I was in charge last night. Received a phone call from the computer room to check one of the patient's charts to stamp a report as "permanent record." So I was standing outside of the patient's room and the nurse was in the room, not knowing I was right outside the door flipping through the chart.
Patient had pulled off his bipap machine, apparently. I hear the nurse say "Look what you've done. You're an As*h***. I'm through playing your f****** games." I'm aghast. I go to the doorway and say "I know he's a difficult patient but that's not appropriate!" She just starts saying "Look at his bipap! He broke it! Isn't this broken?!" Doesn't address my comment at all. I go in, fix the bipap mask and help her reapply it. And that's that.
I then walk out and write down verbatim what happened. We've had problems with her before. Give it to my manager in the morning and am called into the office with this nurse. She flat-out denies saying it. She was not angry, just seemed very apologetic with statements like "I'm sorry, I don't know HOW you heard that; I never said anything like that. I don't remember you saying anything to me."
I did do the right thing, didn't I?! (Manager believes me, by the way. But can she act on anything, if the nurse flat-out denies it happening? There were no other witnesses. Pt's mental state is uncertain.)
One other thing that no one has mentioned; Watch yourself! She will probably looking to take advantage of anything you do that may not by the book, even if she has to distort a few facts to make you look bad. She's already proven to you she's not above lying.
Fired? IMHO, you should have called the police! At the least, the manager should have ordered the customer to leave immediately.
Nonetheless, your situation, although a shame, does not relate to the OP's Thread... does it? Your were rude to your customer d/t his rude & assaultive behavior. The OP posted about this nurse that was verbally abusive to a patient, which the patient had not been rude to her.
Yep, the customer was told to leave. And I made this comment in response to the poster who stated that we wouldn't treat our customers at McDonalds like that. I was just saying actually in that situation I would.
Of course this guy had no health problems or stress that would cause him to be so rude to me--he was just a jerk.
I was in high school though ( I was actually only 15) so I wouldn't react that way the age I am now.
I just spent a few minutes trying to pronounce your screen name before I realized it was THE LONELIEST! I'm such a goober sometimes.
;offtopic:
I loved that name the first time I saw it in print here and ran to get my husband. He's a piano player and we knew it was in reference to Thelonious Monk , the jazz musician, of course we're of the "older generation" as my son says.
I could not imagine allowing somebody that uses the F bomb on a patient the opportunity to interact even one more minute with anybody else on my watch. To me, this is on par to discovering somebody is drunk at work: that behavior forbids the ability to continue for one more minute. Goodbye, punch out, go home. HR will be calling you. . .
I have to disagree with you there. I am not trying to defend the foulmouth, what she/he did was wrong, but cursing at a pt. is nowhere near in the same boat as being drunk on the job. I think that rather than an immediate firing, mandatory counseling or anger management classes would be the more appropriate first action.
Actually the name came about one day when watching the movie Jazz on a Summers Day with my son. When Thelonious Monk was on in the movie my son pronounced his name Theloneliest Monk, so thats where the name came from.
Unfortunately, as nurse shortages grow across the country, these situations are going to become more routine. Management will hesitate to "lose" someone even more becasue that means another shift not covered. Keep doing the right thing. too few nurses are better than too many bad nurses.
Unfortunately, as nurse shortages grow across the country, these situations are going to become more routine. Management will hesitate to "lose" someone even more becasue that means another shift not covered. Keep doing the right thing. too few nurses are better than too many bad nurses.
I agree. But also in the day and age when people hire lawyers to sue for discrimination, unfair firings, etc. management is loathe to fire someone without proper documentation, with three written write ups that shows "counseling", etc.
I'm such a goober sometimes.
gstrahan
20 Posts
One other thing that no one has mentioned; Watch yourself! She will probably looking to take advantage of anything you do that may not by the book, even if she has to distort a few facts to make you look bad. She's already proven to you she's not above lying.
Good luck,
Gina