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.
I can see the issue from both sides, and I certainly agree that there is vastly more evil in the gross under-staffing patients and nurses endure, so that for-profit LTC proprietors can get rich.
In my little world, families are typically allowed to bring in beer or wine, unless there is a good reason not to. Although the orders are always written, only a few ever do.
In LTC, we know many residents have no family. And if they receive Medicaid, they are only allowed to keep some 50 bucks a month of their meager incomes, with which they have to purchase all their clothes, and personal care supplies, plus pay for haircuts and any stamps or cards to keep in contact with distant friends or family members.
This 50 dollar a month allowance has not gone up since 1983.
This is true evil. Can you imagine any other area of life where the finances haven't changed since 1983?
I got my first teaching job in 1983. The pay was about 12,000 a year, and nursing pay was quite similar.
Now compare 50 dollars in 1983 with 50 dollars in 2018!
The real problem here is that an individual resident is being singled out for special treatment by the nurse.
I bet there are a lot of residents who would like a beer, or some other ordinary item from the nurse's home.
Good quality toothpaste, maybe, or brand name body wash.
All that being said, if I directly observed the situation, and knew she had brought the beer in herself, I would confront her.
In all probability, I would be too busy to even notice this going on. By several orders of magnitude, too busy.
I have seen much. much worse things go on, and sometimes for years.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
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.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Methinks thou doth protest too much. The consensus seems to be that you were in the wrong.
I don't think the OP was necessarily WRONG, per se. Just acting so ridiculously dramatic about the whole thing that I think many of us are just playing along at this point.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Just because something has been going on for a long time does not make it right. People have been robbing banks for 200 years, it doesn't make it right.
Wow. I'm impressed.
"An enormous sum of $162,821 had been taken from vaults of the Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenters' Hall during the night of Saturday, August 31 or the morning hours of Sunday, September 1, 1798."
(From: America's First Bank Robbery- USHistory.org)
Not only are you an advocate for integrity in the nursing process, Kayauhs, you know other stuff too!
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.
Nah. I don't usually seek the approval of co-workers that do stuff like this. Also, the quote you used from Shakespeare is meant to mean that someone is guilty of the same act or crime and they are making a BIG deal about someone else doing the same thing in order to throw the attention away from themselves. So, yeah in this situation that quote just doesn't apply. Also, the consensus doesn't seem to be that I was in the wrong at all. I expected a whole lot of snarkiness when I posted this because that's just the way the internet works. Also because drinking alcohol in the United States is a national pastime and beer is as American as apple pie.
I see volumes written on here about how nurses fight with each other and how it drags a person down on the job. This forum is certainly an example of that. I have quite a few people on here who immediately were incensed by the fact that I "reported" this nurse and then they posted snarky little remarks.
That tells me volumes about them. They likely see themselves as the nurse who was reported. They likely put themselves in that nurse's shoes and this is why they are so defensive.
Your comment about "Seeing the whole picture" tells me a whole lot about what you do at work. Maybe you can explain to me what the "Whole picture is"? Do you routinely bring alcohol from home and administer it to vulnerable adults without a doctor's order?
If so WHY not just get a doctor's order for it? Or is there something to hide?
You see, THAT is the bigger picture and while you were banging away on your keyboard trying your best to cut me down to size; I was ten steps ahead of you. The "bigger picture" here isn't that this nurse gave some resident a beer and that is so acceptable because it was "Just a beer". The bigger picture here is WHY?
You are standing at the Grand Canyon busy looking at the sign at your feet while I'm looking out over the vast expanse in front of me.
I was told that this nurse has been doing this type of activity for a long time with other residents. The question I asked myself is WHY would a nurse do that? Why not simply call and get a doctor's order for it and be done? Our med room has several cases of different beers and a couple of bottles of brandi sitting right there so it's not a big deal AT ALL to call and get a doctor's order. We also happen to have a wonderful house doctor who gets these residents whatever they like or need to feel at home. So again ask yourself WHY would this nurse do this? On that note, as I say our med room has several cases of different beers so WHY bring in a beer from home?
Judge Judy says if someone is telling you something and it doesn't add up it's because they are lying to you.
I was also told that over the course of time there have been many, many other staff who have written this nurse up for this and nothing had gotten done about it. So I say to myself something is fishy in Denmark and it's not the fish. None of it makes any sense.
Well, it's because this nurse was obviously hiding something.
I can see from your comments calling me "The almighty gate keeper" that you are one of those kinds of nurses. If that is the standard where you are then I'm glad I'm not there. Bullying has no place in nursing but wow it's sure full of it. Thank you for showing me your true colors.
You become aware that, although a chronically ill, totally dependent, elderly resident in your facility has no order that allows nursing to administer an alcoholic beverage, a nurse is bringing in beer [from HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] which she uses to drug the patient during her shifts because she ain't got time for his annoying behavior. What do you do?
You become aware that, although a chronically ill, totally dependent, elderly resident in your facility has no order that allows nursing to administer an alcoholic beverage, a nurse is bringing in beer [from HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] which she uses to drug the patient during her shifts because she ain't got time for his annoying behavior. What do you do?
Poll choices:
__ Report It!
************
There. #SolvedonAN
OK I'll accept that. I certainly could have worded it better. I didn't mean to come across as the National Enquirer or the Star.
I'll take it under advisement.
Also, I can see now that I should have clarified the word, "report". It makes people think I called up the state BON and squawked like a wet hen over the phone. I simply wrote up the exact events as they were presented to me and handed it in to the correct department as is required by both my BON and the policy of my facility.
Oldmahubbard
1,487 Posts
I can see the issue from both sides, and I certainly agree that there is vastly more evil in the gross under-staffing patients and nurses endure, so that for-profit LTC proprietors can get rich.
In my little world, families are typically allowed to bring in beer or wine, unless there is a good reason not to. Although the orders are always written, only a few ever do.
In LTC, we know many residents have no family. And if they receive Medicaid, they are only allowed to keep some 50 bucks a month of their meager incomes, with which they have to purchase all their clothes, and personal care supplies, plus pay for haircuts and any stamps or cards to keep in contact with distant friends or family members.
This 50 dollar a month allowance has not gone up since 1983.
This is true evil. Can you imagine any other area of life where the finances haven't changed since 1983?
I got my first teaching job in 1983. The pay was about 12,000 a year, and nursing pay was quite similar.
Now compare 50 dollars in 1983 with 50 dollars in 2018!
The real problem here is that an individual resident is being singled out for special treatment by the nurse.
I bet there are a lot of residents who would like a beer, or some other ordinary item from the nurse's home.
Good quality toothpaste, maybe, or brand name body wash.
All that being said, if I directly observed the situation, and knew she had brought the beer in herself, I would confront her.
In all probability, I would be too busy to even notice this going on. By several orders of magnitude, too busy.
I have seen much. much worse things go on, and sometimes for years.
Mostly in the name of making money.