What are the nurses' protection against patient accusations?

Nurses Activism

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I have worked with different long-term care facilities and it seems like every complaint or accusation made by a patient, the facility seem to favor the patient. I have seen some co-worker's fired from the job without further investigation or questioning. What is our protection against these situations? Are facilities required to do some legal process before taking action against its employee?

Truly unfortunate that bad circumstance happens to good people and the trauma that comes with the situation can be very damaging to the person being accused. Sometimes, it feels like walking on eggshells with some patients with continuous history of staff accusations. Thank you for your insight.

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Specializes in ER.

Depends on the facility...some are good and some are bad. Different states have different laws. States that are right to work states can fire you for no reason. I agree with most of the above comments, many hospitals are big business and believe the "customer" is always right. Where I worked for several years any complaints by "customers" were reviewed with the employee and you had the opportunity to tell your side of the story. For the most part no Corrective action was taken for "customer" complaints at that facility. However in many states it is only a misdemenor to assault a health care worker which is appauling. A few states have made recent changes to their law making it a class 3 felony which is the same charge as assulting a police officer. Hopefully more states will catch on soon and change their laws too. Nurses work too hard and do too much good to not be protected. New Texas law makes assault against emergency department personnel a felony | 2013-07-09 | Safety and Health Magazine

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Thank you for sharing the link. It is about time states catch on. "Nurses work too hard and do too much good to not be protected."

What a great way to summarize all these!

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Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.
I have worked with different long-term care facilities and it seems like every complaint or accusation made by a patient, the facility seem to favor the patient. I have seen some co-worker's fired from the job without further investigation or questioning. What is our protection against these situations? Are facilities required to do some legal process before taking action against its employee?

Your best protection is your manager.

A good manager will investigate & will interview the patient, talk to any co-workers, talk to the employee, and weigh that against the employees past behavior. Is the employee known for being a kind and gentle soul, or is this one more in a series of behavioral issues, conflicts with patients or staff, etc?

If there are written policies, the company must follow them. And to avoid any chance of charges of being unjustly fired, the manager should do their due diligence and document the same.

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Specializes in Critical-care RN.

...organize,unionize and than setup a committee that would protect nurses from unfair firing :yes:

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I was fired after a pt complained about me and I was following our protocol and even had the head doc of the group, the founder of practice, telling me to do what I was doing. The pt called and demanded to speak to her doc personally and didn't like it when I told her he was in surgery and couldn't be reached, but she could come in and see another provider or go to the ER where that doc was on-call and he'd see her there. After several calls with the same exchange, she asked to talk to another nurse. I asked all the other nurses at my station if they'd talk to her because she'd believe it if she heard from someone else, and they all refused to talk to the pt. The pt told me she was going to complain, and sure enough I was fired a week later with no warning or even a prior discussion from HR. They never asked me what happened or got my side of the story or how many times pt had screamed at me and cursed and hung up on me or the fact that the head doc was on my side.

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Specializes in Acute Care - Adult, Med Surg, Neuro.

What protects me is keeping a good reputation, good documentation, being empathetic or sympathetic to the patient even if I don't agree with them, involving my charge nurse or manager, and also, if all else fails, I have .

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I have had some bad experiences, too. Usually the patient is always viewed as right. Thankfully, the one time I had a serious allegation against me (in a rehab facility), I had a unknown ally. The patients' roommate had a son that was there almost all the time and he seriously audio-taped everything. It was a long time ago, so I don't remember all specifics, but I do know that the son found out what had happened (gossip was terrible at that facility) and I was eventually cleared because he had proof I was innocent. I left that job soon afterwards, because the DON there was new and just not the best person to work for. Changes at that place were turning it into a bad facility anyway, so I was glad to get out and into a new job. I still keep in contact with that family, btw. I see them around town from time to time and I was so thankful he stood up for me. I found out later on, that this patient accused other nurses of similar things. :/

It seems around here where I live that you are at the mercy of management and the benefit of the doubt is not given, even for long-term employees with good records. Sad, really.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
What protects me is keeping a good reputation good documentation, being empathetic or sympathetic to the patient even if I don't agree with them, involving my charge nurse or manager, and also, if all else fails, I have malpractice insurance.[/quote']

^ THIS...is the best protection. :yes:

I was accused once by a pt that accused me of "putting water" down her trach when she had a hard mucus plug and the pt's sats were down to 69%. I documented, and they knew my reputation and my nursing practice. The pt didn't want me, and I gladly was ok with it. :)

This pt went on to accuse another nurse of giving them "too many meds"; they did a UDA on the pt and he was in the clear; and the nurse was VERY unhappy about that; they never contacted the nurse to get this nurses side; found out about it when they showed up for their next shift.

Once they had a pattern of accusing others, they started asking people to go back into the room; I stated I would only help turn the pt with another witness; if the pt was out and about, I put boundaries up; I would make sure my charge nurse or supervisor around; if not, I'm not around. I have a right to protect my practice as much as a patient has rights AND responsibilities; slander/libel anyone? That's why documentation is so important; no one has a leg to stand on when you are a person who documents consistently. And legal representation through malpractice insurance, even if you are the plaintiff. ;)

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Specializes in Hospice, ONC, Tele, Med Surg, Endo/Output.

Remember, the boards of nursing in each state are for the patient, not for the nurses. There is no protection for nurses. Unless you pay for a high priced lawyer. And, unions almost always take the hospital's side.

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At my place, we have a policy to address patients/families accusations or complaints. The HR and Clinical affair team meets both separately and carry out investigations to verify the accusations. It also depends nature of problem e.g. if a patient has accused of physical abuse then the concerned employee is suspended till the team submits investigation findings. If the staff is found guilty, he/she is terminated. But it is not always that the staff members lose their jobs if they are not found guilty.

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