuse"
  • diapers only for inconient people
  • mandatory bed alarms for ALL patients at night - plus fall risk bracelets, fall risk door signage, and notifying patients of their fall risk level for all patients moderate and high fall risk; chair alarms during the day
  • if we hear a bed alarm go off, we're expected to drop everything and run - they'll randomly test people throughout the day
  • expectation that somebody/anybody MUST answer the call bell within 15 seconds - they'll randomly test us on this too
  • getting patients up and out of the bed and into a chair for breakfast first thing in the morning
  • *PERFECT* high risk charting (blood admin, pain meds, heparin drips, morphine drips) - yes, they use the word perfect
  • ask 3 teach 3, m in a box - even the white boards get audited
  • they're REALLY cracking down on the use of hydration stations - which night shift is feeling extra hard because they used to eat entire meals while charting
  • on nights, all of our charting gets audited every single shift
  • *perfect* hand hygiene - all of our gelling in and out gets tracked on a personal tracking device and then PUBLISHED for all to see every month

The other night, our new night ANM decided that daily 1 am huddles are going to be a thing - and it wasn't really a huddle, it was just a lecture. We had 4 nurses on staff (2 of us are new grads and 2 of us are seasoned nurses) and 4-6 patients each - somehow I, the newest/least experienced one, always end up with the most patients.

The "huddle" felt pointed at the new grads and made me feel like I was lazy, a bad nurse, and an inconsiderate coworker. I thought I was doing well!!!! My patients are always happy, pampered, and (most importantly) alive at the end of my shift - apparently this not good enough.

We were told that if a new admission is pending, "it doesn't take special skill or experience to look at their chart and help your charge decide if they're an appropriate fit for the unit", and that if we see our neighbor hasn't sat down all night and we're less busy than they are - we REALLY SHOULD help them out instead of sitting down because "one day it will be you" (LOL, it's actually always me and nobody helps me and I don't expect help?).

And the other part of the lecture was... the other night, whoever was charge had to call a rapid, but didn't tell anybody/it was VERY demure/not clear to any of us - but we were made out to be the worst people ever for not recognizing what was going on and dropping everything to help? This one I understand - but also, I have seen all of 2 rapids since working and what happened is nothing like what I've seen so how was I really supposed to understand what was going on - especially when older nurses were ignoring it?

Are these normal expectations? I don't know how to gauge the strangeness of all these things...