abuse and harassment

[wiley6coyote]

how do you handle complaints made to you regarding staff who have a reputation for bullying, harassment, silent treatment and who you have reported several times for witnessed abuse of a patient and still nothing is done by the upper management.

Staff are afraid to speak up and seeing that this person appears "untouchable" in regards to disciplinary action the situation is worsening.

How do I continue to show up for work, knowing that this is going on and all my efforts in protecting staff and patients have been futile.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

1) Begin job search, which might include transfer within the system. Be aware that once you proceed to #2, that may vanish, though.

2) When #1 is looking promising and you have an offer, write a letter stating facts and dates, no inflammatory or judgmental language, and send it to your manager, HR, and the hospital risk manager. Use the phrase "patient endangerment" if it truly applies, and "hostile work environment" if it truly applies.

3) Leave.

[amoLucia]

When pts are involved you can go thru your Dept of Health or Ombudsman office. You can do so anonymously.

[SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS]

What about reporting to the BON? We have an obligation to report behavior such as this in members of our profession.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

If there is an ethic reporting system within your company, use it. If there's an employee relations department within you parent company, report it. You can report through a state licensing agency, the BON, your Union, the omsbudsman. If patients that are being mistreated are elderly, disabled, mentally ill then report to the state agency governing the applicable patient population. If it is a patient who is compromised, but otherwise "with it"--in other words NOT one of the above, your local police department sometimes have officers who are specific to abuse, elder abuse, etc.

Call and discuss with your malpractice insurance carrier as well. Even though there is usually a "no retaliation" clause in most facility policy, this doesn't mean it won't happen. So you need to be prepared. And because they have made you a party to this situation, by not reporting to agencies other than your supervisor can make you liable. This is where your malpractice insurance comes into play.

Staff acting like children with the silent treatment and such--this, to me, is a seperate issue.

If staff is reporting this to you, then you are a charge nurse? If so, I would INFORM the manager that as a charge nurse you will not tolerate abusive, childish behaviors that make anyone's ethical practice fall into question. Therefore, you are following policy #abc222 and starting a progressive discipline process with obtainable timelined goals for behavior improvement, and do it.

If you are not in a position to do this, then by all means, suggest the person who was offended fill out an incident report each and every time it happens. If they will not, then you can, as non-subjectively as possible. "Numerous complaints regarding LPN B.S. and her yelling at staff calling them 'stupid'. Staff complains that they find this bullying, and creates a hostile work enviroment. Numerous verbal reporting to supervisors X. Y. Z and PDQ have resulted in no change of offending behaviors"

It sounds like an awful situation to be in. I wish you nothing but the best.