Bad management

Ruby Vee, BSN · Sep 13, 2016

You think your management was trying to get rid of you due to gossip from co-workers? What did your manager actually SAY to you? Did they describe what your transgressions were or what you needed to do to improve? If they were trying to fire you, there should have been a paper trail. Was there one?

You don't describe any actual bullying, so I'm at a loss as to what you consider to be bullying or bullies. Should you have stayed? I don't have enough information to answer that. Do you have another job?

What would I have done? I've met two bullies in my career. I stood up to them rather than let them drive me out of a job. I wasn't going to lose a job I liked over people I didn't respect.

Jen4nursing · Sep 13, 2016

Thank you for responding Ruby Vee

I tried to get right to the point without dragging on anyway it statrtes when i had trouble with a cna being insubordinate i had a patient pass away and protocol is for the nurse to call the manager anyway the cna called and notified manager when i confronted her she yelled at me at the nursing station and said she is my friend i can call her and tell her i tried to explain but she kept screaming at me so i yelled back enough we are giing outside now. She was friens with management and staff so i got a write up immediately for being mean. Anyway almost a year later and i needed help with a resident and asked nicely for a cna to help me real quick and they responded ill be there in a minute so i raised my voice a little in a sense of urgency no now. The manager came out and pointed her finger in my face and said the cnas were conplaining that i was mean and disrespecting them and that i cannot talk to staff like that. So next day i went with the manager to the administrators office as directed and i git wrote up explanation was you have a history of yelling at staff which is completely false. Third incident was when a cna refused to do her job so i reported her and sent her home she got a write up and the next you guessed it i was called in the office with administrator and manager and was told that the cnas said i was mean. So yes another write up and them saying again i have a history. Ugh feeling frustrated i went back to work anyway and ever since management takes every complaint to the administrator she never attempts to do it through the chain of command. They bully you because they know if the nurse says anything we will be written up. The gossip there is ridiculous and the residents are highly neglected by the cnas so staff has reported them and always end up fired so yes i quit i feel i did the right thing as they were lying and the administrator would not let me defend myself instead he would just stop you from talking and talk about what a wonderful administrator he is.

Editorial Team / Admin · Sep 13, 2016

when i confronted her she yelled at me at the nursing station and said she is my friend i can call her and tell her i tried to explain but she kept screaming at me so i yelled back enough we are giing outside now. She was friens with management and staff so i got a write up immediately for being mean.

"Going outside" in my area means going out to settle it physically. In which case, that's a threat, not being mean. Count your blessings you weren't fired then and there.

Anyway almost a year later and i needed help with a resident and asked nicely for a cna to help me real quick and they responded ill be there in a minute so i raised my voice a little in a sense of urgency no now.

Completely unprofessional. You didn't state it was an emergency; if the CNA is in the middle of working with another patient, then they need to finish that first. They aren't at your beck and call. Raising your voice only made it worse.

Sounds like you need to do some serious self-reflection and look at what you are contributing to the situation. You may think you're in the right, but the way you're coming across here is not that way at all.

Jen4nursing · Sep 13, 2016

So that you understand better i told him that i needed help with a resident before he falls on the floor he knew i needed help to pull him back up in his chair. As this resident slides oyr of his chair all the time i even tild he is almost ob the floor. The second was when i said outside she smokes so i said lets go outside if i need more detail i apologize i just didnt feel like writing a book. I wanted her away from the nursing station.She knows by outside i meant in the smoking area. But what she said at the nursing would take me 10 pages to write and the family of the decreased was right there listening to her screaming and yelling i figured if i had her come outside smoking area that i could get her out of the nursing station.

Editorial Team / Admin · Sep 14, 2016

Yelling back is still not appropriate, nor is leaving the floor to continue yelling somewhere families won't hear. Sounds like you need to self reflect and work on some conflict resolution skills. The only thing I see bad management wise is letting you get as far as you did. They didn't do anything to nip your inappropriate behavior (yelling) when it very well should have been.

Jen4nursing · Sep 14, 2016

I get what your saying but i am not going inti extremes to write a novel i am only giving bits and pieces of what happened first off i did not continue yelling i basically talked over her to go outside so she could calm down. There were no threats made ever i removed her from the situation which left 2 other cnas at the station which is our protocol. Second you must have never worked with rude cnas or insubordinate ones at that to leave harsh comments like you are doing. You dont know the whole story as i dont have enough time to write it but i gave her every opportunity to correct herself and she still did not. You see this is my problem i am very nice to them and then they advantage and the second i stand up for myself they claim i am the mean one when i listened for over 20 minutes of her screaming profanity and how she is a nurse because cna has nursing in the initials . I could go on and on as this wasnt a one time occurence this was daily with her. The others dont listen to the nurses because we are not backed up by management so when we try to enforce care we are laughed at. I am not the only nurse dealing with this there are 7 nurses that quit already and 5 more are quitting with me. This is what my post is about. Thank you for your input.

Editorial Team / Admin · Sep 14, 2016

If you don't give us the whole story, we can only go on what you give us. And you aren't exactly painting yourself in a good light. Yes, I've dealt with rude people. They're in all walks of life. I run into them at work. I run into them at the grocery store. I run into them when I'm having dinner at a restaurant.

Jen4nursing · Sep 14, 2016

I would love to give you the whole story but it happened over a span of 2 years it would take too long to write. I love my cnas the ones that love their job they come in and they work their tails off and i gelp every chance i can but then you have the lazy ones and those are who i have been having problems with. I asked one to empty a full foley bag as i was in a med pass and couldnt stop. She said she would but when i checked it was still full this was an hour later. I emptied the foley bag and asked the cna to talk to me for a minute and her response is nope im good. You see they dont say that in front of management. Our management is never on the floor our unit managers are in meetings all day and mind you they are not discussing work for the whole meeting i have walked by for supplies and they are discussing hiw the party was great, hiw ones farher is sick, joking and laughing avout non work related issues. The unit manager us on the floor after the furst meeting fir about 10 to 15 minutes and then another meeting is called this foes on all day. The unut manager does not help nirsing staff and the nurses are stuck with doing cna work because we cant enforce the cnas to do their job and we have to answer phones, med pass i have 25 patients, w g tube and have to do wounds, measurements, admissions, COCs, talk with family and doctors, as well as do treatments and gid forbid an RMS. This gets overwhelming and is why the nurses where i work are leaving.

caliotter3 · Sep 14, 2016

In your second post you mentioned getting told you are mean to the CNAs so often it made me wonder why you had not resigned earlier. There is only so much haranguing a person can take, whether it is justified criticism or not. If you need to adjust your approach, then do so when you get to your new job. Hope you don't run into similar problems.

Jen4nursing · Sep 14, 2016

Please forgive the spelling i am using my cell phone sorry

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Sep 14, 2016

Moved to the Nurse Colleague / Patient Relations forum for more replies.