The other night I had a pt admitted that had a trach. I'm a new grad and have only been off orientation 5 weeks. The ER nurse told me in report that this pt has had the trach for a while and knew how to take care of it himself as he lived at home alone. Only thing was he had MRSA in his trach site so I would have to set up isolation. It was a busy night and this pt was my 5th one. I wasn't quite sure what I needed for a pt with a trach and went looking for my CN to ask her. I could not find her, she wasn't at the desk and her portable phone was also sitting at the desk so it did no good to call her.
My pt came up, I settled them in, did the admission assessment and the 5000 questions you have to ask and then had other things to do with my other pts. I looked for my CN a few more times to enquire about my admission, but found her busy helping another nurse in an iso room. I told her I had questions regarding my admission and to please help me when she was able.
Well, 3 hrs later she came down to my end of the hall to get updates. When I told her about my pt having a trach, she freaked out. She said our floor (medical floor) does not take trachs. I had no clue! She had to call the supervisor to try and get that pt placed elsewhere. Then she took me aside and started saying, "You have to do what I say so you don't get in trouble. You need to say that the ER nurse didn't tell you about the pt having a trach and you found it on assessment. You also need to say that when you saw it you tried to call me but my battery was dead on my phone and I was busy so I didn't know about it until later. You need to say exactly what I told you or you will get in trouble and I don't want to see that happen. You're new and you didn't know." I was shocked and dumbfounded! This conversation took place right before end of shift.
After I punched out I went straight to my managers office but she had the day off. I called a coworker I could trust and talked to her about it on the way home. She told me to get a hold of the NM asap even if it means to call her at home and tell her everything. First of all, I will not lie about this. Especially to throw the ER nurse under the bus! No!!! She told me about the trach on report so I'm not gonna lie about that! I think the CN wants me to lie about everything so SHE won't get in trouble. I did not know and was never told that our floor could not take trachs.
So I did call the NM right when I got home and told her the whole story and apologized for taking a trach admission and that I didn't know I wasn't supposed to. I did not, however, tell her the conversation between me and the CN and her telling me to lie. I have to work with this CN a lot since she's on my weekend rotation and I don't want to be on her bad side. She has put me in a very difficult position and I do resent her for that, but I also don't want a hostile work environment.
Would you have told the NM about the conversation? I'm torn on that one. What if the NM asks the CN what happened and she tells her that the ER nurse did not give the trach info on report? I don't want that nurse to get in trouble for something she didn't do!!
Advice please! This happened Tues night/Wed morning and I don't go back to work until next Tues. I haven't been able to enjoy my days off since this whole situation is eating me alive!
