u/annaleemac

Backstory: I (31 F) was a nursing assistant at one hospital for a little over six years, and moved to another hospital where I was a nursing assistant for a little over 5 months. I got my LPN certificate back in August, but didn’t take my boards immediately (different story for a different day). Going into this new job, it was well known that I was going to take my boards at some point within the coming months, and that my days as a nursing assistant were numbered.

Enter “Candy” (52F), who is a nursing assistant. We’ve always had a weird working relationship — she acts like she wants to be my best friend, but makes incredibly snarky, backhanded comments to me. When I first started on that floor, I mentioned something about how I was going to start studying for my boards so I could apply for the bridge to RN program, and her immediate response was “Well I never want to be a nurse because being an assistant is more meaningful because I like that I actually have time to see my patients blah blah blah.” Like…weird response, but okay. I ignored. Fast forward to the end of April, she asked me if I wanted her nursing books (she was in nursing school for two seconds a number of years ago but failed out — turns out it’s not that she doesn’t want to be a nurse, she literally cannot be because she can’t get through school, although she definitely likes to pretend she is) and extra cranberry scrubs (the color nursing assistants wear) and I told her no thanks because I don’t need the books, and I didn’t need to scrubs because I was talking my boards soon. Her response? “Don’t take your boards because then we’ll be short a tech (nursing assistant).” Oh yeah, you’re right, let me put my entire career on hold to benefit you. Again, I ignored, and I obviously didn’t listen, and I took and passed my boards on the first try, with the minimum amount of questions! Out of all the employees we have, she was the only one that didn’t congratulate me, which is fine. Based on her previous comments, I didn’t expect her to, but I didn’t think she would act how she’s been acting lately. My bad for assuming, I guess!

Main Story: I started as a nurse on the floor I’ve been a nursing assistant on and I love it so far! Last week, Candy was mine and my preceptor’s nursing assistant for a shift. When Candy was getting morning vitals, she came out of a patient’s room screaming “I NEED A NURSE! WHERE’S ________ (my preceptor) HIS HEART RATE IS 38!” My preceptor was busy, so I went in there to manually count his heart rate through his wrist, and I said “Uh…I’m getting 73. Your machine isn’t right.” She kept going on and on about how his heart rate was low and she needed a nurse to hurry in there, despite the fact that I, a nurse, was in there. One of our respiratory therapists happened to walk by and Candy snatched her pulse oximeter from her and sure enough, the patient’s heart rate was reading in the 70s. It’s almost like I went to school to be a nurse and might know what I’m doing! Later on in the day, I had to catheterize the same patient for a urinalysis, and nicked his prostate on the way in, which is common (had to emphasize that so no one would think I was negligent). After that, due to the crappy cath kits, the fact the prostate is extremely vascular, and the patient was on a blood thinners, the patient started peeing clots. I made the nurse practitioner (who put in the catheterization order in the first place) aware, and she told me not to give him his blood thinner until it resolves. Easy fix. We know the cause and we have a solution. Candy spent the rest of the shift freaking out, even after I explained multiple times why that happened, and kept saying “you did this to him you hurt him (he was not hurt) you injured him (he’s fine) you’re the reason he’s peeing blood.”

Fast forward to today, she texted me asking if I wanted to come in and work (without our manager knowing she asked) because it was just her and another nursing assistant. I was confused, because how is it going to benefit the two nursing assistants for another nurse to come in? Then it dawned on me: she wants me to come in and work as a nursing assistant, which I cannot do anymore, as I can’t switch my roles back and forth, nor can I work more than 36 hours a week while I’m on nursing orientation. Her message made me feel like, once again, she is purposely not acknowledging me as a nurse and downplaying my education and degree that I worked so hard for.

I don’t know how to nicely tell her that she’s going to have to look at me as a nurse without her feeling like I’m looking down on her, because I’m not. I don’t know if she’s doing this because someone reached a goal she couldn’t (she absolutely does not clap for other people but wants others to clap for her), if she’s doing this to make herself feel powerful and to get under my skin, or what the deal is, but it’s about to reach a boiling point.

Edit: Sorry for a lack of TLDR. There is no way to shorten this story because I feel like most of the details are important, or else “YOR” would be the unanimous vote.

Edit #2: My preceptor was in the room while I was catheterizing this patient, and knew I wasn’t hurting him and didn’t do anything wrong that cause the bleeding, so if she were to go to my manager, I do have a witness!