Am I doing the right thing??

[luvmy2angels]

Well, for anyone who has followed my posts over the past several weeks...I got a job at a hospital as a GPN. General orientation was great and I really thought I would be happy there. Well, once I got onto the unit where i would working things just went downhill by the minute. The nurses i worked with were some of the most unprofessional i have ever seen!! Calling patients by Mr pain in the *ss, calling family members foul names as well as each other, treating the patients with so much disrespect I could hardly believe it!! They were cruel and down right mean and there was no way i felt comfortable there and NO way I felt i could concentrate and learn anything. SO i decided to quit, i called the NM and told her I wasn't comfortable working in that type of environment and so on. I didn't give her any specific examples at the time, she said if i would feel better writing her a letter and explaining what happened that would be fine. She wanted to understand what it was that I didn't like. I was just glad to be gone from there and wasn't going to write a letter, but the more I thought about it the more i thought that maybe i should. I mean, those nurses are just aweful and maybe managment really doesn't know what is going on and someone should bring it to their attention. Then at the same time I wonder if they will take my letter seriously or just think i am a "poor sport" and trying to cause problems for the nurses because i didn't like the way they treated their patients. It was just an aweful place!! Every other word was the F word and they would talk about how it should be legal for the nurses to euthanize some of the pts becuase they were so demanding. To me, that is far from professional behavior and i refused to put myself into that group of people. So, should I or shouldn't I send the letter?????

[Celia M, ASN, RN]

Write the letter, the Nurse Manager cannot change things without knowing the specifics, neither can she discipline (if necessary) without examples. Please give the info, you are doing it for the patients too. No one should be talked about in that manner, it is disrespectful and unprofessional.

[Antikigirl, ASN, RN]

I agree, write it professionally and use your key words like teamwork, continuity, safety, professionalism, compassion...and examples of how these were comprimized (you don't have to use names!).

I have been in this situation also, took on a LTC with my agency job...I was suprised I made it the whole day...and NEVER will return. But I did send a letter to the management explaining the whys...which included dangerous med passes, aspiration risks I saw and gasped when I saw, patients just being left against a wall...and the general attitude of the staff towards these poor people!

I don't know if it did anything...but at least I am on record doing my job of reporting what I saw to management (and oh yes, I have the copies of the letter and will keep them for many years just in case!). I wanted to call the BON, but I heard the state was coming in a week to that facility, so...I am sure they got dinged badly enough on their own!