accused of not passing meds (long)

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Sep 24, 2004

I think if I were you, I would give my notice.

Once you let someone treat you like this and get away with it, they will always treat you this way. I could not see working for someone who does not trust or believe me. You won't have any credibility w/ them.

I am just too old to allow my integrity to be questioned.

mscsrjhm · Sep 24, 2004

Agree with HellllloNurse.

Integrity is 99% of nursing.

(the other 1% is the glamour, isn't it?)

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Sep 24, 2004

Yep I would leave too! As far as trying to prove you gave it..Sounds like your pharmacy is like ours..They should have a record of the drugs they sent. And if the bag of vials that you took from for the first two doses were sent back they should have a record of the # (probably - the 2 you gave). This happens alot in our place. res might be sent to hosp, meds pulled, but not returned to pharm, res returns on same med but not delivered yet so we use the old meds.

I'd wand to know who was sneaking around and trying to get you in trouble...

LadyMadonna · Sep 24, 2004

Yep I would leave too! As far as trying to prove you gave it..Sounds like your pharmacy is like ours..They should have a record of the drugs they sent. And if the bag of vials that you took from for the first two doses were sent back they should have a record of the # (probably - the 2 you gave). This happens alot in our place. res might be sent to hosp, meds pulled, but not returned to pharm, res returns on same med but not delivered yet so we use the old meds.
I'd wand to know who was sneaking around and trying to get you in trouble...

This seems kind of petty and nit picky to me, but I would put in my notice. If your bosses claim they don't trust or believe you and continue to have you work there what does that say about them?

I feel for you, but the nursing home has no loyalty. I know a nurse who was a faithful employee of a LTC facility for 15 yrs. She was no ray of sunshine to be around but she was good enough to work for them for 15 yrs....well some snooty family member with a tendency to report it to the state if her mother broke wind and it wasn't charted :uhoh3: complained that this nurse was "abusive" to her mother (we nurses all knew the real story was that this nurse was just not a butt kisser and wasn't about to drop everything she was doing to come wipe this resident's nose (it was literally that ridiculous). Anyway, to cover themselves and appease the family member the LTC facility fired this nurse of 15 yrs.. Just like that. I can't say I really miss this nurse but at the same time I believe she deserved better than to be shoved out the door like she was.

So before they came up with an excuse to shove me out the door I would probably just resign. It wouldn't seem like it would affect your ability to get a job in the future (but I'm no expert).

I also know what it feels like to be accused of not doing something. I was 8 months pregnant and fresh out of nursing school when I was asked to work a 12 hr. shift (3PM-3AM). I had never worked with feeding tubes and this man was scheduled to receive one starting at 2AM....I had been told to just hold the fort down, sit back and put my feet up until the nurse came in at 3AM to relieve me. I was scared of that feeding pump and this patient was not one of my patients so I left it alone (many of you know there is usually just one nurse on the night shift so instead of just my one hall I was watching three from 11-3).

The big fat nurse comes in at 2:45 and throws a fit because I didn't hook up the feeding. But what is worse is that she waited until I left to throw a fit and I found out later she talked about me something awful at the nurses station in front of a bunch of CNA's and other nurses later that morning. Now I understand it takes all of about 5 minutes to get a tube feeding going....but I learned and worked until the night I had my baby and never complained. Big Beulah got pregnant later and moaned and carried on from the time she found out she was pregnant until she took a leave of absence at 5 months because it was just too much for her :uhoh3: :uhoh3: :uhoh3:

Sorry to get off on a tangent...but you see injustice goes on all the time. It isn't easy to take but I hope you feel better to know you are not alone.

rehab nurse · Sep 24, 2004

sounds like i have a unanimous decision...i will look for another job before i put in my notice. i know who it was that did this, but of course i can't prove it. my unit manager has had it in for me since i transferred there. i was supposed to be transferred back to the subacute unit this week, but they have some nurses with similar backstabbing, gossiping tendencies there. the physicians on staff demanded my return back to the subacute unit, and my DON finally agreed to put me back there after several nurses just about sunk the place. but i agree its pretty useless to work there if i am not believed. it's just a matter of time before they find some other lie to get me out the door.

why can't the nurses there just unify instead of stabbing each other in the back? it could really be a nice place:o

thank you all so much for your replies.

h

SRbear · Sep 25, 2004

I just left a job I had for 15 years at a hospital......due to the nurse manager....she did not support the nurses, took the patients or doctors side of everything, and in fact, took the words of nurses that went to her and complained about other nurses. I have been a nurse for 25 years.....the back stabbing, complaining, nastiness, etc. has just become too much. Always being told that your good is not good enough. Patient, ( OH..I mean customer )satisfaction comes before anything else, and it seems more frequently to come at the nurses expense. I think, IMHO, that when we started treating and calling patients customers, because management wanted it that way, the care we give as nurses was diminished, as was our job as nurses. It is now *the customer* that complains the loudest that is given the most attention, because as we all know, the customer is always right, and must be satisfied at all times. I think the way nurses treat other nurses is horrendus, and we are, in fact, our own worse enemies.

explorer · Sep 25, 2004

hello, i haven't posted for a long time.
yesterday, i was accused of not giving a vitamin b 12 injection on two consecutive days. the order was written for once injection daily for five days. the first day, i was off, and the nurse circled not available. next two days, i took the vials from an old bag of b 12 injections (from two weeks ago) for the same patient. on the fourth day, i was off again, and the nurse couldn't find the bag of vials (and pharmacy had not yet delivered the new order for five vials, i work ltc). so she borrowed. on fifth day, i come in to my unit manager, who accused me of not giving the injections, cause the bag had since been delivered with all five vials. so she extended the days of the injections for two more days, since the pt missed the first dose, and then told me to have a nurse cosign my initials on the mar.
i did as i was told, and had a co worker co sign my initals and witness my giving the injections. and yesterday, i was written up for not giving the first two doses that i had initialed. so i again told my DON my story, and she said flat out she didn't believe me. i said, if you don't believe my initals, what's the use? if i signed the mar as dose given, and didn't give it, that's falsification of documents and grounds for losing my license. she told me not to over react, but that's what she is accusing me of! i told her if my signature is not good for the injections, what good is it for any other med? you may as well have another nurse follow my whole med pass!! again, told me not to over react, and to basically keep my mouth shut, cause she didn't believe me. and this is two weeks after a glowing third year eval.
has anyone been in this situation, or known of it and can give me advice? i haven't yet slept cause i am so distraught. she told me she didn't have enough evidence to report me to the board of nursing, so i asked her how she had enough evidence to write me up. she couldn't answer that one. i am just sick over this.
the sad part is, i am nearly finished with my RN program, and wanted to stay on staff here till i was finished. i hate to have to start over again at a new facility, since i am burned out on ltc (have done it for 8 years), and that's my only option in my area as i am an lpn.
sorry for the very long post, i just needed to vent.
h:o

One of the things that would help solve the problem is a computerized record keeping system. The one that is used at the hospital I work at is called

Bar Code Medication Administration. On the medication there is a barcode that represents the medication. On the patients arm is an armband with their

social security number barcoded so that when the scanner scans the bracelet the pts medications come up. When the scanning is done the times and the

nurse are entered into the computer. A very good record is created that can

later be traced to prove that the medication was given. This is what the VA us doing.

:balloons:

weetziebat · Sep 25, 2004

Patient, ( OH..I mean customer )satisfaction comes before anything else, and it seems more frequently to come at the nurses expense. I think, IMHO, that when we started treating and calling patients customers, because management wanted it that way, the care we give as nurses was diminished, as was our job as nurses. It is now *the customer* that complains the loudest that is given the most attention, because as we all know, the customer is always right, and must be satisfied at all times. I think the way nurses treat other nurses is horrendus, and we are, in fact, our own worse enemies.

Does anyone wonder why there is a nursing shortage? Perhaps when management starts treating nurses like professionals, more people will want to go into the field. Until then, there are too many other fields to choose from.

And, rehab nurse - I agree with the crowd. You need to find another job. ASAP.

ldkrn · Sep 27, 2004

Quit, and soon. As a professional, I have certain standards for how I expect to be treated, and this episode for sure would have violated those in a big way. Get copies of your glowing evaluations and get your butt out of there.