control

[tiger]

another question for you. we have a nurse that has been doing charge for years. everyone hates to work with her because of the way she acts. she is hyper and once she thinks of a way she wants something done she will not listen to any reason. the ones of us that work with her can see little more rationale in her decisions other than she is a control freak. she wil say things and deny she said that until confronted by more than one person and then " oh, i forgot" this past week we had a somewhat confused pt. that kept asking for his wallet out of the safe. the charge is the only one that can get in. he knew he wanted his phone numbers but he didn't want his money. he had like $106. well she didn't want to be bothered so she had him sign a release and gave him the wallet with money and all. he kinda went in and out of confusion. he kept coming back to the desk asking to re-lock his wallet and money and she wouldn't take it. he was my pt. that day so who is responsible? icharted that she gave it to him and that hewas confused. was this wrong of me? anyway, our boss just retired and they have not hired a new one yet. this charge nurse is taking every opportunity she has to make things worse for the nurses. the unit managers we had before her would not listen to her and now that we have no boss she is taking advantage. the cting manager from administration is rarely there and actually listens and oks this womans ideas. she wants to control every little thing. don't you feel the teamwork is better if all the staff is allowed a say-so. i haven't given you all the details on her control issues because it would take so long. i don't mind someone being in charge if they have a rationale but this woman has none other than being power hungry.anyone else deal with someone like this???????/

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

This sounds kind of like Workplace Bullying.

Micro management?

We had it too. Not as bad but it sure is irritating. Our NM would second guess/Monday monring quarterback everything, and her little "buddies" would help it along with their snide remarks.

The acting NM is wussing out in allowing this person to run roughshod over the staff.

There are a couple of things you can do.

Some one of you could bid on the position. The rest of you could put in your take on the alternate candidate.

You could leave. Not an option if you are in a place you really like.

You could wait and watch. Eventually everyone "Peters out" that is rises to the level of their incompetence. (AKA the PETER principle)

Good luck. Oh and did the $106 ever go missing? Interesting.

[frustratedRN]

control freaks like that i have found, like to be asked questions.

do you want me to get that phone?

do you want me to answer that call light?

when do you think i should go to lunch?

do you mind if i go to the bathroom?

what should i do about this?

do you think i should call the doc?

can you read these orders?

not that many questions but if you ask them constantly it will satisfy the power lust.....lol

[kewlnurse]

I find that if you listen to what they have to say and then blow them off with our them knowing it they are happy ie: Yeah, (insert name) thats a great idea to move the patient to the woindow bed, than just don't do it. WOrks for me.

[tiger]

kewl and frustrated--have used boththose ideas on her but you get to a point where you don't want to be nice anymore and satisfy her needs. she also hates it because our boss that just left designated me to do the schedule. she feels she should be doing it. now they have hired a new woman to coordinate the case conferences. we used to have one person go and give report on all pts. taking info that had been done by the primary nurse but now they want each nurse to go conf on their primary as well as their alternates. you end up doing 3-6 conferences. this is in the a.m. when you are giving meds, getting pts. up, etc..you never know exactly what time this conf will be so if your involved in some pt. care and they page you-oh well-screw pt. care. now one nurse had made a scedule so that you were only on one team and had to go in only once to give all your reports which was better than being called away from your pts. 4-5 times but this charge nurse didn't like it because the nurse that made the schedule was perdium and she complained that she should have done it. now we are back to going in several times all because of her ego. she also wants to control the assignments. we have always made our own and she has tried to gain control for years. well-nows her chance cause we have no real boss. so she gets the acting manager to send a memo saying that the charge will make the assign. and that you will have your primary everytime you are there. which is not going to be fair cause it goes by room numbers. certain rooms close to the desk are always used for the most critical or pia pts. so if you have those rooms as your primary room you are stuck with those everytime you work until their discharge. you can only take so much of some pts before you are unable to be extra nice anymore. i think it is better to rotate assignments so you get breaks from certain pts. sorry so long. just venting.

[tiger]

and p-rn the wallet got locked back up the next day because i had reported it to several people including his nurse for the next day. haven't talked to her yet to find out what she did to get it locked back up. i think the charge nurse found out several people knew the situation and decided in HER best interest to lock it up.

[OC_An Khe]

The above contains good thoughts and advice. When the situation goes beyond that and you have a concern about your patients you can alwas try " you maybe in charge of the unit but you are not in charge of my professional judgement. Therefore my professional judgement tells me to ............... Fill in the appropriate remark but kept it focused on the patient.

[rdhdnrs]

Does this same nurse do charge every day??? On our OB unit, we rotate charge. Sure helps everybody have a break from charging, patient care, and the charge nurses we don't like!! Could you try this?

[tiger]

she is usually there mon, tue, wed, and sometimes sun,mon, tues. she also does a 4hr shift one day of the week. she has told me since our boss left that she is not to be scheduled on weekends anymore because she is needed during the week. i usually don't schedule her on weekends unless we need an rn because of requests off and such. nobody wants her on sun. anyway. it spoils the tranquility of the weekend. and the latter end of the week staff has told me they would rather work short than have her fill in on a thur,fri, or sat. she is scheduled for a four hour shift on sun this week and when i left on wed. she was trying to figure out how she wanted the assign. for sun. she won't even be charge that day. i'm telling you the woman is insane. she is scheduled to start work at 6 a.m. but the night shift says she gets there at 4a.m. just to be nosy and harrass them. i'm makingthe schedule right now and i'm switching to mostly weekend days to get away from her and the whole conference mess. the other charges we have are not hired for charge but they fill in because we are supposed to be getting rid of the charge position. they are changing alot of stuff right now. well, wish me luck not to kill her tomorrow!!!peace to all.