Dishonest Nurses

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I recently read about the Honest Abe Award honoring nurses for being the most honest profession. Where I work I do find many honest nurses however I see an equal number of dishonest nurses. Nurses that chart they flushed IV's when there were none to flush, nurses who chart LS exactly as the previous nurse charted in spite of improvement or deterioration , competent and lucid patients who report that their nurses didn't assess areas that the nurse charts that she assessed, medication errors that go unreported. I could go on. These things bother me tremendously as I believe that nurses should be completely trustworthy and honest. Does anybody else experience this? What do I do? Do I follow my personal ethics and report these events and risk the wrath of fellow nurses? Do I ignore them as long as the patient experiences no harm? Help!

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I hate to be the one to inform you but the definition of complacence is "total lack of concern", a far cry from absent-minded. I'm not so sure you would want an absent-minded surgeon working on you. Nor is it right to expect that your patients would want an absent-minded health care professional taking care of them. I think it is a far reach to suggest that accurate charting requires a "super nurse". Heaven help your patients if that is the approach you will be bringing to your new profession.
I think it is absolutely disgusting when a nurse is being meddlesome, and continually checking the work of her coworkers. This might sound rather harsh, but it is time to mind your own business.

Other so-called 'professionals' do not openly snoop into the affairs of their coworkers to the degree that nurses do. You do not really hear about accountants reporting other accountants, doctors reporting other doctors, occupational therapists reporting other occupational therapists, social workers reporting other social workers, chemists reporting other chemists, and engineers reporting on other engineers.

Oh yeah! Actually I had a nurse in my home before I started nursing school who used to take care of my daughter in home nursing care.....every single time she worked she charted my daughter was dry (she wears incontinent briefs) and the minute she left I would check my daughter & she would be soaked through everything she was lying on or sitting on.........and this was 8-10 hour shifts............now I don't know about you, but wouldn't you think maybe there's something going on if your patient didn't void your entire shift every time you worked?????? One time, right before she was gone for good from my house I also saw she had her entire flow sheet done for the day at 915 am...she was working 8am to 4pm.......and she even had how much intake & out put my daughter had......gee..she must of had esp or something......lol...she was a horrible nurse, it's just too bad I didn't confront her then but I had no clue so to speak.......I think I was so taken aback that I was too shocked to "get it" ...plus I didn't know the nursing stuff I know now........and boy I kick my own behind for not saying something at the time...... I figured there was no way to prove it , my word against hers....... and also I checked online on the licensing board after and she was reprimanded, but for what I don't know...it just has reprimanded on the site....and this date was before she even worked at my house.......granted she was only here a very short time.....but boy she put on the sweet blink blink my eyes and smile sweet susie cream cheese act .......well there's another side to her apparently................she probably has patients with awful bedsores if she does this everywhere she works.....

Specializes in NICU, ER, OR.

I agree, too, that you should mind your own business. Unless it involves you , or your license, or it is something serious, that is NOT subject to your *interpretation* , then do your own work and let others do theirs. Really, how can you prove, or even surmise, that a nurse charted LS the same as the shift before falsely? Are you saying you know the exact time a persons wheeze or rales appeared or dissapeared? How do you have time to do your own nursing work, with all this detective work you must be doing?

I agree, too, that you should mind your own business. Unless it involves you , or your license, or it is something serious, that is NOT subject to your *interpretation* , then do your own work and let others do theirs. Really, how can you prove, or even surmise, that a nurse charted LS the same as the shift before falsely? Are you saying you know the exact time a persons wheeze or rales appeared or dissapeared? How do you have time to do your own nursing work, with all this detective work you must be doing? And my last question, does all this *really* concern you, enough to post this on a BB? If it does, then you dont have enough to do. And, you need to get a life. really..........

Nothing runs me up the wall like people who put everyone else on such a tight moral budget but the funny thing is they always leave plenty of allowance for themselves. But I can think of several other nurses who do no wrong either...I mean, what IS it with the nursing profession? I know, this is another topic that has been rehashed more times than anyone can count, but I think it would make for a good psychological study.

Specializes in Cardiac, Ortho, Surg.

I find all the defensiveness interesting. What's up with that?!

How would you all feel if a police accidentally chalked you up for driving 10 mph over the speed limit rather than the 5 you were actually going? Or for having a BAC of .1 when it was only .01?

Specializes in Peds, ER/Trauma.
I find all the defensiveness interesting. What's up with that?!

How would you all feel if a police accidentally chalked you up for driving 10 mph over the speed limit rather than the 5 you were actually going? Or for having a BAC of .1 when it was only .01?

I am failing to see the relevance of your analogy....

Specializes in cardiology-now CTICU.
I hate to be the one to inform you but the definition of complacence is "total lack of concern", a far cry from absent-minded. I'm not so sure you would want an absent-minded surgeon working on you. Nor is it right to expect that your patients would want an absent-minded health care professional taking care of them. I think it is a far reach to suggest that accurate charting requires a "super nurse". Heaven help your patients if that is the approach you will be bringing to your new profession.

awww man... did you have to go there? there have been so many threads lately where posters are attacking others abilities as a nurse based on an internet post :uhoh3:

as another poster stated, OP, bless you for caring about the details (like when a saline lock was flushed) because the details are important. but you may want to, as others have also pointed out, tend your own garden first...

Specializes in NICU, ER, OR.
I find all the defensiveness interesting. What's up with that?!

How would you all feel if a police accidentally chalked you up for driving 10 mph over the speed limit rather than the 5 you were actually going? Or for having a BAC of .1 when it was only .01?

stretching here... but I think you might have just answered your own question?

If not, I fail to make the connection with this analogy, also.

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awww man... did you have to go there? there have been so many threads lately where posters are attacking others abilities as a nurse based on an internet post :uhoh3:

as another poster stated, OP, bless you for caring about the details (like when a saline lock was flushed) because the details are important. but you may want to, as others have also pointed out, tend your own garden first...

I totally agree that the details do matter. Heck I wish someone would have been watching out for me when a Nurse pushed IV phenegran straight into my IV...she pushed it FAST. This was after putting my IV in without wearing gloves and after wiping her runny nose with the finger she used to stabilize my vein. I got a noscomial infection after a heart ablation and was so sick, I could just smack myself for not saying something to her. I immediately felt intense pain. My Nurse the next day pushed it over 5 mins. She knew that I am a nursing student so she was explaining to me why it is protocol to push it slowly. I ended up with phlebitis and an infection in the IV site. Freaking a month later and it still hurts. I agree we should tend to our own gardens but I also think that patient care should come before anything else.

On the bright side....I learned a valuable lesson I will take with me when I am a Nurse. I imagine having to go through this will make me more thorough with my own patients some day. ;)

It seems like you have a pretty definite opinion of what you want to do, so I'm not sure what you're asking others about. To every post that suggests you mind your own business and not report these omissions, *you* get defensive and attack others' nursing practice and make sarcastic remarks about patient care. So ... are you really just wanting permission to go to your manager with these types of things?

Personally, unless you are absolutely, totally perfect yourself, I think you ought to let these things go, unless there is a true, immediate threat to patient safety. Or unless these issues somehow affect how you do your job. Like someone else said, it is not your job to analyze how your co-workers practice. You should focus on making your own practice error and omission free and not worry about someone else's charting, flushing, etc. etc.

If you want to go to your manager and get a reputation as a tattle-tale or as a "write-up happy" nurse, then by all means go ahead. If that's what you need to do for your own conscience, then do it. No one else can tell you what your ethics need to be.

Specializes in Cardiac.

I hate nit-pickey nurses who's main goal in life is to belittle everyone around them so that they can feel better about themselves. I can't even imagine worrying about if the previous shift flushed a hep lock. I do it at the beginning of my shift, and that's what I worry about...I worry about my work ethic-not everybody elses.

If you have that much time dedicated to noticing how the previous shift charted the LS, or flushed HL, then you can't possibly be giving your patient the time they deserve.

Specializes in Utilization Management.
I recently read about the Honest Abe Award honoring nurses for being the most honest profession. Where I work I do find many honest nurses however I see an equal number of dishonest nurses. Nurses that chart they flushed IV's when there were none to flush, nurses who chart LS exactly as the previous nurse charted in spite of improvement or deterioration , competent and lucid patients who report that their nurses didn't assess areas that the nurse charts that she assessed, medication errors that go unreported. I could go on. These things bother me tremendously as I believe that nurses should be completely trustworthy and honest. Does anybody else experience this? What do I do? Do I follow my personal ethics and report these events and risk the wrath of fellow nurses? Do I ignore them as long as the patient experiences no harm? Help!

I have to wonder how you know all that? I also wonder how long you've been a nurse. It's amazing the number of ways to assess a patient without the patient being aware that you're doing so. I often come into a patient's room as they sleep and note their respiratory rate and IV site, drips, medical equipment in the room, Foley output, and oxygenation status. In some cases, having worked nights, I can do a pretty complete assessment without completely waking a patient, but just rousing enough to get a response.

And about those "medication errors that go unreported" -- how on earth do you know that? Are you there 24/7? Are you privy to the Risk Management reports?

If the answer to those questions was that you haven't the knowledge or the experience to really be certain, then you might consider not saying anything.

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