Caring for a patient not assigned to you

Hi I just need to vent. There was an incident that happened with regard to a patient that needed to go to the bathroom. This was at a long term care facility that I worked at. This patient was awake,alert and oriented x 3. It was in a subacute unit. I working with a another nurse. The unit had 40 patients and we each had 20 patients to care for. This particular patient was on the other nurse's assignment. The patient put on the call light and I answered it. I then told a female CNA, who was there at the time and she said she would take care of it. I had three other patients who needed help at the same time. My patients were complaining of pain and not feeling well. I had to tend to them first. That is why I delegated the CNA, to take that patient to the bathroom. An hour later the same patient puts her call light on to go to the say that no one took her to the bathroom. I think it is odd for a patient who is very alert to wait that long before saying that no one came to help her. She should have put the call light on five minutes later when she saw that no one came. She did not. She waited an hour. The patient then called her daughter who then reported it to the DON. What bothered me the most was that the female CNA and a male CNA, went to the office and said that I answered the call light and that it was my job to help the patient. The male CNA was not even there when the incident happened. He was on his break. He had nothing to do with it. Yet somehow he goes to the office and states that I was the one who went into the room to help the patient even he never saw me go in there. The patient was not even on my assignment. Yet I was the who got blamed for it, even though I delegated the female CNA to help the patient to the bathroom. For whatever reason, she did not. Instead of dealing with her, they blamed me. I feel I was treated unjustly since I was terminated for that. Irealized that I should made sure that the patient was cared for but the CNA should have been dealt with too. She was not. Sometimes I feel that CNAs get way with too much. I feel I was treated unfairly. What do you think? Hope to hear from you soon.

It sounds very unfair when told from your perspective, but I haven't heard the other side's version of things. If you were fired, I have to assume that you've had other problems or are just not very well-liked by your co-workers. This would not have been a normal fireable offense as an isolated incident.

Getting fired for just this one event sounds unlikely. If true that facility are not money wise , now they have to hire and train a new employee, that will cost some money

Is there more to the story? Had you been spoken to in the past for this? If not, then yes, this situation was handled poorly by management.

At my job if the nurse answers the bell and the pt needs to be toileted/bedpan/etc, they are supposed to do it, tell the pt the aide will assist them when they are done, then get the aide and say, "Pt X is on the bedpan, please take them off when they are ready." That way the pt isn't waiting and doesn't think they are ignored.

Awhile back there were many complaints that a nurse would answer a bell, then walk out to find the aide, then sit back down and eat/play online games/shop/etc. All while the pt is waiting. These complaints came from pts, aides, and other nurses.

So... Is there more to the story? Had you been reprimanded in the past for anything else? It seems unfair to take the words of 2 aides, one of whom was not there.