Anyone ever heard of anything like this?

[JusBeinANur]

I work in a LTC facilty, at our last staff meeting our administrator and DON announced that they would be reporting people for neglect & abuse, would call the police and have them arrested. Here is the part that caught me off gaurd.... The Examples they gave are as follows... (1) If one CNA reports that a fellow CNA failed to change their patient(s) that is considered neglect (2) Nurses and/or Med Tech's.. You have a resident that falls and they wear a body alarm, it is found that the body alarm wasn't on them or working properly that is considered neglect/abuse (3) You fail to follow-up on PRN meds, or a patient reports that they are still having pain and you do nothing to try to manage it, ie., you have given all scheduled pain meds and prn meds and pt is still reporting 2/10 on the pain scale and you don't follow-up with Dr., etc it is neglect/ abuse.. They then proceeded to tell staff that if anything like this came up they would be calling the police, would have them arrested, the employee would be suspended and a investigation would follow, and they would report you to the state and the prosecuting attorney..

Since this meeting ( which has only been a few days ) Our staff is not showing up for work, quitting,etc..

This, of course, leaves us short staffed and creates many problems. Over the weekend we also found out that our facility had the long-distance suspended on the phone lines, staff was not informed of this by the admin., It was discovered when trying to place a call to hospice. We have also had numerous theft's in the bld., including a office door trying to be kicked-in, the facility threatned a "sting-operation" but failed to make a police report on the incident.

We were also given documents from corporate that state the procedure for reporting neglect abuse is as follows

(1) notify the victims family or Rep.

(2) Call the police

(3) Call the Admin., DON

The Administrator proceeds to inform us that SHE IS TO BE CALLED FIRST..

I am thinking this situation is very strange but since I haven't worked at very many places, I am in need of your Advice, comments, and suggestions.

Thanks!

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

If you have to stay I would just document like you know what and i would call the admin as soon as a single brief change was late and tell them that you have documented the staff ratio that led to your decision. Then make a blinded copy of the documentation for yourself any after they fire you then you can do them some serious educating....... Ridiculous!

[Hygiene Queen]

Holy cow!

So, of course, staff is fleeing left and right. I don't blame them.

However, now you have a short-staffed facility... care will suffer further... and, hence, you are at further risk.

Now those briefs really won't get changed in a timely fashion. Less ability to supervise the patients and get those alarms answered "pronto"...

The longer you stay, the more likely you are going dowwwwwwwn...

I wouldn't even put in my two weeks.

I would be gone.

Hmmmm... I would report this.

Cover your butt and run!!

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

What planet are these people from and are they on drugs? No seriously, this is some severe dysfunction with a capital D.

You know I would play their game. Call the police and report every single time you have to work short.

[bjaeram]

So I'm curious what caused them to become so harsh. Were patients falling, were there complaints about out of control pain, were patients getting skin breakdown from not being changed? I'm guessing this didn't come out of the blue for no reason.

Of course they way they have gone about it is a bit extreme. Are they really going to call the police, doubt it, but it might scare some people out of their laziness. We only have one side of the story and i'm guessing this place wasn't a 5 star resort with excellent care prior to the threats. I bet the DON was at her witts end and this was her solution. Terrible solution yes but maybe she didn't know what else to do.

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

I didn't change one of my residents on 11am rounds because she was at the hairdresser. I was feeling pretty good about getting everything else done in a timely manner until I realized I should be in jail! lol

[Chin up]

They will not call the police. The police couldn't do anything, nor want too. They could report you to the state, but no administrator worth her salt, wants the state near their building. I may add, nor the police. They are bluffing and hoping to get staff to work more efficiently. They must believe staff is not doing their job correctly. Some of those issues really are a form of neglect....having said that, they don't know how to manage, how to motivate and how to inspire. Since they are at the end of their rope, they do the worst thing they could do and that is threaten the staff. They are foolish and don't deserve their positions. I would report them to coporate and leave. I worked six months for sociopaths, and there is not enough money in the world, to get me to work for them for one day. Peace!

[swift125]

This sounds like a bluff; however it seems to indicate a hostile work environment at best. Time to update one's resume.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

run, don't walk out of there!

[MarkBall2]

Find a new job. The reporting to the police is filing a false report. They have no authority to do this & will continue to threaten/cajole you until you quit.

Start looking today & when you have one in hand, start immediately. If you give notice, it sounds like they would use that against you.

I would almost bet the admin used to be one of mine. Crazy person to put it politely.

[Tabi]

yeah, it,s definately time to get out of there while you can with your nursing license still intact.Don,t let their poor management issues affect your career.

[JusBeinANur]

:crying2:Thanks for All the input... I am starting to wonder if I even care if they take my license... HOWEVER, the thought of having to go to jail or court,etc. scares the crap out of me!! I really need a job right now and the employment options in my area are SCARCE! HOWEVER, I don't know if all the stress is worth it..

[BrookeeLou_RN]

You know you care about your license!!! No one does all that sweat and tears and does not care.

You are just overwhelmed with 'stupid" people right now.. What you have experienced is not normal,, some bad stuff happens in nursing but yours kinda takes the cake.

Go post your resume on job boards, go apply for other jobs, do not look for dream job right now just a nice plain job. Get your stress level back down and then plan from there.

You know you do not want to let them WIN with their bully tactics.