Bullies at the work place.. vent

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I am so angry .. I turned a nurse in awhile back for a med error .. she confronted me and I told her that I had to do it because the pt did not receive the medication that was ordered .. she got mad and yelled "I would never throw anyone under the bus the way you did me."

I explained that we are here for the pt's and it was the right thing to do .. she got mad and said "next time you find something i missed have the courtesy to talk to me first."

I thought what the heck?

Then someone found mistakes she made during a audit she got angry and said I'm sick of people throwing me under the bus .. I'd never do that to any of you. She went onto say I do alot to help you guys and all you do is throw me under the bus.

I have never heard anyone so angry. I tried to explain we all make mistakes.. and she said "I would never do what you do to people."

Has anyone ever worked with a co worker who got mad because you threw them under the bus? It's the pt's who lose out not her.. grrrrrr and thank you for listening to my vent...

Specializes in Neuro ICU/Trauma/Emergency.

You weren't/aren't being bullied; You are being confronted!

People are becoming to lax with the term "bully".

Specializes in FMF CORPSMAN USN, TRUAMA, CCRN.

BBG, please your ideals are great, but I hope you kept up your Rpt because your new Nursing license may not pay off for very long. Keep inviting people to write you up for all of your mistakes and you may soon be out of a job. Let me explain, as I said it is all well and good to come out of nursing school with high and mighty ideals about patient care and the proper way to deal with procedure, but it isn't necessary to physically write someone up every time there is a little mistake. You can learn from your mistakes without them threatening your nursing career. You do realize if you receive 3 write-ups, its grounds for termination, and you being a new Nurse, are particularly susceptible to write-ups. That isn't a threat, it's just reality. AND, I'm pointing it out because if you were to go onto your new unit and start writing people up for miniscule nothings, chances are good, they would get you, before you got them. AND, you would be one very miserable young lady on your unit. I beg of you to please re-read and reconsider your position on this matter, because you are wrong. Write-ups are not teaching aids, they are punitive tools of administration. To teach, you pull the person aside and talk to them; at the very worst, you may even threaten to write them up; you don't do it and then talk about it. I am retired after spending 35 plus years in the medical field. I know what I am talking about, if you don't want to take just my word for it, look back over the string. Yours is a new career to do with as you please, I would hate to see you squander it. Good Luck.

People responding to these post, please, please make a point of either quoting or referencing the person or persons you are addressing, and on a side note, spellcheck wouldn't hurt either. Spelling or an attention to details reflects well on a persons annual review, as does the opposite. If you are lackadaisical with your spelling and/or punctuation it reflects badly on you.

Spell check is two words. We, the people, are here to vent, share experiences and get opinions. Not post in fear of our "persons annual review". We actually are all just screen names with stories, not people in fear of the grammar police.

Specializes in FMF CORPSMAN USN, TRUAMA, CCRN.

No one said you should fear the grammar police, but having a little pride in your work product isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you put out sloppy work here, it goes to show you are just as likely to put out sloppy work in your professional life as well. I certainly hope it doesn't reflect in your patient care, but perhaps just your charting.

I think the poster thinks she will never have a med error. Eventually she will and realize how bad it feels.

Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

Where I work, we report the med error but not the nurse. There is no place to put a name of the nurse who made the error or the nurse reporting the error. We are not electronic, so paper chasing is what would have to be done for follow up. They are more interested in how to prevent rather than getting the nurse.

I reported myself after I gave an emergency prn med to a pt, per p.o. only to realize, as soon as I gave it, that it was listed under pt allergies. I was mortified and scared to admit it, but I did right away. I was talked with regarding the whole situation and was honest. We now have a system where the physician must ask allergies before giving a telephone order. Oh and I have never ever made that mistake again. Thankfully, no harm was done but I'm extra careful now. I learned a great lesson and I would hope this nurse would take the time to learn from it rather than feeling as though she's been thrown under the bus.

Specializes in Emergency, ICU.
I've been having a bit of an issue with this one nurse that I follow, 95% of the time (we both have set schedules so I usually take report from her and give her report when I'm going off). I don't know what to do about it as I don't want to "report her" but it's becoming an every time thing. We usually have the same patients every week as well so we both know them pretty well. First of all, she comes in 15 min late which leaves me 15 min to report off to her as our unit has been under the gun to get out no later than 20 after or we get a nasty gram from our manager (apparently there have been a select few who like to stay late on the clock, so much so the higher ups have brought it to her attention and now we all must hurry along and get out "on time" so as to not create the extra min=more money coming out of our budget). I realize sometimes it cannot be avoided. However, this nurse comes in late every single time she's on. My guess is that she keeps doing it because she's been allowed to get away with it for so long. She was on time the last morning I had to report off to her though and was watching the clock and telling me we needed to hurry so I could get out on time so I guess maybe the NM finally said something to her as she did mumble something about getting a nasty-gram email about getting in and out on time. I hope it lasts!

As I've been following her though, it seems more and more, meds on her shift show up as "late" and appear to be not given. There are things like Colace or Nystatin, etc., and those are not real biggies as usually she tells me why. One night though, she told me of one of our pts blood sugar checks, which was like 159, at dinner time. This pt is to get 15 units of 70/30 with breakfast and dinner and then get sliding scale coverage. She said she didn't cover her and "she ate her entire meal". I asked her why and she didn't really have an answer for me; we got interrupted at that point and when we went back to report, she looked at the clock and said how she had to hurry to get out on time. Nothing more was said. So of course, at 2100 when I take her BS, it's 240! I am puzzled why she didn't give her the scheduled 70/30 and the SSI as ordered.

Another time, on another patient, they were scheduled to get their Inderal every 8 hours. She gave me report, never said she didn't give the 1900 dose so it showed up on my EMAR as late and not given. We are not supposed to have any meds due at that time as it's shift change (I wondered why the night before I was giving it to her at 3AM). So I notified the pharmacy and asked them to change the times of the Inderal admin so it wouldn't fall during shift change; that is protocol in our hospital, pharmacy knows this but it got missed and so that's why it was still set up that way (on previous nights I never saw it come up on my EMAR because the day shift nurses were giving it between 1800-1830). So I told her what I did the next AM when I gave her report and she told me she GAVE THE MED (No, I did not give her the 1900 dose, partly because I didn't know if she had given it but just didn't chart it so it just remained missed and I watched my patient closely throughout the night and after the pharmacy changed the times, I gave her my dose at 0100). She was upset with me that I had the pharmacy change the times and asked me why I did that. When I explained that it's protocol for our hospital that meds not be scheduled for during shift change times, she just rolled her eyes at me; now she'd have to give the med twice during her shift instead of just once. Well, I'm sorry, there's a protocol in place for a reason, so that meds don't get missed, just like this one did. Based on my pt's BP and pulse, she couldn't have given her the med. And this is what I don't understand: If you give a med, you have to scan it, then the pt, and it goes away on your EMAR and shows that you gave it and what time...how is she giving meds and not charting them? That's not safe practice! This has been going on for weeks now, and more and more meds are showing up as late, that she's not giving, insulins, BP meds, etc...not to mention she always says she's going to give so and so this and ask the Dr that, and then when she reports off to me she's like, "nope I didn't" She also doesn't sign off on things and do her chart checks. So I'm left picking up her pieces and doing a lot of her work she leaves undone. It's not so much that that bothers me, it's the potential harm that could be caused some of these patients by her seemingly lack of...I don't know what you'd call it, that scares me. I've only been a nurse a little over a year so I'm still trying to keep all my ducks in a row. I've never had to follow someone yet with so much left over stuff. Thankfully, I've been diligent and always ask my fellow nurses I'm working with if this is right, or looks right, or why did she leave this or that...I am determined not to make a med error because of her.

I don't want to report her (I've never reported anyone and would rather not ever have to). I guess I'll continue to ask her if she gave this med or that med and ask for explanations if she didn't and insist I get an answer before she leaves. It all just leaves me feeling uneasy and worried and honestly, a little like I can't trust her that she did what she said she did. So, I'm finding myself getting a fresh PEG tube feeding bag and hanging it on my shift and not relying on her "oh that's a new bag hanging; I hung it this AM" because the line isn't marked with a date. I realize things will get missed but I'm scared to death I'm gonna make a mistake as a result of her not doing the right thing, or what she's supposed to do. There are many more little instances here and there of things that I'm seeing coming from her that could be potentially bad and I don't know if I should just keep trying to fix them and tell her or finally get up the nerve to "report her". I know I would want someone to come to me and tell me things first and not just report me. I believe in team work and for the time I've been on my unit, most of the nurses do work as a team and help each other out. There are a few that would throw you under the bus in an instant and lucklily I don't work with them anymore. Thanks for listening to my "rant".

The situation you are describing is dangerous! Report this behavior immediately before she kills someone and they fire you too for not reporting such abhorrent nursing practice on her part.

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I'm a new graduate RN. I don't even start my first RN job until early next month. Even I know that when a medication error occurs it is the nurses RESPONSIBILITY to notify the charge nurse, an incident report needs to be filled out and the patient's physician needs to be notified so that the doctor has the opportunity to take corrective interventions on the patient's behalf if needed. I'm surprised that people are talking about tattling and all other kinds of nonsense. Tattling is not the issue. The patient is the issue plain and simple... I hope that as I gain experience as a nurse that I never get so big headed to think that I am above being corrected. When you get to that point you are a danger to your patients. And please, don't proceed to tell me to wait until I've been nursing for a while to give my opinion. I am new to nursing, but not healthcare. I have been a Respiratory Therapist for over 12 years and I'm still learning. That's what being a healthcare PROFESSIONAL is all about...constantly learning and improving. How can you learn anything when no one can ever correct you?

Makes me wonder how some people ever got a license to practice anything...

Hi as a nurse for about 6 years, I would like to let you know that every nurse has and will make a medication error. That will include you. There are many other mistakes nurses make beside med errors. How does one handle the situation of a med error. How would you like it to be handled if it was you who made the med error? If it was a situation where the patient isnt harmed...Would you present the situation to the nurse who made the error first and see how it can be resolved. Or would you bypass her and write an incident report. Patient safety is and will always be the priority, that is not to be denied. However theres a way to go by doing things. You will understand the best way to resolve an issue, when you start noticing and documenting all the errors you will make as a nurse. Question is will you treat yourself the way you want the others to be treated when they make a mistake.

lol thats funny.. people love to be perfect all the time..

How do you know the medication wasn't given? Did you speak to the RN first? We all make mistakes,if I had a pt tell me a medication wasn't given I would ask the RN first. Quiet possibly it was given and pt was confused,or she forgot to sign it out. I had to writer an RN up 1x and it didnt feel good. She knew a pt pulled his foley out,there was blood everywhere. We asked her to write an occurence and report it to MD and help clean the pt and the RN just walked off her shift. That is someone I would write up on.

Specializes in LTC, medsurg.

I NEVER rat on any body EVER! Unless I see someone really treating a patient badly.

I've never been a tattle tell, never will be!!!

Specializes in Critical Care.

I would have checked if she gave the med or not and then given it late. I wouldn't write someone up under normal circumstances. It would have to be a major issue to write someone up over. Sometimes meds are given late, it happens! I'd be more concerned if the wrong med was given, or an overdose, that would be a reason to write someone up, not just a missed med. Why couldn't you give the med late?

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