Dangerous nurses

loricatus · Mar 15, 2009

Why don't you just report her to the board?

It would be a my word against the dangerous nurse's word & management/administration has been known to alter records to protect themselves from mistakes made

Magsulfate, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2009

It would be a my word against the dangerous nurse's word & management/administration has been known to alter records to protect themselves from mistakes made

If she is truley dangers, please write down everything and go to the joint commission website.. There is a form that you can fill out online,, it can be anonymous if you want it to.. but if it is anonymous they cannot follow it up. It is illegal for you to be retaliated against and if you are, then you report it to the commission.. they are serious about this. If you are retaliated against, the facility can and will lose their accred.

diane227, LPN, RN · Mar 16, 2009

JCAHO might not help you much, but I would make a report there just the same. Your best bet is to report her to the Board and to the Department of Health. Each state board of health has a division that governs hospitals. Were I in your shoes, I would write a formal letter to your manager with a copy to her boss outlining your concerns and with providing as much detailed information as possible. Dates, times, places, patient identifying data (no names), and any other details regarding these issues. You should send a copy of this letter to the Department of Health and to the Board of Nurse Examiners for your state. Make a note of this at the bottom of your letter to your manager so that she/he knows that you have taken those steps. Don't keep them in the dark. You should have a stipulation under your Board rules that protect you when you make this type of complaint. In most states you have a duty under the Board rules to report unsafe nursing practice. In most states, when the Board of Health gets a complaint, especially concerning unsafe patient care, they are bound by law to investigate it. This means that they will usually come on site and take a look at what is going on. This is the reason they will need enough info to ID the patients concerned. While you are taking the steps to report this issue, keep reporting additional issues to your manager. All your reports should be done in writing and you should keep a copy for yourself. Do not use the hospital "incident report" form. The hospital has a policy (I guarantee you) that this form cannot be copied so you don't want to get your own butt in a sling for violating hospital policy. Send all your letters by certified mail with return receipt, even the one you send to your manager so that the "I never go it" excuse does not come up. Just placing it in her/his box is not enough. You have to have a paper trail that you can prove. Remember, KEEP COPIES.

Your other choice is to write a formal letter to your manager with a copy to her boss and tell them that if some action is not taken to address your concerns, you will take the additional steps of reporting her to the Board, Dept. of Health, and JCAHO. Do not come across as threatening and give them some time to fix this. If you work in a union hospital they will have a very detailed way that they have to go about taking disciplinary action. However, if a patient is in immediate danger they have the right to pull the nurse off the floor at once, and in fact have a duty to do so.

Keep me posted. I would love to know how this turns out. Good Luck.

ozoneranger · Mar 16, 2009

I went into our DON's office to turn in a write up on a nurse...the DON pulled out a huge 3 ring binder & added mine to all the others.

Dangerous didn't even begin to describe this idiot.

In the beginning, I thought she'd gotten off to a bad start & made some enemies, then one morning before report, one of her instructors, who was a dear friend of mine, came in the room, saw I was the only one there, locked the door & asked me (as God is my witness) "has she killed anyone yet?"

I went out for lunch with the instructor some weeks later. She said that as a student, this nurse could read & regurgitate material, but wasn't able to apply the material in real life. She and her fellow teachers lived in fear of releasing this individual on the unsuspecting public.

She was eventually 'encouraged' to quit. She works in research now & is very good at what she does.

RN1982 · Mar 16, 2009

I try giving people the bennie of the doubt but after awhile when things aren't right, there is something going on. I try to be helpful but if I see something that is outright dangerous I will point it out and if I see it again, I point it out to the nurse again and then let my manager know that there are ongoing issues.

I have a problem with people who are constantly re-educated because of their mistakes yet they continue to do them over and over again. If people are going to be so resistant to constructive criticism, they might as well not be a nurse.

diane227, LPN, RN · Mar 16, 2009

Well, I am glad she found a job that would fit her skills. It is good that she is staying away from patients. I knew a physician like that once. MD, PHD, could quote textbook to you but had no ability at all to put the book to use at the bedside. We had a guy one day in the ICU who was about to have a respiratory arrest. His blood gasses were normal but he was breathing 60 times a minute to maintain that gas. I had to PULL this doctor to the bedside and show him that the patient was breathing that fast. "But it blood gases look good"....Well not for long. He is getting tired, give him a tube!!! He did. He was super nice and fortunately for us all went into research with no patient contact.

RN1982 · Mar 16, 2009

Yikes. Yeah, gases mean nothing. Sure their wonderful, the patient was probably compensating but let him breathe 60x/min and he's gonna crap out in no time.

Belfegor · Mar 16, 2009

Working with one like that right now. Management is aware and doesn't care-all they care about is that they cover their butts with documentation because this nurse isn't a threat to their positions. The nurse is a sentinal event waiting to happen. Never heard so many excuses an a daily basis, intermixed with constant statements on what a great nurse she thinks she is (Florence Nightengale reincarnated, according to this wacko).

Ha! I've encountered many like this!Can't handle the job, yet think they are perfect, but everyone else is WRONG.... usually those also have the biggest mouth.They call me to complain about their colleagues constantly. They are the victims, always!

It gets so old!

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, they haven't (yet) done a big mistake or haven't been caught red handed.

The one I am thinking about right now is a Drama Queen, I have nightmares about having to deal with her night after night.

B.

Belfegor · Mar 16, 2009

Dangerous is what I called the nurse who didn't want to titrate a nipride drip properly on her patient who had just had a crani. She was more concerned about the piece of tape holding the patient's NGT in place. Now the docs want to transfer the patient to the Neuro ICU and I can't say that I blame them.

Interesting thread, however scary...but sadly accurate!

Why didn't this "nurse" want to titrate nipride? Did she not no how? Is this an ICU nurse?

I am guessing that a post-op crani patient being on a nipride drip was having serious HTN issues? Didn't that patient have parameters to keep within and titrate the nipride accordingly ?

Did anyone jump in to prevent harm to this patient?

How some people are allowed near critical patients is beyond my understanding!

B-

detroitdano · Mar 16, 2009

We've got one on my unit that has been there for 20+ years. She makes mistakes constantly, is always doing a poor job of charting (if she even charts at all, some shifts she doesn't chart anything including meds), and is always missing new orders.

One shift a few weeks ago I worked with her, she hung the wrong antibiotic for a patient and left the correct one sitting on the windowsill in the patient's room (right patient thankfully, just wrong time for the abx), didn't give lantus to a patient in the morning but charted that she did, and ran the wrong IV fluid on a patient all day until I went through the MARs on all our people and noticed it was the wrong fluid.

Everyone lets this lady slide and I keep saying they need to tell our manager, but I can only do so much as an extern. I've spoke with our assistant manager before about her, but nothing seems to change. Like someone else said, I guess it's going to have to take a sentinel event to make someone aware of how dangerous she is, but I pray something is done before then.

Belfegor · Mar 16, 2009

My husband stopped a nurse from trying to give lortab elixir as an IV push one night...I guess everyone has "moments" but it is getting ridiculuous. I went for a job interview today... I went ahead and told the DON that I am "old school" and I don't put up with crap and I am too old and too tired to take it. I told her it would save time for her to know that up front...

And what was her answer?

Did you get an offer?

Just curious to know how well being honest and some would say "blunt" pays off now days?

B-

Belfegor · Mar 16, 2009

In my world, ICU nurses are highly trained, tested and monitored for a while after they get off orientation.

Seems that it isn't so where you work?

8 of Nipride is indeed very high! How could 0.1 make the slightest difference then huh!?

But just for the record (and I am not saying it applies in the case of your patient), a Neuro patient with a high BP as a baseline, will likely have to remain within parameters that might appear very high (i.e SBP>or= to 170) in order to continue perfusing the brain.

I emphasize the baseline being the point of reference for a specific patient. In this example, if the patient was 190 systolic peri-op, it is likely that the docs will want to keep the SBP around that same value.It you were to decrease the SBP too much compared to what the patient's usual BP is, perfusion would be compromised.

B-