Management Responsibility/What to do?

Nurses General Nursing

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I have a question for you all. I am an RN in a Level I Trauma Center ER and we have some serious problems with our management. The managers have a little click of nurses that they favor and there are some nurses that they seem to single out and hound. It seems that they're trying to drive them out. (seems stupid since they're good nurses and we can use all the good nurses we can get!) Fortunately, I'm not in either group and so I pretty much fly under the radar, until lately....

I've spoken up on behalf of soem of the nurses that are OBVIOUSLY being picked on...this has not endeared me to the management. But, here's a situation that I think needs to be addressed.

Because of poor retention (would you want to work in that kind of environment?), we are short of nurses and the management has taken a lot of the new grads off of orientation early and tossed them into the deep end. Some have quit because they feel that they're putting their licenses in jeopardy because they don't know what they're doing.

Recently, one of these nurse that opted to stay gave the wrong drug IV push to an ICU boarder. Another one ran the heparin drip at 5 times the prescribed rate. Fortunately, these patients both went to the unit farily quickly where the mistakes were caught and no real harm came to either patient.

The other night, one of the offenders (who is a nice kid, but just shouldn't be turned loose on ICU boarders alone just yet) was cleaning out her wallet and noticed that her nursing license had expired! First, am I right in assuming that this puts the hospital in huge financial jeopardy if the patient she screwed up on should sue?

Second, isn't it the responsibility of the management (I'm not absolving the nurse from responsibility here, BTW) to ensure that all RNs have active licenses? It's the opinon of a lot of us that if management wasn't on their little vendettas and spent more time doing their jobs, this might have been caught.

This is just the latest and biggest example of management not being on top of what they're supposed to be on top of.

Question: what, if anything can/should be done? Can we report this to the BON? We've tried in the past reporting things to the upper management/DON, to no avail. This lady has been here for years and no one wants to fool with her. I'm concerned that patients are suffering and am looking to move to another job. But should I just leave, or try to fix things first? This is the only Level I Trauma Center in our region.

I have a question for you all. I am an RN in a Level I Trauma Center ER and we have some serious problems with our management. The managers have a little click of nurses that they favor and there are some nurses that they seem to single out and hound. It seems that they're trying to drive them out. (seems stupid since they're good nurses and we can use all the good nurses we can get!) Fortunately, I'm not in either group and so I pretty much fly under the radar, until lately....

I've spoken up on behalf of soem of the nurses that are OBVIOUSLY being picked on...this has not endeared me to the management. But, here's a situation that I think needs to be addressed.

Because of poor retention (would you want to work in that kind of environment?), we are short of nurses and the management has taken a lot of the new grads off of orientation early and tossed them into the deep end. Some have quit because they feel that they're putting their licenses in jeopardy because they don't know what they're doing.

Recently, one of these nurse that opted to stay gave the wrong drug IV push to an ICU boarder. Another one ran the heparin drip at 5 times the prescribed rate. Fortunately, these patients both went to the unit farily quickly where the mistakes were caught and no real harm came to either patient.

The other night, one of the offenders (who is a nice kid, but just shouldn't be turned loose on ICU boarders alone just yet) was cleaning out her wallet and noticed that her nursing license had expired! First, am I right in assuming that this puts the hospital in huge financial jeopardy if the patient she screwed up on should sue?

Second, isn't it the responsibility of the management (I'm not absolving the nurse from responsibility here, BTW) to ensure that all RNs have active licenses? It's the opinon of a lot of us that if management wasn't on their little vendettas and spent more time doing their jobs, this might have been caught.

This is just the latest and biggest example of management not being on top of what they're supposed to be on top of.

Question: what, if anything can/should be done? Can we report this to the BON? We've tried in the past reporting things to the upper management/DON, to no avail. This lady has been here for years and no one wants to fool with her. I'm concerned that patients are suffering and am looking to move to another job. But should I just leave, or try to fix things first? This is the only Level I Trauma Center in our region.

I am a Manager in a small community hospital. I have managed several units in another local hospital for 12 years prior to my present position. Believe me what you are up against is not unusual, but completely inappropriate. Priorities must be addressed first, such as the adequate time for new grads in the ER setting. I am a firm believer they need at the very least a year on Med-Surg before even considering an ER or ICU position. Try talking to your DON. Remember to follow the proper steps, so no one can say you didn't make the attempt. IF this is not successful, as it may not be. Upper Management doesn't want to loose their floor managers either. IF you have a safety committee, present a hazard report to them regarding the conditions in the ER. Eventually, someone will have to listen. Hopefully, before it is too late. The change will not come quickly, you will have to decide how long you want to wait to see change happen. Best of luck...... :)

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