Preceding Nurse Never Completes her work

[bsnanat2]

I would like to get views from the ether on this:

There is a nurse who NEVER completes her work on time. She ROUTINELY doesn't chart meds given or doesn't give them at all, ordered blood is NEVER started on her shift no matter when the order was written nor does she ever get any labs done. She regularly stays 1-2 hours after her shift to do charting and will spend 15 minutes searching for a CNA to do something when she is simply sitting there. I wish hyperbole was involved but it isn't. There have been times I've checked the MAR to pull pain meds and it looks OK only to pull them and see that in the mean time she's charted an additional dose that wasn't there previously or the PIXUS will show a dose pulled that's not charted. Management has made it clear that they intend to do nothing about this. My question is, Would you accept report from a nurse when you know her charting and meds are not finished, or would you insist that she complete these before accepting report?

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Just reading all this great info. But how can you go through the MAR of all the patients.. time consuming eh?

Just an FYI...in acute care, it's good practice to go through the MAR and check orders through the previous shift at the beginning of your shift, preferably before the previous shift leaves. In fact, it's policy where I work (the review part, not the part about doing it before the off-going nurse leaves, but it's a good idea). :)

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Well here is the weird part.....She was never fired. She was asked to leave. From what we can tell she was never reported to the BON either as we could not find any info on her.

Well, it will become another hospital's problem then, I suppose.

[bsnanat2]

I decided not to accept report from her until all drugs and shift responsibilities were taken care of. Well, in the meantime another newbie called her on it & refused to back down. As usual the mgr made excuses for her, but when she did ask other nurses if she is really perceived this way. She has surprisingly responded positively to the experience. When I got report from her last, she voluntarily told me what few things were not done and stated she would report to me again when they were done..and she did. I thought this was more than fair and it did not hinder me from doing my job. She understood that she would be responsible for all PRN's until she finished charting and reported off on the charting. I finally have hope that it'll get better. The real shame is that it took a newbie exploding on her to get it done and that management failed. Results are results. She has actually been in a better mood since then.