Conflicts with a Co-worker

I have been having many troubles at work lately, which is upsetting because I genuinely love what I do. I also, for the most part enjoy the people I work with and the facility I work for.



I am a Nurse Technician at Liberty Nursing here in Xenia. I assist elderly with activities of daily living, tasks they cannot perform on their own or need some assistance with such as: Walking, Dressing themselves, bathing, tying their shoes, eating, drinking, toileting, reading, brushing their teeth ect. I also work with them to regain their physical independence, so that they might one day go back to the normalcy of an everyday life in their own home. I evaluate their individual needs and current medical situations, help create a care plan or overall goal for their rehabilitation and chart on their daily progress. I also care for their minor medical needs and assist a more qualified medical professional with the more major medical needs that they process.
I find great rewards in making a difference in my patients lives and love caring for them. I have bonded with my patients and I have never found more joy and personal satisfaction in anything else I have ever done before. But lately I have had many conflicts with a co-worker I seem to always get stuck with working beside. At first I convinced myself to deal with the situation professionally and overlook her lack of intelligence, lack of time management and poor work ethics; which would have worked out great if it weren't for the fact that I had to work with this woman nearly everyday I was scheduled. On several occasions I an fellow co-workers followed our chain of command and reported the situation to the supervisor on duty, but the problems were never followed up on or passed on down the chain. It was basically ignored and her inability to perform her job and give the proper care to her patients remained. This was not only completely unfair and unjust to the people who had to pick up her slack, but was and is abusive to the defenseless elderly patients who rely on her. They deserve to get the very best care. I finally got so fed up with having to do her work for her and having to retrain her on the same tasks repetitively that I could no longer pretend the situation didn't exist. This day was an especially bad day. I decided that I wouldn't talk to her at all in fear of diarrhea of the mouth syndrome occurring.

I must have been giving off the negative tension that was boiling in my blood because she took notice almost immediately. This is when the woman decided she would throw me over the edge. She yelled at me in a Resident's room while giving care and kept walking by me making inappropriate snickers under her breath. Well, my personality or chemical make up, whatever you want to contribute it to would not allow that. I think maybe I have entirely to much of my father running through my veins because at some point during all of this my body took over. I absolutely lost it on this unsuspecting human. I can't even at this point remember the exact words said, but in short I let her know exactly how I felt and what I thought of her. To the point that I was mocking her and clapping my hands at her. I even made her cry. I guess the truth really does hurt at times. All I can say is she was asking for it. I don't know if the tears were from total shock that I stood up to her or if it was put on for our boss who happened to walk up in the middle of my explosion.