Coworker physically abusive to patients

[Depressed_RN]

I am a new grad that has been working in the ER for close to 2 months. I have been assigned to a new preceptor and honestly I do not like how he treats the patients. He uses foul language in front of them and even physically assaults them (slapping and digging his nails into them) he claims it is self defense. He has worked at the hospital for almost 4 years and does not appear to be well liked by half of the staff. I want to report him but I am still in my probation period and I fear that they may terminate me if I do. I thought about reporting anonymously but I'm also scared he will put the pieces together and realize it was me!

He is very friendly with the manager, it is really just sickening how he treats some patients. I feel like this is a horrible secret to keep but I feel I have to in order to keep my job

[Boomer MS, RN]

Depressed_RN,

Please listen to these comments and heed the advice offered here. You are facing the first and certainly not the last, moral dilemma of your career. Nurses are mandatory reporters. First and foremost we must do no harm and if we witness a patient being abused, we must take steps to stop it. You're new, scared and vulnerable. But think about the patient who is more vulnerable and under your care. You must report this. How would you feel if a patient was seriously harmed? I am astounded that no other staff has noticed this. Go to your manger. I cannot believe that any manager would not want to know about this, and if he/she did not, it is NOT a place you want to work. I'm not going to doubt what you have described here, and he MUST be reported. Let management take it from there. I understand your fears, but you must not put your fears of him above the well being of those under your care. The implications here are very far reaching.

[luvsltcrn]

I have 2 questions. First why would you watch a staff member "physically assault" patients and not stop them?

Second question. Why would you lose your job for reporting it. As a supervisor I would think you would be more likely to be terminated for allowing it to continue and NOT reporting it??

[MamaBeaRN]

Why would you lose your job for reporting? That does not make sense! And who cares if he knows it you, he'll be gone and out of your life! You are at a much bigger risk by not reporting, there is where you can lose your license which is a much bigger deal than losing a job. You could not be a nurse anymore! Don't risk that!!

[djh123]

I'd report him. But given your concerns about him figuring out it was you, a) do it anonymously, and b) this might be too complicated, but is there any way to keep track of a few incidents when there were other personnel around besides him and you? - in other words, report stuff he can't only relate back to you. Just a thought.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

With all due respect she is right about not reporting this and that by law you must. You have asked a question and you have gotten very good responses and you keep going around in circles about risking your job. Do you understand that by not reporting abuse that you have witnessed at your workplace, YOU ARE RISKING YOUR LICENSE.

Not only that, she was bringing up integrity because can you imagine if these patients were your family and the nurse kept quiet? Please put yourself in those shoes.

Agree.

You can get another job...as long as you have your license.

If you don't report and it is found that you knew about it-how are you going to support your family without that license?

Report it to the ethics hotline, and go from there.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Moved to the Nurse Colleague / Patient Relations forum.

[James W.]

Why not arrange a meeting with the manager, & say..

"I'm a bit fuzzy on the guidance being provided ( by the 'offender'),

& being new here, do you actually/ethically endorse such conduct?"

"Do you expect me to use this seemingly improper conduct as role modeling?"

Or such like, so as to 'put the ball back in their court' without appearing

to be a 'snitch' - as such..

[RNdynamic]

Your hospital probably has a corporate compliance hotline to report things anonymously. Just use that. Don't do something that may result in you yourself being alienated by reporting him directly, as many in this thread are doing.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

Why would you lose your job for reporting? That does not make sense! And who cares if he knows it you, he'll be gone and out of your life! You are at a much bigger risk by not reporting, there is where you can lose your license which is a much bigger deal than losing a job. You could not be a nurse anymore! Don't risk that!!

Do you have experience with making allegations of a colleague's patient abuse to a manager? I do, they were not gone and out of my life as soon as I made the allegations. In my case, the manager responded "No one has ever complained about the employee before" The manager told the employee what I alleged and listened to the employee's version of events and dismissed my concerns as unsubstantiated. At the time, I was a new employee and the offender was well known to the manager.

[everoo]

To original poster....

By posting your concerns to this site, you have created a paper trail that is discoverable in court by likely every jurisdiction in the United States.

Yes, you have an ethical and hospital policy obligation to report.

But even more so, you have a LEGAL obligation to report concerns of abuse or neglect to the State authorities. You are likely a MANDATORY REPORTER in all 50 States in the US. If you report this only to management or risk, and not to legal authorities, in hopes that they will handle it accordingly, you have further created a paper trail which is also discoverable in court.

What are you going to do if this happens to a patient who has the means to file a lawsuit against the abuser and YOU'RE dragged into this as being present as a witness who didn't advocate? You're breaking the law.

What at are you going to do if a coworker reports this to the State and in their investigation, they find that YOU observed abuse and did not report it?

Attorneys have people on staff who search social media of defendants (YOU).

Attorneys can also subpoena the records of the hospital, to include your employee file and certain Risk Mgmnt's investigation notes.

While this is a stretch, and not guaranteed to actually happen, IT IS POSSIBLE.

Not it worth the risk of getting into trouble over.

Here in Florida, my hospital's policy is to report any abuse to our charge nurse. But our State law requires mandatory reporters, which include nurses, to report the the State. In the event I see an issue, I report to State directly and make my charge nurse aware of my report. It is not up to the hospital charge nurse or management to decide/investigate what gets reported, it is for the State to investigate.

I strongly suspect if you report your concerns/observations to your State authorities, as you are likely required to by law in your State, your hospital will handle this alleged abuser accordingly. It is also likely that if your concerns are valid, other employees will report the same concerns and substantiate the abuse.

I sympathize with your situation. But do the right thing for the patients and yourself...report this.

[fawnmarie, ASN]

I would but again he is friendly with the manager and has worked at the hospital for 4 years. I have only been here 2 months. It may seem silly to most on here but you guys are more likely secure in your jobs. I am brand new to nursing, brand new to the U.S, far away from home and I don't know anyone here. many would never understand my life and the struggles I've been through to understand why I'm so worried of losing my job. When I first made this post I was accused of exaggerating. The person does not know the whole story but yet still basically accused me of making things out worse than they are. Of course noone on here knows whether or not this is even true but it is true to me and it is an issue that bothers me.

It can play out that same way in the workplace, my manager may accuse me of exaggerating, lying or trying to start problems on the unit without any question.

In some workplace cultures, relationships and politics, "who you know", etc. trumps everything else. I worked in a dysfunctional facility where management routinely hired their relatives and friends. It was a mental health facility, where many of the patients were vulnerable. Some of the technicians were absolutely horrible and had no business working in such a place. However, their aunt / cousin/ niece was a bigwig, and these employees made sure to let everyone know just whom they were connected to. New employees who came in and "made waves" by reporting verbal abuse or patient mistreatment were terminated while still on probation. One female tech was reported by several of her colleagues for patient abuse, but guess what? Her boyfriend, and later, her fiancée, was the facility investigator. No one saw anything wrong with their totally inappropriate relationship. I can understand the OP feeling ambivalent about reporting her preceptor if he is friends with people in high places.

[NotAllWhoWandeRN, ASN, RN]

To original poster....

By posting your concerns to this site, you have created a paper trail that is discoverable in court by likely every jurisdiction in the United States.

Yes, you have an ethical and hospital policy obligation to report.

But even more so, you have a LEGAL obligation to report concerns of abuse or neglect to the State authorities. You are likely a MANDATORY REPORTER in all 50 States in the US. If you report this only to management or risk, and not to legal authorities, in hopes that they will handle it accordingly, you have further created a paper trail which is also discoverable in court.

What are you going to do if this happens to a patient who has the means to file a lawsuit against the abuser and YOU'RE dragged into this as being present as a witness who didn't advocate? You're breaking the law.

What at are you going to do if a coworker reports this to the State and in their investigation, they find that YOU observed abuse and did not report it?

Attorneys have people on staff who search social media of defendants (YOU).

Attorneys can also subpoena the records of the hospital, to include your employee file and certain Risk Mgmnt's investigation notes.

While this is a stretch, and not guaranteed to actually happen, IT IS POSSIBLE.

Not it worth the risk of getting into trouble over.

Here in Florida, my hospital's policy is to report any abuse to our charge nurse. But our State law requires mandatory reporters, which include nurses, to report the the State. In the event I see an issue, I report to State directly and make my charge nurse aware of my report. It is not up to the hospital charge nurse or management to decide/investigate what gets reported, it is for the State to investigate.

I strongly suspect if you report your concerns/observations to your State authorities, as you are likely required to by law in your State, your hospital will handle this alleged abuser accordingly. It is also likely that if your concerns are valid, other employees will report the same concerns and substantiate the abuse.

I sympathize with your situation. But do the right thing for the patients and yourself...report this.

As several people have mentioned, your facility should have a hotline for reporting, which you can do anonymously. I did this at my last job. The state option sounds even smarter, though, because it not only bypasses the manager who might be personally biased, but anyone inside the facility who may have a motive to turn a blind eye (as happened at said former job, which is why I then reported outside the hospital system).

No one is a bully for telling you that you have a legal and ethical obligation to report. You say you're worried about retaliation. Has there been any disciplinary action against you? Have you received any verbal or written warnings? If not, and suddenly after an investigation they start inventing reasons to dismiss you, you have a retaliation/wrongful termination legal case. If you've had some kind of documented performance eval that's favorable, even better. If you report anonymously, include that you are doing so because you are in good standing but you fear retaliation.