DON out to get me?

Nurses New Nurse

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i'm a new nurse. got my pn license in january. been working at the same ltc fac since xmas eve. i feel i'm adjusting well to the job, but having major issues with the don and other nurses.

the don has only worked at this facility for 2 months. i've been working evenings, but just recently switched to weekend nights. it seems like i wake up to a very ****** voicemail from the don every monday afternoon asking about things that i've done. most of the time her information is incorrect and i wasn't even involved. well, last week she wrote me up for a transcription error and for asking the physician for a siderail order on a pt she felt was inappropriate. whatever... this scenario has kept growing from there. she's called me stating she feels i'm blowing her off... which is absolutely not the case.. she says she doesn't understand where i'm coming from, when i'm the one who really has no idea what she's talking about, because i've taken our "discussions" to heart.

i feel like she's really picking on me. i feel very bullied. she's taken my job away twice to newly employed nurses. then offered me this ft night job for fr, sa, sun, mon nights.. two days after that i was informed they hired a nurse for fr and mo nights... she's fired 2 nurses since she's been at this facility. and hired a few of her friends... one of which may be the worst nurse i've ever met. why isn't everyone else being hounded like this? i mean, i'm not lazy, i don't fake my assessments, and i actually care about these people. that's more than you can say about some of these other nurses that are getting preferential treatment.

my friends tell me to get another job. i know i probably should, but i'm scared to death about going to a new place. i doubt this don would give a good report to inquiring jobs. i'm also scared that this prize-winning **** is going to fire me. getting fired from your first nursing job? that would look real good..

any suggestions?

Specializes in OR.

Yeah get a new job everything will get much worse before it gets better , your license is at risk and so is your reputation as a competent nurse . Protect what you have worked for and get the heck outta there!!!! Good luck to you

Grasshopper, you should get out of there. LTC is awful, i can't speak for every facility but there are alot in my area that should lose their license. The patient care in alot of these facilities are horrendous & nurses are so overworked and their licenses are jeopardized every day ! The only thing admistrators are concerned about is saving a few bucks. Everytime the state comes into our facility, They call in more CNA's, Upper mgmt and the DON come down & feed patients, it is such bullsh*t !! In the evening there are mice, roaches & god knows what else running around in patients rooms ! We have found dead ones, and patients tell us all the time that mice have been in their room. and mgmt says "they have dementia", it's disgusting ! I will never send my mom to a LTC facility in my area !! Patients fall & are put back into bed cuz the nurse doesn't want the hassel of paperwork, Other nurses are apprehensive on reporting this particular nurse because she is the DON's sister !! We would be fired !! some of us have children & can't afford to be fired !! what do you do ?? it's an ugly, ugly world !!

The other things she's called me for:

1) a resident wanted to file a complaint against a CNA from the evening shift b/c she had left her sitting in her own feces, urine for 5 hrs, refused to clean her 3 or 4 x's with different excuses of why she couldn't do it. I wrote a lengthy note to the DON and left it in her box. In the nurse's notes I wrote: "Res requested to file a complaint against staff member on evening shift, had concerns r/t care, felt requests were being ignored. DON notified of situation." DON said she thought I needed to put a positive spin on the situation. I told her it was a very negative situation and asked how I could possibly make it more positive.. From her response, I got the impression she wanted me to lie.

2) One time I was f/u on something another nurse should've done, but without pointing that fact out. This nurse found a skin tear and hadn't rec'd a tx order, didn't fill out the paperwork, make a nurses note, or contact the family.. And it was a pretty gnarly skin tear. So, I went behind her a cleaned up. It appeared as though I had found it. The DON left a horrible message on my voicemail, I called her back and she said she had found upon investigation that I wasn't the one who found it initially. I asked her if I had done something wrong and she painfully said "No, you're showing initiative when your fellow nurses refuse to."

3) a man fell and I did the whole shebang needed for a fall. I even double-checked my work.. She called me saying that I didn't do any of the paperwork for it.. I told her I was sure I did and asked her what I missed.. She told me, and I had definitely done those things.. She said she didn't see it when she had looked.. I told her politely to look again.. She asked if I was blowing her off and threatened to write me up again.. ***?

4) she's always calling me with blanks in the mar, tar that aren't mine. She says that charting is the most basic of nursing.. She won't listen when I say they're not mine..

She's always coming to me with the errors of other nurses assuming they are mine. She gets really upset when I point out med errors of any kind. The other day, I stumbled across a man with two scopalamine patches on, one right next to the other...

I'm not okay with walking around knowing all of these med errors going on and not reporting them. If I can fix the problem and it's not a med error then I fix it, otherwise, I do what I was taught. I try to make amends.

i dont see a great problem with this......you received a complaint and handled it......if state comes in and the patient tells them they had made a complaint, and state cant find it anywhere , is that going to look any better?

Specializes in Psychiatric, Case Manager, Geriatrics.

The CNA that left a patient in feces and urine, refuses to clean pt etc. is your responsibility!!! YOU supervise the CNA'a and your nursing lic could be on the line. In orientation in nursing homes and hospitals you are told about incident reports, any occurence out of the ordinary is written in a detailed incident report which the DON and Administrator review and then investigate. As a nurse you are the boss!!! You are to monitor patients and make sure that they are not left in feces and urine. You supervise the CNA's and you should have told the CNA that you have found her work unacceptable and written her up. I do not know why your wrote anything about this in the patients chart. This may come back to haunt you if the family decides now or in the future to sue the facility.

Specializes in LTC, Dementia/Alzheimer's.

Wasn't on my shift. Not my CNA.

Well from what I can see in the first scenario you were dead wrong on that one! You never write stuff like that in the chart even if you feel that way or is like that. The chart is an offical state document and if the state comes in an audit that chart, that is an automatic deficency for neglect, violiating residents right etc. You are putting the facilities neck on the choppin block for something that a CNA did. I see why the DON has a problem with that.That was bad judgement.

I really don't have a comment on the others. Maybe your tone or body language rubbed her the wrong way. Maybe she still mad about the other things you did.I would have also asked the DON to show you all the paper work that needed to have been filled out so in the future there would be no questions.

From what I see you have done 2 inappropriate things that could come back and bite the facility in the butt.Sorry to be so harsh but there is a right and a wrong way to do things and your did it the wrong way.

I think you have to understand and learn from these instances. Even if you go to another facility, you will still get in trouble if you continue to do things like this. They will look at you as being a risk to the facility.

Again, Good Luck!

I realized this is a may 09 posting not too old, but question? Why is it alway her that is wrong. I think or I should say I have experienced, that part of being a effective manager is to train and blossom your employee's into what they should become. Let me play devils advocate for a second, let us say she is wrong or that she did something wrong, what is wrong with taking into account she is new and going behind her to check her work. Most nurses that do something wrong and do not realize it will continue to do the same task incorrectly, cuz, they feel like it is correct. The manager could take examples of these things and have her come into the office and simple explain to her, " I know you are new and I have been going over some of your work, and I did not want you to feel uncomfortable, but these are some of the things that I as your manager feel you should do this way." I am sure if the manager used this approach with each of her employees he/she would get a different response.

Just a suggestion :wink2:

The CNA that left a patient in feces and urine, refuses to clean pt etc. is your responsibility!!! YOU supervise the CNA'a and your nursing lic could be on the line. In orientation in nursing homes and hospitals you are told about incident reports, any occurence out of the ordinary is written in a detailed incident report which the DON and Administrator review and then investigate. As a nurse you are the boss!!! You are to monitor patients and make sure that they are not left in feces and urine. You supervise the CNA's and you should have told the CNA that you have found her work unacceptable and written her up. I do not know why your wrote anything about this in the patients chart. This may come back to haunt you if the family decides now or in the future to sue the facility.

I do agree with you in that I would not have charted this, but I know at my hospital we have a place for charting and a separate place for charting complaints like this that we catch and bring to the attention of the facility so it is handled before state see's it. However, this all relates to my previous post, the manager should be able to point these things out to her in a more effective manner without making her feel uncomfortable as if she/he is under attack, why all the write up's and drama, this just brings about gossip and it makes the new nurse feel that they can do nothing right.

Specializes in Mental and Behavioral Health.
The other things she's called me for:

1) a resident wanted to file a complaint against a CNA from the evening shift b/c she had left her sitting in her own feces, urine for 5 hrs, refused to clean her 3 or 4 x's with different excuses of why she couldn't do it. I wrote a lengthy note to the DON and left it in her box. In the nurse's notes I wrote: "Res requested to file a complaint against staff member on evening shift, had concerns r/t care, felt requests were being ignored. DON notified of situation." DON said she thought I needed to put a positive spin on the situation. I told her it was a very negative situation and asked how I could possibly make it more positive.. From her response, I got the impression she wanted me to lie.

That you don't put on nurses notes. Write the CNA up. Tell the Rsdt you wrote the CNA up. Investigate for skin issues. File incident report as needed. Never admit anything in the nurse's notes that might get the facility in trouble with the state or involved in a lawsuit. Handle all of that with internal facility paperwork. I can see why she's freaked out about this.

2) One time I was f/u on something another nurse should've done, but without pointing that fact out. This nurse found a skin tear and hadn't rec'd a tx order, didn't fill out the paperwork, make a nurses note, or contact the family.. And it was a pretty gnarly skin tear. So, I went behind her a cleaned up. It appeared as though I had found it. The DON left a horrible message on my voicemail, I called her back and she said she had found upon investigation that I wasn't the one who found it initially. I asked her if I had done something wrong and she painfully said "No, you're showing initiative when your fellow nurses refuse to."

Good for you on that one!

3) a man fell and I did the whole shebang needed for a fall. I even double-checked my work.. She called me saying that I didn't do any of the paperwork for it.. I told her I was sure I did and asked her what I missed.. She told me, and I had definitely done those things.. She said she didn't see it when she had looked.. I told her politely to look again.. She asked if I was blowing her off and threatened to write me up again.. ***?

Easy to prove. Just show her. (She's a little meanyhead.)

4) she's always calling me with blanks in the mar, tar that aren't mine. She says that charting is the most basic of nursing.. She won't listen when I say they're not mine..

You could say, "Well let's see who was on shift that night. Oh, look! Here Sherie's initials in this box for the same shift. Must be hers."

This lady sounds like a nut.

She's always coming to me with the errors of other nurses assuming they are mine. She gets really upset when I point out med errors of any kind. The other day, I stumbled across a man with two scopalamine patches on, one right next to the other...

She may be upset about the med errors, and just comes off like she is upset at you.

I'm not okay with walking around knowing all of these med errors going on and not reporting them. If I can fix the problem and it's not a med error then I fix it, otherwise, I do what I was taught. I try to make amends.

You have to report the med errors. You might be threatening by being a "by the book" nurse in a loose procedure facility. Your honesty and correctness is probably quite frightening to this DON. Why don't you take those qualities where they would be more appreciated. I don't think she wants you there.

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