Bullies at the work place.. vent

BlessedbyGodRN · Sep 28, 2012

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.

Yes, I did keep my respiratory therapy license thank you very much. I think you are completely missing my point. It seems like the young lady could use an attitude adjustment. That is all I'm saying. I'm not sure why that is so hard to understand. I am coming off of a lead position in my current department and going to be at the bottom as a new grad RN on my new job. Just so you know, I have always made it a habit to pull people to the side and talk to them and then keep things between them and I without blabbing to my superiors or other coworkers. That is a courtesy, not an obligation.

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Sep 28, 2012

Sooooo, please to explain how the nurse you turned in is the workplace bully? She sounds angry, but I don't get bullying out of your post.

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...

joanna73, BSN, RN · Sep 28, 2012

It depends on the situation, and we all make mistakes. Before going to management, I would talk with my coworker first, always. They may have a rationale for their actions, and you won't know unless you've spoken to them. I don't know the specifics of your particular situation, but if a coworker went to management without at least speaking with me first, I would be annoyed. It isn't very pleasant to work with people when you feel you have to watch your step all the time, otherwise they are going to report you. Consider this perspective before you decide to act.

iluvivt, BSN, RN · Sep 28, 2012

Wow! this turned out to be an intense discussion. I have been a nurse for 30 years and and IV nurse since 1987. Honestly, if I wrote everything up I found I would spend hours and hours some days filling out occurrence reports. I know the IV policies and IV medication policies very well since I wrote a good portion of them and uphold the highest standards for infusion care but I learned a long long time ago I would get much farther with improving care if I worked as a member of the healthcare,mentor and educator.

So I pull nurses aside and tell them their tubing is outdated,their IV tubing is no longer considered sterile, their IV site has been infiltrated for hours,they should have administered the phenytolamine for that extravastion,they should have accessed the port instead of administering the Vancomycin through a tiny chest wall vein for 3 days, contrast media is a vesicant and that is really an extravastion and now we need to treat it and monitor site carefully,adn please stop giving that TPN through a midline. Those just a very few things I have seen. I want the nurses to know I am on theri side and I am there to help. there really have only been a hanful of times when that approach did not work for me and usually the nurse was a big problem for others as well.

I guess in this case I am struggling because it is a medication. I have had to write up a few things of course for example, when I have found the wrong mediation dosage or IVFs hanging.when I have found a tunneled CVC that the dressing was no changed for 21 days or a horrid infiltration or extravasation. So yes it depends on the error and if is occurring a lot a more global 'fix " is needed.

wooh, BSN, RN · Sep 28, 2012

I want the nurses to know I am on theri side and I am there to help.

Most of our IV team is like that. Makes us want to call and ask for help rather than screw up our lines (and veins and area surrounding those veins) trying to figure stuff out on our own. :)

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · Sep 28, 2012

We have all had med errors, and part of the process of some hospitals is to put a report in when you discover one (or make one, and I have done that before as well). It is a process thing, and not meant to be disciplinary. (although it could be if one is routinely forgetting meds).

If I am coming on shift, and say it is 3pm and someone forgot a 2pm med, I would give it. It may be slightly over the time that it was due, but given that most places there's an hour time frame, it would be a slight variance. Then if you are required to report it, I would simply state that the med was given late. Same thing with any shift change--most (not all) but most meds can be given at the start of your shift if it is within the hour time frame. A number of facilities have "safe med" guidelines that tell you when it is OK and not OK to give a med late. If yours doesn't, then that is perhaps something that you could suggest if you are feeling like you are not sure whether it is safe to give the med or not late.

What I find the most annoying about the situation is that one finds a med was not given when one does your chart review at the begining of your shift. A med was not given that was due at say 2pm. It is 3:15. You do not give the med, but instead write out a report. That is not great practice, either. Or that one finds that a 2pm med was not given----when they look at a MAR at 8:30 pm in preperation for 9pm meds. If you reviewed earlier, you could have seen that a med could have been given in the timeframe. But you did not, so you report it. Covers your a** as well, no?

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · Sep 28, 2012

And as an aside, one may have not given a med because a patient declined it, was not on the floor at the time, or was nauseated and wanted to wait......lots of reasons. Sometimes, taking or not taking meds is the only thing that the patient feels they have control over. That is why it is so important to speak to the nurse about it, as she may have charted this refusal, but just forgot to also note it on the MAR.....

BelgianRN · Sep 28, 2012

The thing that has bothered me with the OP's post is the first line where he/she mentions "turned in". It sounds so malignant. You don't turn your colleagues in via a report ever, you just report an error and preferably a solution to prevent it as well. I have the same problem with "writing someone up". Why not just report the situation and leave identification, naming, judging, branding and execution to management (they get payed more and some are great at executions).

We have to work with most of our coworkers in the same space for hours at a time. In emergencies we have to rely on each other completely. How can you trust each other if you start turning people in and writing them up. I'm not saying you have to accept substandard performance from your colleagues but at least don't hand your colleagues over to the firing squad wrapped in a purple ribbon.

artsmom, BSN, LPN · Sep 28, 2012

OP- what was the missing med? This would really help this discussion have more understanding. There is such a range of what HAS to be reported, and what can be taken aside.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Sep 28, 2012

Also, I find it ironic that the title of this thread implies bullying, when probably bullying was not the case. If your coworker was upset, OP, her reaction was related to the fact that you chose to report first, rather than speaking directly with her. Reporting has its place, but, know that once you start this trend with coworkers, it may become ugly. The next time you make an error, don't be surprised if the tables are turned.

LucasRN · Sep 28, 2012

do unto others