First off, I want to say that almost ALL of our newer staff are either already excellent, or have potential to BE excellent nurses with a little experience. Maybe my facility is just lucky, but we have primarily superb new hire RNs.
That said, every once in a while there is that one individual who is relatively inexperienced, but is pompous, pretentious, and truly believes that they are personally God's greatest gift to the nursing profession in our lifetimes. And sometimes these individuals are placed in a position of responsibility, such as Charge Nurse or Shift Supervisor. However ill-advised this assignment is, it only feeds the narcissism of this self-important person.
Lots of times these unfortunate primotions are a result of friendship or nepotism. Sometimes (as in this particular case), the reason is "we need to have more male charge nurses to prove we are 'diverse' ".
This young gentleman at my facility (let's call him Matt for the sake of argument), is incredibly self- important and feels comfortable dispensing his "knowledge" quite freely. He recently "corrected" an experienced and highly valued pulmonologist on his line insertion technique.... Embarrassing to say the least! Prior to this incident, he nearly killed a patient by incorrectly attaching a wound vac suction to a post-op patient with an open abdomen.
These, and several other similar incidents have been reported to unit management, who state "he will grow into the position." I wonder at what expense. This also makes me wonder once again exactly WHY he has been placed in any kind of supervisory position. Friend? Family,? I'm not sure.
My question is this: Has anyone else experienced this type of scenario? If so, how did you handle it? Barring an actual patient death or sentinel event, what can be done? I am beyond frustrated at this point! Any help is appreciated!
