Bring a fellow union member with you..advice union members

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A nurse I work with was recently told to bring another union member to meet with her nurse manager and the nursing educator because she gave coreg to a patient that was having "blood pressure issues." It was an ordered med still on the patient's medication record with no parameters. The nurse in question stated the BP was above 100systolic when she gave it. She just got the call today to come prepared to the meeting and has not yet reviewed the chart. I am the union member going with her. I feel they will want her to sign some sort of education agreement and she will be reviewed again and could face disciplinary action. My feeling is that she did nothing wrong since the MD really should have been abreast of the medications the patient was receiving and discontinued them if they were not therapeutic at the time or at the least should have written parameters. It is an ICU setting, the nurse was going through an emotional trauma with a parent dying recently, their also seems to be other nurses that do not feel she is not "ICU" material. In her defense she does ask questions of more seasoned nurses when she is in doubt, she gives good patient care and there are plenty of others that can be judged as not being ICU material. Any thoughts?

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Specializes in NICU Transport/NICU.

We're not supposed to be Med Passing Drones. Nurses are supposed to critically think as we are the last line of defense for the patient. If she wasn't sure about the med, she should question it. In a different situation, if the doctor orders something that you know is wrong or may very well be harmful, you have the right to question the doctor, and if he refuses to listen, you have the right to not do it. It's your license to protect.

I'm sure she will be fine and hopefully she can use this as a learning experience.

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Specializes in SICU.
a nurse i work with was recently told to bring another union member to meet with her nurse manager and the nursing educator because she gave coreg to a patient that was having "blood pressure issues." it was an ordered med still on the patient's medication record with no parameters. the nurse in question stated the bp was above 100systolic when she gave it. she just got the call today to come prepared to the meeting and has not yet reviewed the chart. i am the union member going with her. i feel they will want her to sign some sort of education agreement and she will be reviewed again and could face disciplinary action. my feeling is that she did nothing wrong since the md really should have been abreast of the medications the patient was receiving and discontinued them if they were not therapeutic at the time or at the least should have written parameters.

wether the doc did the correct thing and write parameters or not, the nurse should have been able to use critical thinking to see if it was correct. without seeing the chart you really can't know. had the been having high blood pressure with sbp's in the 150's -160's etc all the other times the coreg was given and had a sudden drop in sbp so now it is only in the 100's and she gave it! or maybe the patient always had sbp's in the 100's when it had been given previously and this time patient had a significant drop in her/his bp? you need to see the chart to know if giving the coreg was ok or a "what the **** was she thinking" thing to have done.

it is an icu setting, the nurse was going through an emotional trauma with a parent dying recently, their also seems to be other nurses that do not feel she is not "icu" material. in her defense she does ask questions of more seasoned nurses when she is in doubt, she gives good patient care and there are plenty of others that can be judged as not being icu material. any thoughts?

i am sorry that she is having a hard time coping with one of her parents dying recently. i would not however bring this up at the meeting. if she is having enough mental problems from this, that she can not think straight at work and is putting patients lives in danger, then she should not be working.

you say that others donot think she is icu material. is this one incident too many, have other incidents been brought up. or is this the first time and someone is just looking to get rid on her? do not bring up any other nurses as being not icu material. this is about this nurse only. this excuse will not work, just like it does not work when being pulled over for speeding, to say "everyone else is speeding too", you will still get a ticket.

good luck and see the chart as soon as possible.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

your presence may do more harm than good. Unless your contract allows a buddy to be there, the interviewer may feel like you are there to intimidate.

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Specializes in Dialysis.

Your presence is to prevent intimidation by management. You don't have to defend the nurse's conduct, that's her problem. Your responsibilty is to report back to the union if you feel management is being arbitrary or unfair in it's dealing with a union member. You can't prevent disciplinary action if that's what management wants to do but you can serve as a witness to make sure management doesn't intimidate or act unfairly. All this is covered by federal law called the Weingarten act.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLRB_v._J._Weingarten,_Inc.

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Are you the Shop Steward? That is who should be going to the meeting not just any union member. The Steward is eduated in how to handle these "little chats".

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your presence may do more harm than good. Unless your contract allows a buddy to be there, the interviewer may feel like you are there to intimidate.

She was encouraged to bring a fellow union member.

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