Bullies at the work place.. vent

[ohmeowzer RN]

I am so angry .. I turned a nurse in awhile back for a med error .. she confronted me and I told her that I had to do it because the pt did not receive the medication that was ordered .. she got mad and yelled "I would never throw anyone under the bus the way you did me."

I explained that we are here for the pt's and it was the right thing to do .. she got mad and said "next time you find something i missed have the courtesy to talk to me first."

I thought what the heck?

Then someone found mistakes she made during a audit she got angry and said I'm sick of people throwing me under the bus .. I'd never do that to any of you. She went onto say I do alot to help you guys and all you do is throw me under the bus.

I have never heard anyone so angry. I tried to explain we all make mistakes.. and she said "I would never do what you do to people."

Has anyone ever worked with a co worker who got mad because you threw them under the bus? It's the pt's who lose out not her.. grrrrrr and thank you for listening to my vent...

[Jw1724]

At my work, we have an online system to report anything like this. Called a PIDS, we fill out the form, the form gets sent to everyone it needs to, and the issue is addressed that way. They have drilled it into us that it is not a system for 'getting people introuble' but a system for safety. I've been PIDs'd and so has everyone else. It doesn't affect how other people see you as a nurse, it's an improvement system.

[TJ'sMOM]

I beat myself up EVERY DAY over a medication error that cost me a job that I loved. I was ordered to administer a bolus of normal saline because the patient was having hypotensive problems. I confused the line-A and line-B on the IV pump and the patient ended up getting an undetermined amount of potassium. (She had maintenance IV fluid of D5 and 1/2 Normal Saline with 20 Meq of KCL per 1000 ml bag which was supposed to be running at 40 ml/hour on the A-line.)

I beat myself up EVERY SINGLE DAY over this error. I filled out an incident report, called the Doctor, took orders. The Doctor ordered to check the patient's postassium level in one hour and call him if abnormal. The potassium level was within normal limits. Her blood pressures had stabilized. The nurse that took over her care had confirmed to me the next day that she had been fine the entire night after I had gone home.

I reported myself, because I was the one who caught the error, and the potassium level could have potentially even been fatal for the patient! I don't think I could have lived with myself if something adverse would have happened, or if the next nurse would have gotten

in trouble for something that was my fault.

To this day, I do not know HOW this happened! How I confused Line-A and Line-B of the IV pump!?! I consider myself to be much more consciencious than this. I beat myself up over this EVERY DAY.

A few weeks later, I reported to the on-coming RN that I left the scheduled Ativan and Haldol in a hospice patient's room. The patient was a hospice patient who was in Isolation for Clostridium Difficile. I should have prepared the meds OUTSIDE of her room, then took the prepared meds in to administer them. Not use the built-in medication dropper to administer the meds accurately! DUH! I had placed the medications out of sight high on the cabinet to the side of the patient's bed, not at the bedside within her reach. I was told that a family member COULD HAVE stole those meds and used them and overdosed. A visiting child COULD HAVE climbed to the top of the shelf and overdosed. I agree, these things COULD HAVE happened. Thank God, they did not.

I was brought into the office and told because of these "medication issues", they had to "let me go." They then offered me the option to resign.

I beat myself up EVERY SINGLE DAY over this. EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Of course, If the nurse hadn't "thrown me under the bus" and tattled on me, I'm sure management would have found another issue to get rid of me. Why couldn't the nurse have questioned ME about why I hid the medications in the room?

I have learned from these mistakes, I admit I did the wrong thing. But I learn from managers/co-workers being upfront with me, telling me that I made a mistake and offer suggestions to improve my performance. I thought management was very unfair to "let me go."

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I've written up med errors if it's something that needs to be reported.

But I do try to tell the person that I had to write up the error so they aren't blindsided when it's "investigated."

[DutchRN09]

I would go to the person first and then they could do a penimic on themsleves. Everyone makes mistakes, and "turning someone in" does not excactly makes people work together better.

[uRNmyway, ASN, RN]

I would say it depends on the situation, as others have said. Asking the person should always come first in my opinion. For all you know, they did give the med but forgot to document. What happens then? You assume she didn't administer, write her up, and you give the med (probably after letting the doctor know of the error and being told to do so), double-dosing the patient. Could have A)been avoided if you confronted the nurse first B)been an altogether different incident report for not documenting as opposed to not medicating.

[duckyluck111]

So why didn't you talk to her about it before you ran off and tattled on her?

How do you know she didn't give the med? Are you one of those people who pours over someone else's charting in hopes of finding something to get them in trouble for?

I find this a funny statement coming from somebody called "sweet revenge".

[FMF Corpsman, MSN, RN]

It's been a good while since I passed any meds, so I'm a little in the dark here, but how exactly do we know for certain the nurse didn't actually give the med and just forget to sign it out? Are all of the meds that strictly controlled these days that the count would reveal one way or the other? I don't understand why OP couldn't have gone and simply asked the other nurse first if she had indeed given the particular med, before going to the extreme of writing her up. I'm almost with the other writer who said something to the point of the OP being on a power trip and looking for things to write people up for. A write up used to be used as a last resort, and were a taken as a serious incident. It sounds now as if they are used by anyone and everyone almost like a Saturday night special. Used injudiciously, they are about as useless as willpower over diarrhea. As long as the patient wasn't harmed and no schedule was interrupted, you need to learn to pick your battles. Again as someone else has already said, a missing dose of Colace isn't going to kill someone, nor should it needlessly, adversely affect someone's career.

[Dazzles]

I think using the hot button word "bullying" here is completely off base. She was upset, made a couple of comments. Approached you once. Being upset does not make someone a bully. This word is being seriously abused these days. You had a human interaction, you were not bullied.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

IF ONLY reporting a med error or writing someone up was for catching a problem and fixing that problem.

Unfortunately these days they rarely are for the above good purposes. They are usually done to build a paper trail in order to demote or to get someone fired. Sad but true. Probably as much as 70 percent I'd guess are baseless reports, or, only reported to cause harm to the employee. Hardly anyone cares about the patient anymore.

So, OP, that nurse jumped at you because of this. You may have done it for catching and fixing. But since it rarely means that anymore, the other nurse feels she has one foot under the bus.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

Moved to Nurse Colleague / Patient Relations.

Great discussion!

[wooh, BSN, RN]

they are about as useless as willpower over diarrhea.

This is sooooooo my new favorite phrase!!

[studentmalenurse]

Um yes you threw her under the bus and it was wrong.

Theres two types of errors, intentional and unitentional. Question, was the patient harmed? Was it done intentionally? Or was it done unintentionally?...If the nurse has done it unintentionally, you should have pulled her by the side and discuss it with her. You should have encouraged her on how she could avoid mistakes like that. If she is the type of nurse that is sloppy, then her actions could be considered intentional AFTER you confront her and she continues to give the wrong medication. Was the patient harmed? If so then you should obviously follow the institutions policies. I dont know if your a new nurse, but EVERY nurse makes mistakes, You have and you will also make mistakes. How would you want someone to react to a possible medication error that you have made? Dont throw people under the bus unless they deserve it.