Bullied for reporting a med error by another nurse

Nurses Safety

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Ive just been called a number of names and criticised for incident reporting that a colleague made a drug error despite it being clearly prescribed. This isn't her first error in fact its one of many but this one i felt needed to be reported so i submitted an incident report form to my manager. My colleagues now think I'm the devil and say i should of spoke to my manager first. Firstly my manager was on holiday at the time secondly i have voiced concerns previously with no action taken. I even triple checked with the doctor that it was indeed a medication error. Has anyone been in a similar position? Im leaving this job as a result of this many other things.

Specializes in psych, general, emerg, mash.

dont take much to get people upset these days, and HOW sensitive grownups are these days. Children in an adult body! You called the shots, of a drug admin error, and the other nurse got off.

Ask your super for change of unit, or another job. Your so called colleagues, despite track and so called trending. If you get bothered, what do you think you should do.

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@ StaffNurseMcS- I applaud your bravery and willingness to protect patients. I truly am sorry that you are being treated poorly by your colleagues now but sad to say that I am not surprised. I hope that when I become an RN I have the maturity, wisdom and guts to act as you did. You can rest knowing that you did the right thing even at personal and perhaps professional expense. Kudos to you!!

@CSARmedic- I don't want to be anything like you, have you treat me or any of my loved ones. You've clearly shown that you are the type to be one of the bullies in your condescending tone and vocabulary. I am not sure what your situation is but I'm glad that you are on AN so that the safe, kind and helpful people here can model for you the kind of nurse that really patient's want and others want to work with.

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Specializes in psych, general, emerg, mash.

I agree with CSAR! Stop giving false hope! Nurses like doctors are their own worst enemy. NeverBthesame, good! The word Bully is the buzzword of the moment.

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Management will ALWAYS say, that it is to, "improve patient care", but you can bet your bottom dollar, that if mangement wants to get rid of someone, they will untilize incident reports to help them.

They will do this to build a case to terminate someone. They do this all of the time.

That is why, if there is something not right about your workplace, what ever that is, it is IMPERATIVE, that you write up an incident report, and make sure that you keep a copy for yourself.

I don't care about the rules of not making copies of these reports. If there is an issue about something, I guarantee, that the incident report that you wrote to protect you, will somehow disappear, and it will be your word against theirs.

I would certainly not advertise that I made copies of incident reports. But it will be your ace, in a pinch, if you need it. Keep them in a safe place at home, where you can find it if you need it.

JMHO and my NY $0.02

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

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The first thing that occurred to me after I read your heading was "How did you know it was a med error?" Are you the charge nurse or just another "really involved colleague" i.e. nosy. In all the places I've worked, I've never had the opportunity to get that involved in another nurses business unless I've been orienting another nurse.

One of the hallmark philosophies I've come to realize in nursing is "Nursing's biggest problem (and we have many problems) is nurses".

I'm playing devils advocate here but isn't taking the time and effort to second guess another's work and then investigating their mistakes usually left to supervisors or managers (even if they are on vacation)? Who appointed you the charge nurse or manager in their absence? When done by a coworker (like yourself) without the approval or recommendation of management or HR you're inviting retaliatory-like behavior from co-workers.

It's human nature.

And now you've ostracized yourself as "the snitch" and can't be trusted.

All in the "name" of patient safety. Which really isn't safety at all because the patient received the wrong medication not just that one time but many times as you pointed out. You didn't prevent the error from occurring (not your fault) but it still happened, apparently, many times.

My personal feeling is that the term "patient safety" is getting really old. Nurses use it for every little problem they encounter in the workplace from staffing problems to having to clean up patient rooms (google the story about Vanderbilt University hospital nurses cleaning patient rooms), to forced overtime or not enough hours, or whatever. It's just getting really old.

The truth is you probably didn't like that person, got too nosy and thought you could get back at them for some little thing they may or may not have done to you. You took it upon yourself to be the great savior of your workplace and now you can't understand why you are being treated badly by your coworkers.

Get a life.

So... I'm confused. It looks like you're saying patient safety is a scape-goat for "petty nursing problems" and yet you listed significant problems that DO affect patient safety (unsafe ratios, extra tasks that in reality nurses have no time to do, working more hours than necessary making you more likely to mess up, etc). What's the point of nursing if you're not caring about the well being of a patient? Our jobs are to take care of living, breathing people - and to keep them that way. Wouldn't you say anything that impedes this duty is not just some random problem we want to whine about - it's something that should be fixed so that we can provide the best care possible? Nurse managers and other administrators have a crap ton of other things on their plate; they don't have time to play detective 24/7 esp when higher ups are pulling them in several other directions. Colleagues have a duty to keep each other in check - that goes for any job, not just nursing. Why would you want to support a sloppy co-worker?

I'm sure there exists nurses who are out to get each other but your comment seems terribly condescending. The workplace for nurses and other medical professionals needs a lot of improvement but that doesn't mean we should just be dealing with it bc that's the way the world is and "who cares you should 'mind your own business'." Give me a break. :sarcastic:

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@CSARmedic: I don't know how the OP knew there was a med error but, while working in LTC I discovered a med error. I worked 4 days on, 2 off schedule. Two of those days I was on one side and the other two days I worked on the other side. The first side was an ambulatory, locked Alzheimer's unit. While I was there, I received an antibiotic order for a diabetic women with a small infection on her lower shin. The order was for ten days. After I did my two days on that unit, I had four days off. When I was scheduled back to that unit six days had gone by. The report I got was we were charting on this lady for S/P Antibiotic Treatment. While I was passing meds I realized in the MARS, the nurses were signing that they were still giving the antibiotic. There was only one other nurse when I was not there that worked full-time on that unit. That same nurse also did not change dressings that I had changed on other occasions. The reason I knew this was because every time I would rotate to that unit again four days later, the same dressing would be on the residents with my date and initials on it. I had reported this several times to our unit manager but, it continued. So, when I saw the med error I notified the DON. That nurse was fired. I was bullied for months by her friends and ended up leaving because it became unbearable. I still believe I did the right thing and always put patient safety and well being first.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
Management will ALWAYS say, that it is to, "improve patient care", but you can bet your bottom dollar, that if mangement wants to get rid of someone, they will untilize incident reports to help them.

They will do this to build a case to terminate someone. They do this all of the time.

That is why, if there is something not right about your workplace, what ever that is, it is IMPERATIVE, that you write up an incident report, and make sure that you keep a copy for yourself.

I don't care about the rules of not making copies of these reports. If there is an issue about something, I guarantee, that the incident report that you wrote to protect you, will somehow disappear, and it will be your word against theirs.

I would certainly not advertise that I made copies of incident reports. But it will be your ace, in a pinch, if you need it. Keep them in a safe place at home, where you can find it if you need it.

JMHO and my NY $0.02

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

Be very careful with that. Making copies of an incident report and taking them off premises got a nurse I USED to work with fired. Not only was it against company policy but she was turned in for violation of HIPPA because copies of the report left the facility. I never did hear if she got in hot water with the BON for that, but she certainly could have.

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Ive just been called a number of names and criticised for incident reporting that a colleague made a drug error despite it being clearly prescribed. This isn't her first error in fact its one of many but this one i felt needed to be reported so i submitted an incident report form to my manager. My colleagues now think I'm the devil and say i should of spoke to my manager first. Firstly my manager was on holiday at the time secondly i have voiced concerns previously with no action taken. I even triple checked with the doctor that it was indeed a medication error. Has anyone been in a similar position? Im leaving this job as a result of this many other things.

May I recount a similar circumstance?

I was an In-house agency nurse in a LARGE inner city facility . A nurse was sitting at the desk, scanning all of her meds from the desk .

I reported it to the powers that be.. from there on in, I was afraid to walk to my car.

Stay strong.. move on.

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Be very careful with that. Making copies of an incident report and taking them off premises got a nurse I USED to work with fired. Not only was it against company policy but she was turned in for violation of HIPPA because copies of the report left the facility. I never did hear if she got in hot water with the BON for that, but she certainly could have.

Who was it that turned her in?

Her problem was that another person, other than herself, also knew about it.

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The first thing that occurred to me after I read your heading was "How did you know it was a med error?" Are you the charge nurse or just another "really involved colleague" i.e. nosy. In all the places I've worked, I've never had the opportunity to get that involved in another nurses business unless I've been orienting another nurse.

One of the hallmark philosophies I've come to realize in nursing is "Nursing's biggest problem (and we have many problems) is nurses".

I'm playing devils advocate here but isn't taking the time and effort to second guess another's work and then investigating their mistakes usually left to supervisors or managers (even if they are on vacation)? Who appointed you the charge nurse or manager in their absence? When done by a coworker (like yourself) without the approval or recommendation of management or HR you're inviting retaliatory-like behavior from co-workers.

It's human nature.

And now you've ostracized yourself as "the snitch" and can't be trusted.

All in the "name" of patient safety. Which really isn't safety at all because the patient received the wrong medication not just that one time but many times as you pointed out. You didn't prevent the error from occurring (not your fault) but it still happened, apparently, many times.

My personal feeling is that the term "patient safety" is getting really old. Nurses use it for every little problem they encounter in the workplace from staffing problems to having to clean up patient rooms (google the story about Vanderbilt University hospital nurses cleaning patient rooms), to forced overtime or not enough hours, or whatever. It's just getting really old.

The truth is you probably didn't like that person, got too nosy and thought you could get back at them for some little thing they may or may not have done to you. You took it upon yourself to be the great savior of your workplace and now you can't understand why you are being treated badly by your coworkers.

Get a life.

right. she also said that this wasn't the first time she's gone to her supervisor about this same nurse and "no action was taken". maybe because no action was needed.

and side note: i dont think nurses should turn a blind eye to unsafe nurses, but in this particular instance from what op has stated, she seems to be more interested in nabbing this nurse than she is interested in patient safety.

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Specializes in ICU/ER.

though ive only been a nurse a short while, I have learned that it is always in your favor to pick your battles. while I am not advocating turning a blind eye to abrupt patient safety...though writing up a fellow nurse or co-worker cause they didn't flush a int or hep-lock is poor form.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
Who was it that turned her in?

Her problem was that another person, other than herself, also knew about it.

It was our administrator that turned her in. She was bent out of shape about the reports being copied and reported the nurse to the BON and called corporates legal department as well. Apparently incident reports are considered company property, so this nurse was fired not only for HIPPA violation but for stealing company property. That administrator is no longer with us, no idea if this mess had anything to do with that though.

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