this is a true story ..vent .. wowzers .. crazy

Nurses Relations

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Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

we had 4 pt's on our unit , i was in charge, we had one discharge , which left us with three pt's . i took one pt and gave the other nurse 2 pts', and a admit coming. the other nurse freaked out and told me i need to take it. i said we have only 3 pt's on this unit. this nurse feaked out , told me i was unfair and saying i needed to take the pt. i said what? you can take up to 8 pt's , he went on and on how unfair i was. i was shocked .. he was yelling at me at the nurses station. he said to me " your really trying to avoid that admit arn't you? for cripes sakes we had 3 pt's on the unit , he had 2 other pt's. i was in charge of the unit, he has been a bully before to me , so i did a midas on him. since when do you give the Charge nurse your pt?? so weird... has anyone ever encountered bullying in the work place ? and as a charge nurse a staff nurse refusing to take a pt , when he only has 2 himself? he yelled at me so loud a CNA heard him yelling at me down in the hall. he did this at the nurses station in front of staff.... crazy , anyway thank you for letting me in vent ..

Specializes in retired LTC.

That sounds like grounds for an insubordination write-up. Or you could just write it up for being argumentative.

It's one thing to disagree, even disagree STRONGLY. But when someone carries on a tantrum in public, in front of staff and/or visitors, there's damage control to be done.

Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

Moved to Nurse Colleague / Patient Relations for more response.

Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

Oh yea...when I was charge this one time in a SNF and an LPN male nurse was administering a medication that was a deep muscle IM. I was checking to make sure he knew it was a deep IM. This conversation took place by his cart outside the patient's room. He told me he knew and to watch him. So I stand there and as he looks at me with the syringe in his hand standing over the man who is laying in the bed and he slams it down on the patients outer thigh and said to me "is that deep enough for you?" When he came out I started to say something to him and he said "That's it, I"m leaving"...OK bye but your abandonment of your post is grounds for fire (even if his behavior in the room wasn't). So then I'm calling the on call and one nurse comes to me and tells me the LPN is out in the front. I go outside and he starts to rant and rave about RNs vs LPNs pay. By this time I've had it and tell him "I thought you were leaving?" He tells me he's had time to think it over and he's sorry. BTW, the patient was fine and the shot didn't bother him though he was quite demented and I don't think he was with us when it happened (if you know what I mean).

The LPN had worked there for 15 years and it's only my one year mark. I took it to the DON and I don't know what happened and I don't care. There was so much BS at that job I quit shortly after that.

If there are only 2 nurses on, and that little of patients, what is it as charge you are responsible for doing? I would have either given someone one patient and the admit, or the other 2 patients and I would have taken one and the admit. Even assignment. It is difficult for some when the charge, who really has no charge responsibility beyond issues if they arise, will only take one patient and lets one staff person run around with an admit and 2 other patients. But a reminder to this nurse that you all had a CNA for assistance may have helped--as it is much easier to assess, turn and repo etc when you bring the CNA with you, and to help settle a new admit as well. And I have seen (and I am NOT saying this is you, just a general observation) that just because someone is charge, even on an off shift with little patients that there is no account for acuity and for the sole purpose of being charge "you don't have to take patients" and spend a long time hanging about, while your staff of one runs around. If that is the case, it is a staffing issue, as if a charge has that much responsibility, they should not be counted as a nurse that will take patients. With all that being said, yelling is never appropriate. But it can be frustrating for the nurse to take most of the patients, and charge sits at the nurses station.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

How much other staff was there to witness this with only 3 patients??? You say a CNA heard him....so, you had 3 staff members for 3 patients? I think he had a good reason to be upset. I'm old...what does "so i did a midas on him." mean.?

I would have "shared the patient". Depending on the patient ...if they were "stable" I would split the work...one to do the admit paper work and the other take the patient. I would have the other nurse do the paperwork and I would take the patient.

Yes...with only 3 patients total and the fourth coming.....I think it is unfair for the charge to have only one patient. But your peers need to be respectful of the charge position.

Specializes in Med/Surg,Cardiac.

I would have given you a funny look and probably a loud sigh if you had one and wanted me to take a third. Not because I'd have trouble accepting a third but because as "charge nurse" you should split assignments evenly IMO. Unless your one patient was high acuity and it would be a lot easier for the other nurse to take the admit, I'd think you should have taken it. I have a problem with nurses who are assigned charge and expect that to mean less work, especially when with such low census you probably didn't have immense responsibility. Why did you not want to take the admission?

Specializes in Gerontology.

So he would have 3 pts, you would have 1. If you did not want the admit, you should have taken 2 pts and given him 1 with the admit.And wha is going "Midas" on him mean?

Midas is a reporting system (our hospital uses it) - can be used to report insubordination, patient incidents etc...its electronic and confidential...

Specializes in Telemetry.

If he indeed yelled, that was inappropriate. However, I understand why he was upset. I am almost always charge and while it seems fair to me to have one pt fewer than my co-workers (but is such a rarity) having only one pt while expecting him to care for two and take an admission seems very wrong. I would think the pts would receive better and more balanced care if they were evenly divided instead of one nurse juggling three pts, especially when one is an admit.

Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.

When I worked on a surgical floor charge doesn't take patients unless there is no one else. They have other things to do than be a staff nurse that day, bed meetings to go to, scheduling to take care of. I see no reason why the rn had a problem with taking the admit.

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Tyvin.....I would have walked that nurse out of the building and report him for abuse. There is NO need to slam a syringe into anyone's thigh.

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