Recently, our "manager" has been deliberately going behind people to remove a "mandatory object" after rooms have been set up for days to see if the staff is checking the room every shift. It could be taking the 02 connection set up apart in a room where the pt is on room air, unscrewing the flowmeter, disconnecting the suction tubing that runs behind the patient's headboard, taking the yankuer out of the room, or replaced a water pitcher with an unlabeled one. Now, I'm all for making sure things are set up right, but deliberately sabotaging people? Seems odd to me. I know if I set up my room yesterday on admission, I expect it all to still be there the next day; unless the patient transferred rooms, there should be no reason for anything to be missing. I give a cursory glance around during report, but I don't thoroughly check it after I've already worked a shift with that patient. I get that sometimes things get taken down or removed, but doing it on purpose? I feel like I have more important things to do than checking behind myself every day now that I'm concerned my manager took something in between shifts. Does anyone else have managers or teams that come and do this?
I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she is doing this in response to an actual incident in which there was some deficiency in stocking/setting up rooms/ensuring that appropriate safety equipment is immediately available.
However, of all the approaches she could have taken to address this ... this one is not only obnoxious but also dangerous.
Instead, perhaps the manager should be checking over the rooms to make sure everything is there and tell the nurses when there is something missing...that would be more helpful and not be a creepy weird game they are playing which is unsafe.
Maybe you could offer a better solution to your manager. Approach it in a non accusatory manner. Like "hey, I've noticed some of the rooms are not being restocked properly, can I offer a suggestion".
You could offer to make a checklist of necessary items to be in the room for each admission. When a nurse sets up a room she'll have something to go by. She can use that to go by and when she's done she can "seal" the room by putting a piece of tape or something across the door handle that would need to be removed in order to enter the room.
That way if someone "borrows" something out of the room everyone can immediately tell that something is gone and refer to the checklist to figure out what. Obviously if you replace the item, then you replace the seal over the door as well.
Maybe if you offer a better solution, she'll stop with the silly antics and realize that she should be finding solutions to problems, not creating more.
Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.
Wow, this is a disaster waiting to happen. I'd be beyond merely annoyed- I'd be going up the chain of command and filing an incident report if my manager ran off with my safety equipment or, God forbid, things like emergency medications. I set my rooms up a certain way so the most important things are easily accessible.
This reminds me of the time the DSD thought she would do a fire drill by actually pulling the fire alarm at 6:30 am. Right in the middle of my AM med pass, when I had to stop my med pass to call the doctor to get a pronunciation on the resident that had just passed, as well as everything else that was going on at the time. I was actually on the phone with the doctor when the alarm started to blare next to my ear and the phone. And people wondered why the licensed staff were quitting one by one.
Oh that's nice, so now when there is a rapid/code, you don't have vital equipment in the room. An emergency can happen at any time; when management removes the "mandatory object," 5 minutes later that object might save a life. Every second counts in nursing.
What kind of scary administration is going on in this place?
Anybody remember the move "Gaslight"? Your manager sounds like the husband, intentionally messing with things in the house so the wife would go insane.
I would (want to) quit on the spot, for the principle of it. I am not going to agree to being jerked around like that. I am a professional, and I can take direction (ie, please make sure you are checking your empty rooms, we had a code and blah blah blah in an email or posted memo).
Your manager is a psycho. That is my humble opinion, after having worked psychiatry for 17 years.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
The only "toxic" job I had was supervised by a person such as you describe. They are walking morale-killing machines. Many times they still have their job as person after person begs to transfer to another unit.
The weirdest part was when I finally had enough and quit, during my exit interview the nurse above psycho-lady asked me for suggestions on how to solve her psycho-lady problem. Yes, she apparently missed the significance of asking me this during an exit interview. To be fair, though the lady was hired through a connection to the Medical Director who breezed through every so often.
Maybe you could offer a better solution to your manager. Approach it in a non accusatory manner. Like "hey, I've noticed some of the rooms are not being restocked properly, can I offer a suggestion".
You could offer to make a checklist of necessary items to be in the room for each admission. When a nurse sets up a room she'll have something to go by. She can use that to go by and when she's done she can "seal" the room by putting a piece of tape or something across the door handle that would need to be removed in order to enter the room.
That way if someone "borrows" something out of the room everyone can immediately tell that something is gone and refer to the checklist to figure out what. Obviously if you replace the item, then you replace the seal over the door as well.
Maybe if you offer a better solution, she'll stop with the silly antics and realize that she should be finding solutions to problems, not creating more.
But, see, that would require creativity and a supportive environment to solve problems. You know, work. It's much easier to view your nurses as the enemy and just write them up for not doing their work. Making their jobs easier/more efficient is just too damn hard!
BTW, your solution to the specific room setup problem in the OP is awesome, creative, and doable.
If this behavior by your manager doesn't stop immediately, someone needs to bring it to the attention of someone higher up. You don't want this to go undocumented.
If what she is doing ends up hurting or killing a patient, do you think she will admit to being the one who removed the equipment? Even if everyone on your unit has the same story, if she has the right connections and the higher-ups choose to be on her side, one of the staff nurses could pay for it.
Even if you're supposed to be checking every shift, she could remove something after you've done your check, and then you get an admission in that room!
At the very least, if no one will help you, I would try and keep a record of the things she is messing with. That way, if it ever does come back on you, you'll at least have some sort of evidence that you're not just making it up.
Altra, BSN, RN
6,255 Posts
I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she is doing this in response to an actual incident in which there was some deficiency in stocking/setting up rooms/ensuring that appropriate safety equipment is immediately available.
However, of all the approaches she could have taken to address this ... this one is not only obnoxious but also dangerous.
Moronic management.