meeting with medical director

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ICU, ER, MED, SURG, TELE, HOME HEALTH.

Thanks guys for your responses to my other thread "railroaded by management". Today was the straw that broke the camel's back. At three p.m. the manager-on her way home- decided to send an agency nurse home 4hours early and that the three of us left could pick up his patients. An assessment of acuity (her walking down the hall looking in rooms) didn't warrent another nurse!!! A check of the actual acuities the staff had charted (by me) revealed one six, five fives, three fours, and two threes, with two more fives booked as transfers from ICU and of course the ER calling with over-flow.

now where I work the highest acuity is 7 and nearly impossible to achieve-most (99%) of the ICU is a five or six and the ratio is 1:2

I filled out the "assignment against objection" form found at the Florence Project and notified the nursing supervisor and resident.

The "Charge Nurse" of the floor was called by the manager and told that she would have to accept the care of the ER patients and perform all the other duties on her plate and she flipped.

She called the medical director-CHIEF- and requested a meeting in the morning.

so--I'll be there tomorrow making a point and I called the ICU medical director and he will attend.

hopefully we can get these issues resolved.:eek:

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Sending strength and wisdom your way. Cool and calm will be the best way. Stand up for your coworkers and your patients.

Take any documentation you have...and keep copies.

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minurse, you rock! Stand your ground and don't let them bully you into accepting anything less than acceptable staffing rations. I'll be thinking of you. Good luck!

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Specializes in Hospice, Critical Care.

OK, minurse....so how did it go? Been thinking about you.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, MED, SURG, TELE, HOME HEALTH.

well I assumed I would get 15-30 minutes of time but the CHIEF met with us for 2 hours:eek: the unit manager came into the meeting about thirty minutes after it started and quickly became her defensive self. I'm not sure that we came to any conclusions but we did get the CHIEF to realize that staff are concerned with the director's leadership ability and the safety of the patients we are caring for. He was willing to listen and use any ideas that we can come up with. He is willing to continue to meet with us on a regular basis. I did get his e-mail address so that I can get communications to him without interruption.

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way to go minurse! nice to know that things don't just have to be accepted, not by rns like you. i think this is an excellent example for all nurses to follow, whether or not you get the results you want. communicate, communicate, and keep on communicating! please keep us updated :D

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

WTG minurse. Just bringing the problem out into the open partially lifts the burden from your shoulders and places it into administration's lap. You can't fix what you don't know about. Kudos to you and your colleague for standing up for yourselves and your patients. Keep on top of the issue. Don't let the powers that be sweep it under the carpet.

Reflect back on the past 48hrs. Sum up your major concerrns that you expressed in the meeting in non-judgemental language. Send copy to Chief, charge RN and director of what your needs are, keep a copy. Give them a time frame to expect reply or resolution e.g. " After our meeting today, I would like to sum up my major concerns .... I look forward to a response in 3 weeks."

Good luck, keep us updated.

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