Need your excellent, expert advice! Recently while at work, it was brought to my attention that another nurse had brought beer FROM HOME and gave it to a vulnerable adult in our Special Care Unit as a 'treat'.
Nurse was on duty at the time and is not a friend or relative of this resident.
Resident has no doctor's order for alcohol whatsoever.
Thoughts? Actions? I was told to ignore it because this nurse has been doing this for years.
Oh my,the next time I see your thong showing thru your uniform I will report you because it is not a part of proper nursing attire,and your watch is the wrong color...shall I go on ?
There's something about posting for a vote on whether you did the right thing or not that strikes me as boastful... or seeking reassurance. If you are so sure that you did the right thing, why post this as a vote in a public forum? It's like you're subconsciously looking for reassurance or something. Your post was looking for "expert advise".... what advise are you looking for?
Who did you report this to? The BON? I don't know... I would have tried a different intervention or interventions before going to that extreme. You just ruined this nurse's life over a beer and you don't know... the family might have been OK with it and the doctor might have been OK with it as well if you or someone would have asked. But you went right for the jugular here. I think it was a poor choice to give the patient a beer without an order but if I felt her intentions were good I would have chosen a different action.
By the way, polls on a forum like this aren't really representative of the nurses who work in LTC because you have all different kinds of nurses on here and many have not worked in an environment where alcohol is allowed at all.
Well... from what i have read on this site, especially the nurses in LTC... there is a lot of retaliation. For reporting this, now you might be the next one reported for something. It won't be over a beer it would be for something else. I've seen people be disciplined by their BON for passing meds late or other very minor errors, and I'm sure many of them were reported as some kind of retaliation for something else that they did.
Another thing, if I end up in a nursing home, why should my family be in charge of whether I get a beer? Do they have a line in the living will for my personal choice about beer consumption in my waning years?
Something tells me that this would not be an issue in Germany, France, or Italy. They probably include wine or beer on the menu.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
A huge problem in LTC is some of these actions have been going on for years and the bully old nurses will make life a living hell for anyone who challenges them.
Finally, I am outraged! "Bully old nurses"?! Ageist much?
Umm, the point was, you started the hyperbole (i.e., next it's going to be cocaine). Look up 'Godwin's Law.'
Nope, the point was you brought up Nazis and that is an inappropriate comment. Just say you are sorry. Let's try to talk our way through this so no one gets reported.
Methinks thou doth protest too much. The consensus seems to be that you were in the wrong. And hyperbolic in your description of your experience. Hopefully you take the opinions and criticism of other nurses as direction to be less quick to judge and report in the future, and more likely to see the whole picture, rather than take the narrow view of "it's against the rules, and I need to be the almighty gatekeeper!"
Good luck to you, OP, hope you can find a way to work with the people you have already alienated.
Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN
1,348 Posts
Oh my,the next time I see your thong showing thru your uniform I will report you because it is not a part of proper nursing attire,and your watch is the wrong color...shall I go on ?