Sorry for the long post, just extremely frustrated. I work on call at a SNF and get called for different shifts and stations, or treatment. I finished being treatment nurse 7-3 this morning and at 8pm get a call from the 3-11 supervisor saying that the family of one of the patients was complaining that I didn't give a breathing tx due at noon. According to the daughter that was there all morning, she didn't see anyone come in to give a breathing treatment all day. They were making a big fuss saying things like we put our mother here bc it's a 5 star facility so we assumed everything is being done... blah blah. First of all, I'm 100% certain I gave that tx. I write all my tx down on sheets of paper for myself and cross them off as I do it. The only reason I would forget to do a tx is if I forgot to write it down, but this particular resident was there and marked off. There's no reason for me to cross someone off if I didn't do it bc it's my personal notes. I kept explaining to the supervisor (and even the complaining family member over the phone) that I remember vividly that I gave the tx b/c I remember seeing the daughter there on her phone when I walked in to start the tx and still being on the phone when I came back 15 min later to turn the tx off. She even stepped aside to let me get to the machine since she was sitting on the bed while her mother was in the w/c. Another reason I remember is bc both patients in that room have noon breathing txs and I remember giving them simultaneously. All the daughter keeps saying is "I don't care about the other patient, but my sister was there and says no one came in to do it." The worst part is the supervisor believes the family. Even though she was telling me "Oh it's probably just miscommunication between them," I felt like she was blowing me off and still throwing me under the bus and telling the family something else. I get that from her personality in general. I'm not worried about getting "in trouble" per se, legally speaking the tx book is signed as given, I'm just worried this is contributing to ruining my reputation as a whole. I'm a new nurse (licensed and working for only 3 months) so one of my biggest challenges right now is building my credibility and reputation as a competent nurse. I ask questions endlessly to the point where I feel like my coworkers are thinking "doesn't she know anything? can't she solve anything on her own?" From my point of view, I'm new, I don't have the experience to reassure that I'm doing something right, so before I do something new, and it seems like there's lots of new things everday, I get reassurance from someone else. For example, one time there was a hole in the G tube of a patient near the Y-adapter. It was a really long g tube so I figured it should be no problem to cut the tube at the hole and put on a new adapter. But before doing so, I went ahead and asked my supervisor if that was okay so she checked it out and said to do it. I feel like I'm being annoying that I do that for every "little thing", but I'd rather not do something first and then find out afterwards it was a major no-no. On top of that I've made mistakes already with this supervisor, like forgetting to chart something and having to come back next shift and do a late entry after the on duty nurse calls me. Or not giving the first dose of an antibiotic bc the pharmacy hadn't delivered it yet and I didn't know the first dose was supposed to come from the e-kit. I only had 2 days of orientation! I didn't even know what an e-kit was, let alone what was in it, before that happened. I feel like I'm being characterized by all the things I do wrong but no one ever notices when I do things right bc everything is going smoothly. I'm not the only one making mistakes -- I've noticed txs and meds having been signed off for days by other nurses even though when it's my turn the package is still unopened. I'm just really frustrated and upset that they don't see me as competent to the point that they're believing the family on this breathing treatment thing. Since I'm on call I'm scared they'll just stop calling me in. Errrrrgh!
