Compliance nurse driving us CRAZY!!!!

They hired a nurse just to do chart audits at the nursing home where I work. She "writes us up" everytime there is a blank on the MARS someone forgot to sign or chart a blood pressure. I get so tired of seeing "love notes" as they call them, taped to the nurses station with my name on them.

It drives me crazy, but just think of it this way, if they did not have
a reason to hound us they wouldn't have a job...we wouldn't want that.

You know she is just trying to appear competant at her job. You are not the problem her lack of experience and inability to trust herself yet is the problem.
You will find that after she knows the staff and the way you work she will aly off and leave you alone

Just a thought - either ignore her totally or ask her to give the doctor a call because you are very, very busy. Being asked to actually lend a hand might silence her.

*snort*, yeah, we wouldn't or they might actually take the money they pay for such 'important' jobs and pay the rest of us better

I came across your comments. I know Exactly what you mean! We just had a new Director placed over ICU/PCU and Med Surg, all of which is certainly too much for one person. She interrupts our work asking us off the wall questions about things she recalls about the patient, and will eavesdrop on staff conversations and then insinuate herself in the middle of it. She writes EVERYONE up, and sends out several memos a day telling us of some new protocol or policy that she is changing or initiating. I think one way to beat someone like this is to use their own methods: if she's a policy hound, hold her to her own policies. Bring them up. Watch HER instead of concentrating on how she is watching you. Thinking that you are being critiqued constantly only distracts you and you will make MORE mistakes instead of fewer...so turn the tables, and see what SHE is doing. Of course, sometimes if you ignore people, they disappear. I would say, just hang on.....because Kooky managers generally do not last long. Good Luck. It's sad when the volumes of paperwork done by a nurse take more time than patient care. I used to love going to work taking care of patients, helping them get well, but it has become much harder now, because of the interference.

Ok, I am probably going to get flamed by some of you but here goes...

Have you actually had state surveyors ever grill you for DAYS for mistakes another nurse made 6 months ago? Have you ever had YOUR licensed threatened because you are held accountable for mistakes that someone else made under your supervision? Have you read some of the stupid idiotic things some nurses write in the nurses notes (or the obvious thing they forgot to write that was vitally important). Have you ever been in a court of law and tried to defend what you did or didn't do (and be able to back it up with the documentation that you scribbled down in a hurry) P.S. I do not mean anyone in particular by using the word you, just generalization for all readers.

From my observation in several different facilities & several different corporations there is a great need for someone to be roaming around in every facility just to make sure all the i's get dotted. Here's my most recent example.. res. readmitted from hosp post GI bleed (admitted to hosp w/ Hgb under 6 w/ a INR of 8!). Now back in faciliy2+ weeks. As traveling MDS nurse, I pick up chart to do the MDS. Res is still receiving coumadin, hosp never found reason where GI bleed located, ie: so never fixed - AND NOT ONE NURSE HAD REQUESTED A CBC OR PT/INR since back in the building - For crying out loud. And trust me, I could go on and on with the stupidity I see.

The compliance nurse is just doing her job, just like we all have a job to do. If state walks in and finds a bunch of crap, she will take the blame as it was her job to keep it in line.

And last but not least, who actually benefits the most when care is completed accurately and professionally... THE RESIDENT... the reason we are all in this anyway.

Ok - off my soap box now. Good day

I agree, it really does help to have another nurse looking over our charts, especially on night shift....a little fatigue can go a long way! However, I don't think a Nurse Manager needs to be involved in every detail of the shift. If you don't trust your ICU nurses to make the right decisions, then you shouldn't have them in the position. Just my two cents.

This isn't ICU, this is LTC - the hugely over-regulated industry.