bullying? racism? or overreacting?

[beachbum2000]

I had a situation occur at work and I'm torn about how to react to it. Very busy hospital med/surg floor with max patient load of 5 patients for each nurse. 5 nurses working the floor, 3 of one race and 2 of the other. there is one "clinical supervisor" who's the same race as the group of 3. the secretary is also the same race as the group of 3. (so that's 5 of one race, and 2 of the other)

Throughout the day there are admissions and discharges. The secretary assigns the patients based on who has discharges to keep the staffing numbers equal, there is no attention paid to acuity or work load (this is a normal occurrence for this floor). Frequently there are times when a nurse will go down to 3 patients because of discharges, while everyone else stays at 5, and that nurse will get back to back admits within minutes of each other. The clinical supervisor on this floor does not assist with admits (not even to put isolation equipment in patient rooms).

On this day, 1 of the nurses, from the race group of 5, goes from 5 patients to 0 patients within a few hours. That nurse is only assigned 1 new admission, that does not arrive until after shift change.

Another nurse, of the race group of 5, starts with 4 patients... discharges 1 and receives a transfer early in the shift... this nurse stays at 4 and is not asked again to take any more admits. (The secretary is observed and overheard pulling this nurse aside saying that she knows that she won't give her any more patients)

One of the nurses of the race group of 2, starts with 4, admits 1, discharges 1, and is asked to take another admission although according to "turns in line" it should be the nurse from the other race group.

The second nurse of the race group of 2, starts with 5, discharges 1, admits 1, and has one pending discharge near the end of the shift. 45 minutes before shift change, the clinical supervisor says to this nurse "can you just take report on the new patient coming up" (This will put this nurse at 6 patients which is over the max patient load. This is this nurses first day off of orientation, this nurse is a new grad). The nurse takes report, is attempting to discharge the one patient, the clinical supervisor is "nagging" them to ensure that isolation equipment is in the room, the secretary assigns the patient to this nurse on the board. And when the patient arrives on the unit the nurse is told "your patient is here" even though this nurse was told all they had to do was take report.

I'm sorry if the story is hard to keep up with. I tried to keep it as simple as I could, while still getting the important details across.

Is the new nurse being "bullied" by the clinical supervisor and the secretary? Why didn't the nurse that went to 0 patients have to take more than 1 admit? Why was the nurse from the race group of 5 skipped over for admits (there is never attention paid to acuity of patients only numbers)? Is it racism because of the difference in treatment of the two race groups? AND if you were a manager would you want this brought to your attention? If you were the one bringing it to your managers attention what would the best way be, in order to not sound whiney or indignant?

Again I apologize for the length of the post, just trying to paint a picture.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Before I respond, I will indicate that I belong to a racial/ethnic minority.

I think the word 'bullying' is thrown around entirely too much and perhaps overused in society. Based on the events as described above, no one is being bullied. Some people feel comfortable in the midst of victimhood and play the bullying card when it is not always the case.

'Preferential treatment' is perhaps a better phrase to use in this situation. The clinical supervisor may or may not be bestowing preferential treatment upon nurses who belong to the same racial/ethnic group as her. If this is happening, it is not right.

[Atl-Murse]

It would be easier to read if you just went ahead and keep short and actually named the race. I got confused, not sure what race was what.

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

If you step back and analyze it you may see an unfair trend, but it may have been quick decisions that seemed right at the time.

[Pat_Pat RN]

Sounds like mismanagement of resources. Racism? No clue.

[beachbum2000]

I don't know what happened to the comment that I just left... but i'll try to write it again...

yes, I agree that bullying is an overused term. But, is requiring the "new nurse" to go over patient ratio of 5 an issue? The new nurse that is trying to find their place on the unit? The new nurse that is intimidated and unable to say NO I already have 5 patients? Is taking advantage of a new nurse the same as bullying?

And I have a hard time ignoring that the "preferential treatment" was given to the nurses of one race group vs. the other.

[beachbum2000]

I am trying to keep the situation as unbiased as I can. I know it would be easier to explain if I named each group. But does it make a difference if the group of 5 is white? and the group of 2 is black? or vice versa?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Is taking advantage of a new nurse the same as bullying?

Bullying is defined as unwanted, negative, aggressive behavior directed toward another person. It can include acts such as verbal abuse, social exclusion, threats, hostility, gossip, and the spread of false rumors.

The new nurse is not being bullied, IMHO. However, she is probably being treated unfairly because she does not belong to the same racial group as the supervisor.

In the past I've been treated poorly by supervisors from certain racial/ethnic backgrounds and dumped on by them in a subtle, covert manner. However, these supervisors tend to cover themselves well, so openly accusing them will entail allegations that are difficult to prove.

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

I am trying to keep the situation as unbiased as I can. I know it would be easier to explain if I named each group. But does it make a difference if the group of 5 is white? and the group of 2 is black? or vice versa?

Yeah, if you had mentioned which race was which the responses might have gone in a direction you didn't intend.

[beachbum2000]

Couldn't purposefully overloading a nurse, who is already overwhelmed and intimidated, be an example of "negative, aggressive behavior"?

For the record... I am not the new nurse.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Couldn't purposefully overloading a nurse, who is already overwhelmed and intimidated, be an example of "negative, aggressive behavior"?

For the record... I am not the new nurse.

Every occurrence on/in this universe is subject to interpretation and perception. Hence, if you perceived an instance of aggressive behavior, the perception is your reality because that's how you perceived the occurrence.

What one person perceives as bullying might be perceived as a simple case of terseness to another individual. Life is 10 percent of what happens to us and 90 percent of how we react to these occurrences.

[Anonymous865]

What you have described might be preferential treatment or it might be descrimination. It also might be

- just bad management

- the secretary doesn't have the clinical knowledge to be making patient assignments

- the favored nurses might have complained and made the secretary's life miserable in the past each time she assigned them a transfer/new admit. The secretary might be assigning the new patients to the nurses who don't gripe and moan.

If you decide to speak to management, the best way to approach management would be to

- focus on how the current method of assigning patients is negatively impacting patient care

- provide concrete examples, e.g. on day xxx, the current approach resulted in an experienced nurse having 0 patients and the new nurse who is just getting her sea legs having 6 patients and on day yyy a nurse got two admits nearly simultaneously which resulted in treatment delays for patient z. In other words have data to support your argument.

- recommend a well thought out better approach