Hi everyone--I need your advice. I have to confront a notoriously lazy tech about what she did wrong the last time I worked with her and what I expect of her in the future and need to streamline what I am going to say.
This tech has been written up before by one of our nurse educators. The reason she's still working in the Newborn Nursery (NBN) is a mystery to me. I was charge in the NBN a couple of days ago. Here's a list of the things she did that were a problem for me:
Took a 40-minute breakfast break (should've been 15 mins.)
Took a 40-minute lunch break (should've been 30 mins.)
Asked me for an afternoon break
Got mad and virtually slowed down to a near halt because she couldn't get that last break (a pt.'s acuity went up & there was work to do)
Was devising and discussing a pt's plan of care with the attending MD behind my back (I walked in on the conversation). The pt. was apneic and I was not going to let the pt. go out to breastfeed until I could see that the pt. could sat well on room air. She wanted to take the pt. to the mother. (Practicing nursing without a license?)
Did not do a routine blood test that must be done in a timely manner. I'd asked her twice to do it. I went to give report at shift change and realized that she hadn't done the blood test and there was only 12 minutes to get the test done. I had to find someone to do it because I had to give report to the NBN night shift charge RN.
She left without asking if there was anything else to be done (which would've included the above-mentioned blood test). One has to check out with the charge RN before leaving.
She left an infant warmer unit TRASHED for two hours. It didn't get cleaned until the night shift came in. (I didn't have time to do it; it was her responsibility. I was taking care of patients.)
She TOLD me to do one of our daily chores because "all the other nurses have been doing it, and frankly, the nurse SHOULD do it." If I ahdn't already been doing it in the interest of the fact that we were running out of time, I'd have told her to do it. I just told her that I was already in the process of doing it.
This tech has been working on the unit for 8 years. I think she does what she does because she doesn't want to work for her paycheck. She pushes to see how much she can get away with. I have only been a nurse for a year, but I will be darned if I am going to allow her to do this to me. I am going to state my expectations to her and let her know that if she does not meet them, she will be written up. I know writing people up "makes waves," etc. , but her behavior is affecting staff morale and more importantly, patient care.
Any advice is appreciated in how I should go about dealing with this.
