Upsate on trouble-making co-worker

2shihtzus · Oct 15, 2007

Trudy, we were not in a "public place"....we were at the front desk, in front of the charge nurses computer, talking quietly. The nurse that tried to get us fired was standing there, acting as if she was part of the conversation. Since she is part of the unit, we felt no need to censor what we were saying, as it was about a patient on our unit. Her "turning us in" was nothing but retaliation.

I have asked myself many times why we did not call her on what she said at the meeting. Believe me, I was ready to. When she started spouting off how we are all on the same side and a big "family", I wanted to interject and say, "Excuse me....but aren't you the person that called up here and started verbally abusing our charge nurse? Aren't you the same nurse that will hunt down a CNA to empty a urinal?" I DID say that "actions speak louder than words", but thats it. There were probaby 20 people at the meeting, and there was an HR representative there. Had I said anything, she would have looked like the oppressed hero, and I would have looked like a villian.

Regarding the offended patient, I am kicking myself for not writing her up on that. To do so now would lower me to her level. Informally, our manager was notified about the incident, but nothing was done about it.

I plan on ignoring her. I may have to work with her, but I don't have to like her. I wouldn't even consider requesting a transfer. I love my job, my unit, and my coworkers.

She called in sick tonight btw...so SAD when that happens. :)

PS...I had no idea that it is spelled HIPAA, not HIPPA!

SarasotaRN2b · Oct 15, 2007

Sooo....the coworker that somehow we just "knew" was going to cause problems because she had been written up for trying to get a CNA to get a patient to sign consent decided to go for the jugular.
She was standing at the front desk, and me and the charge nurse were dicussing one of the patients on the floor (in a collaborative team-work way). This coworker stood there and listened to every word we said.
She then went to HR and accused us of violating HIPPA.
(Side note: I am sure there are plenty of people who ascertain that it was a HIPPA violation. In fact, I started a post about the issue, and the opinions were varied. After much thought on the matter, I personally decided that it was NOT a violation, because my coworkers and I are a health care TEAM. We frequently consult eachother as peers and ask for advice, or just plain vent to eachother about our patients)
The poor charge nurse (who is fantastic to work with, offers to help all the time, is pregnant, and wouldnt harm anyone) was devastated. She was basically told to "be careful". I was also told, very informally, to "be careful."
Here is what frosts my crack: the nurse that went to HR to complain has had some MAJOR violations in her practice, HIPPA included. We had a patient on our unit that used to be one of the nurses we worked with. The Complainer nurse happened to take care of her one night, and proceeded to complain ALL NIGHT to anyone who would listen that the patient was a "drug seeker". Ironically, the patient over heard the nurse saying that, was understandably furious, and fired her as her nurse. I ended up taking care of her for the rest of the shift. Can we say "uncomfortable?"
Anyways, we had a big staff meeting after the HR incident, where we were supposed to all get together and try to figure out how we could get along. The Complainer made me sick.....she sat there and went on about how "we are all one big family" and how we need to "work as a team" and "not gossip" and not try to get "anyone in trouble." I mean people were looking around the room and looking at eachother because it was so PHONY coming from her.
Soooo....anyways, tomorrow will be the first night that I have to work with her since she tried to get me and the charge nurse fired. It has been about 2 weeks since this all went down, and I am still furious. I refuse to let this get in the way of my practice.....but STILL....I cant believe the NERVE of her. Agggghhhhh.

Well, the first thing that I read that you were talking in the nurse's station to the charge nurse who actually is supposed know what is going on with the patients on the floor. How is that a public place?

Also, when you referred to the patient, did you actually go into first and last name? Usually to maintain confidentiality, on our floor we usually refer to the patient using their room number.

The fact that this nurse violated HIPAA to the point of gossiping about her patient, she should have been more vigilant not to say anything to HR. If I worked in HR, I would look into not just who she accused but the accuser. People in glass house should not throw rocks. If it should happen where you need to talk with the charge about anything, and she is there, I would just blatantly excuse myself and ask to speak with the charge privately. Since she can't be part of the team, she can't be trusted.

Kris

2shihtzus · Oct 15, 2007

Well, its a small unit, so first and last names don't even have to be used. Also, the patient happened to be one of our physicians. The conversation was totally nursing related....like whether a biopsy result came back and what his symptoms were leading up to his admission. It was no different than collaborating about any other patient on the unit regarding their care.

I plan on completely avoiding the afforementioned nurse from now on....to the point if she is even in the break room, I will leave. She is malicious and I hope she burns her own bridges.

bethin · Oct 15, 2007

One word:

karma

leslymill · Oct 15, 2007

If I must, I look at her like something I'd scrape off my shoe.

So do you have a Bigfoot like Saasquatch, Suesquatch?

leslymill · Oct 15, 2007

If I must, I look at her like something I'd scrape off my shoe.

So do you have a Bigfoot like Sasquatch, Suesquatch?

squeakykitty · Oct 15, 2007

I'd be careful around this person. She could possibly try to sabotage people.

leslie :-D · Oct 15, 2007

cya at all times.

best of everything.

leslie

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Oct 16, 2007

So do you have a Bigfoot like Saasquatch, Suesquatch?

Actually, my feet are quite dainty for a yeti.

Bloodman · Jan 5, 2009

I have worked both in teaching and in care-giving and have been victimized by gossip in both settings. It doesn't seem to matter how gifted one is intellectually or hard one works. I was often thought of as both, but there were co-workers in each setting making up stories, lies, etc. about me which negatively impacted my career. I worked in nursing for roughly 6 and half years before leaving due to the incessant, deleterious nature of the gossip. Over the course of my years I heard I had Aids, was having sex with co-workers, killed patients with errors, saw my incident reports thrown in the garbage, and had secret write-ups that would mysteriously appear in my file without warning. None of it was ever accurate and almost all of it never happened, but human resources individuals and "conscientious" managers saw to it that I was put in my place. It was just ridiculous. I should have known better than to leave nursing school without realizing some classmates were already working on manipulating clinical instructors with their gossip and fairy-tales about what was going on. Being older, the first thing I realized after the first couple years was younger people didn't have the same work ethic. I got tired of lazy co-workers, ignorant charge nurses, being told what to do by people 10-15 years younger than me with no common sense. Gossip is part of the normal, female social milieu. That's why this will always go on and be accepted. Dealing with people directly is more often a male trait, which is why many female nurses stare at the floor and then run and gossip to co-workers when a male doctor is obnoxious. Running to supervisors and managers is also more of a female way of doing things. I rarely if ever did this. When I spoke to a supervisor or manager about hot-water issues, it was usually because a female co-worker ran to one and made secret allegations first. The problem was most managers I had bestowed instant credibility to the first person who ran to them to tattle-tale. They encouraged the secret trashing of co-workers inadvertently or deliberately (I don't which) when co-workers realized they never had to face the person they were trashing to the manager. Every manager I had was female. Again, gossip is a given, accepted aspect of female socialization (and I do think most nurses out there will agree). Therefore, it was almost always recognized as "the right thing to do" by managers. Those superiors who bought into this method of dealing with problems were in fact the problems themselves. In their zeal to "control the unit", they victimized hard-working nurses (male & female) who didn't buy into the secret gossip method of dealing with co-workers. As I said, I fell victim to some pretty outlandish fairy-tales told by a few co-workers, often by the same ones who covered up errors and falsified records. What a world we live in when 85-90% of the public have the mistaken notion that nursing is one of the most ethical professions there is. I've worked with manual laborers with no education who are far more ethically sound than many nurses I worked with.

Scrubby · Jan 5, 2009

Be very careful when this nurse is on NOT to gossip or even vent about a patient or anyone if she is within earshot. In fact I would just completely avoid her, she sounds like she's got some serious issues and wants to get others fired, or just make others look bad to advance her career.

Freedom42 · Jan 5, 2009

Yikes. Watch your p's and q's.
People like that always get burned in the end. Her day is coming.

Exactly.

If all HR did was "informally" remind the two employees to "be careful," that suggests to me that HR can read between the lines and was merely covering itself by acknowledging the complaint.