Co-workers: The good, the bad and the ugly

[Brian, ASN, RN]

Getting along with co-workers has taken on a new slant: workplace violence, lateral violence, and several other hospital-specific terms. Many hospitals and practices have official policies regarding this. Mandatory training is the norm and re-training is on a yearly basis. What type of training/education do you have where you work?

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Yep, mandatory annual training which consists of videos that haven't changed in years. They are old enough that none of them specifically address lateral violence or workplace bullying, but there is a very long one on sexual harassment. Makes me wonder if the company was sued at some point for that. They are unintentionally hilarious, which of course means that nobody takes them seriously.

[studentnursemon86]

I can't recall having any continuing education on this at work for about 8 years.

Hmm?? Perhaps they should get on that.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

We don't have any, but I work in a pretty chill environment. Can't say that for other places I have worked.

[canigraduate]

I haven't seen any continuing ed, but I have had the requisite video during each recent orientation. I remember when they only showed sexual harassment and correct lifting. Now they have about two days' worth of videos, with "workplace courtesy" being one of the longer ones.

[ondahill]

Ok we have a nurse that really shouldn't have even gotten out of nursing school, but did. Now after about 4 yrs on the floor she is lazy, falsifies records, does not change dressings during her shift "because she just didn't have time", no one wants to follow her shift and basically is a sorry excuse for a nurse. The patients love her personality, as does management, because she is such a "suck up." She calls the race card and smiles in your face when you call her out. Now with the pay freeze, she is going to get a 5% raise in the near future by becoming an RN II, which is our clinical ladder. According to the clinical ladder one who has been written up within 6 months should not be eligible. So this tells all her coworkers that everything that was brought to her management was brushed under the table and nothing done but a little chat. However, in the meantime we have nurses that are busting their butts, doing all the right things for their patients and can not climb the ladder due to being written up for assinine little nit picky things. The morale is terrible on the unit and management turns a blind eye. Everyone is scared to go to HR and open the race can of worms. However, this has been an ongoing problem for years on this unit. What should or can be done to right this wrong?