Called Down to HR

[Davey Do]

I said to the new HR director, as I gave him The Look: "I am being called down to HR after working my THREE. TWELVE HOUR. MIDNIGHT SHIFTS."

"So forgive me if I seem a bit prickly".

I was being called down to HR for "not adhering to safety measures" as was presented in this thread:

It seems that I was being written up because I went against and "did not adhere to safety measures by propping the NS door open".

Guilty as charged.

"I will adhere the the safety measures", I wrote on the form. "In my defense, I wanted to hear what happens out in the hallway, as I was recently attacked by a patient and no one heard".

There were only a couple of lines on the form for a response, so I just put down only the very basics, for the time being.

This situation is actually a long, drawn out story, a journey fraught with convoluted twists and turns, past transgressions & broken promises, and multiple other thises & thats, but that's the gist of it.

[Davey Do]

I was allowed to inspect a full color photograph of me pushing the waste can up against the NS door taken from the video monitor.

I was impressed by the likeness in the perspective of my cartoon to the perspective of the actual monitor photograph.

However, I was embarrassed by the fact that I was currently wearing the very same gray scrubs that I wore on the night the monitor took my picture.

And, the camera really does add ten pounds.

[kp2016]

As always it fascinates me that HR/ Management waits until you have completed your block of shifts to mention these incredibly important safety concerns.

I hope you remembered to ask them what measures they will be taking to help you recover from your workplace assault and ensure your future safety....

[Davey Do]

26 minutes ago, kp2016 said:

I hope you remembered to ask them what measures they will be taking to help you recover from your workplace assault and ensure your future safety....

5 hours ago, Davey Do said:

This situation is actually a long, drawn out story, a journey fraught with convoluted twists and turns, past transgressions & broken promises, and multiple other thises & thats

I pointed out that I believed there were two staff members in the NS during my "workplace assault". When I called out for assistance, no one heard me, because the NS door was closed, even though I was in the quiet room which is directly adjacent to the NS. I gave this as the reason I had propped the door open; I did not want the situation repeated and wanted to increase staff and patient safety by being able to hear what was going on outside of the NS. When no one was in the NS, I would close the door.

"We're looking at ways to improve safety", my supervisor RoofElmo, said.

[kp2016]

1 minute ago, Davey Do said:

"We're looking at ways to improve safety", my supervisor, RoofElmo said.

Well that's a relief. It would be terrible if someone was attacked or injured.

Sorry i'm sitting around the house waiting for the inevitable call in with nothing to do but wonder what fresh hell awaits me, and that just makes me snarky.

[Daisy4RN]

10 hours ago, Davey Do said:

Guilty as charged.

"I will adhere the the safety measures", I wrote on the form. "In my defense, I wanted to hear what happens out in the hallway, as I was recently attacked by a patient and no one heard".

I can probably already figured this out, but what was their response??

In my experience with these types of situations it is usually an eye roll, dumb look with a shrug, or a simple "well, I don't know what to tell you".

It would really be nice if hospital admin cared about their employees safety and nurses didn't have to fear going to work and getting attacked by patients because of stupid regulations!

[Daisy4RN]

5 hours ago, kp2016 said:

Well that's a relief. It would be terrible if someone was attacked or injured.

Sorry i'm sitting around the house waiting for the inevitable call in with nothing to do but wonder what fresh hell awaits me, and that just makes me snarky.

After reading your fist line I thought wow really (well that is a relief), then I kept reading and realized yeah, kp2016 gets it!!!

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

Oh my Davey:

This unfortunately seems like a no-win situation. Sorry you got called down

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Your action made sense, given what was going on. If you had been fully staffed with perfect patients, maybe their rules would make the most sense. But in the end, they hired you for your nursing judgement, they should let you use it.

I was once the only nurse staffing the ER at night in a small hospital. They wanted me to go to the pharmacy and sign out meds for each individual patient if the Pyxis ran dry. I'd be leaving the ER without staff to do so. I told them "no" and continued signing out common meds and restocking the Pyxis pockets when we ran out of things I knew we'd use. My manager complained about that all the way to the board of nursing, and they backed me up with no action taken. My lawyer cited a "competing harms" principle, that I acted to minimize risks to patients. Perhaps if you look that principle up in a lawyerly site it would give you a good counter argument .

[MSO4foru, ADN]

I just love it when ' policy' overrides good sense and nursing judgement. Sorry you had to deal with that.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

Ok...so wow there are cameras everywhere.Are they there to have evidence should someone file a lawsuit or are they there to protect patients and staff members? What action is administration recommending when you are physically attacked? In California we now have mandatory self defense classes where they teach is how to escape physically violent patients or visitors. That is what we have come to in this culture of entitlement! These types of classes are good but the moves must be repeatedly practiced to make them second nature especially during a moment of extreme stress.In your situation you should be able to immediately summon help by initiating a panic button or alert you carry.Is any technology used? I would have left the door open too!

[Davey Do]

Thank you, kp, Daisy, RNNPICU, canoehead, MS04, and iluvit for your posts, perspectives, empathy and support!

Bottomline, I believe Wrongway Regional Medical Center (WRMC) needs to prove that they are enforcing safety measures for surveying and accrediting agencies. If WRMC presents problem areas, show they took action, then everyone can say, "We're doing our job which proves that we are necessary entities!"

This whole being called down to HR thing is a merely a tactic so risk management, HR, JC & Co. can show their worth. I do not expect any far reaching ramifications of this write up to affect me.

Except maybe for the can of worms I opened:

In March 2017, I was called down to HR by the psych division director for not completing a redundantly superfluous piece of paperwork after a fall. To make another really long story short, let's just say that I confronted the HR director on her inappropriate behavior, caused the psych director to get red-face and teary-eyed, and filed a grievance against her.

I attended a "fact finding meeting" with the HR director the following week, but other than that, and nothing else happened. No follow through, no closure.

I started off this current write up meeting by declaring that it is customary and appropriate to resolve old business before bringing up new business. HR had not completed the old business concerning my grievance and was now bringing up new business through this write up.

The new HR director said he would look into the old business which is really my area of interest. Even though I had requested other administrators to follow up with the old business, nothing ever came back to me. Now, both the old psych division and HR directors have new, higher standing positions.

I'm really interested in seeing the way in which this can of worms is dealt.