I work in the med/surg unit at a rural hospital. We recently had a mandatory staff meeting and it was another 1.5hr talk about how we suck at our jobs and need to do better. No positive notes or mention of accomplishments just a barrage of why we should be grateful to work at our facility and how bad we are at our jobs. One of the area we as nurses were told to address was for a pediatrician who has his own IV basket at the nurses station. This is a physician who has a reputation for throwing charts and yelling at nurses. We were told and this is a direct quote from the meeting notes that we all have to sign:
*The next time Dr. X(omitted) comes in and finds his basket not stocked, I'm going to let him throw things at each of you. His basket was empty and did not even have a 2x2 in it. Restocking and cleaning is EVERYONE'S responsibility and is not being done.
The above was not said with any humor but was her threat to us. The physicians basket is often pilfered by lab techs when they come on the floor but that doesn't matter to her. She is also adding a cleaning and stocking schedule for staff during downtime that includes cleaning the break room refrigerator and going room to room to clean and pick up what maintenance may have missed. Cleaning bedside commodes ect are on the list.
Our downtime is few and far between with a pt load of up to 12 pts per RN, 1 LPN and 1CNA for each 18 pts. We also don't have a pediatric or post surgery unit so our little med/surg gets it all. It's not unusual to have a mix of pediatric, post surgery, chest pain, elderly mental status change with neuro checks as part of your 10-12 pt group. And now they want to put my name on a list to clean the break room refrigerator! Am I overreacting or is this ridiculous?
