do other careers get "write-ups" as much as nurses?

Nurses General Nursing

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I was reading through the boards and notice lots of posts about getting written up. I remember when I worked as a caregiver I was constantly worried about getting written up....because really you could be written up for many errors that are human errors and have a high likely hood of occurring simply because of the nature of the work and the fact that there are a kajillion things to do and I only have two hands!

For example, I was written up for taking a pager home by accident. It was in my pocket. I realized as soon as I got to my apartment, when I reached in my pocket to take out my cell phone lo and behold it was the pager. I called work, let them know I had it, and drove it right back to work. This entire process took 20 minutes....and there was another pager at work that did the exact same thing. I am not doubting that I shouldn't have taken the pager home....but many other people took pagers home and didn't call work and just drove it back and discretely handed it off to another staff member, signed there name out, and were done with it. I felt like I was being almost punished for handing the mistake properly. Still, fine, I shouldnt' have taken the pager home and was written up.

Really, does this happen in other fields? I was a teacher's assistant for a couple summers and never even THOUUGHT about getting written up....I don't even know if the management there "did that." And I made similar money.....I mean okay I made about a buck less an hour than I did as a caregiver and I would give up that extra dollar to not have to be so worried about getting written up/fired.

It seems to me that nursing/axillary staff related to nursing are the only fields where you can get written up for "human" error rather than making a ginormous mistake/being lazy/intentionally doing something.

Am I wrong? I don't have much experience working in other fields since i've always had a draw to healthcare....is the culture this punitive everywhere?

Specializes in MDS/Office.

As long as Nurses work for someone else this will continue.....

Is Nursing really a "Profession" when we are owned by Facilities?:bowingpur

Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

My experience has been that anything with predominantly women will increases those risks :p

I do agree with you. It's concentrated in the nursing field. Then again, seems to be run by too many chiefs and never enough indians......

No, that's not normal. It sounds like nurses are unjustly hard on each other. The who's in it for the money and job security post is a great example. No one asks that in any other profession. I used to be a manager in the corporate world and I can't believe some of the pettiness I hear on these boards about nursing.

If someone tried to write me up for something like that I would make a complaint. All that does is lower the morale of the staff. It doesn't matter if something is done about it or not, but someone needs to send a message that it's not okay to nit pick people to death until they quit. Also, if a certain nurse manager gets enough complaints about her or his decision, maybe she will start picking her battles in order to protect her own job.

Granted, I'm not a nurse yet, but I used to manage a large staff and my boss lived in another state. What I told my staff was the last word with the backing of my boss, but he would start to question my abilities if my staff made complaints about me. Even if they weren't justified complaints, if there were enough I could have lost my job for not managing effectively.

Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.
No, that's not normal. It sounds like nurses are unjustly hard on each other. The who's in it for the money and job security post is a great example. No one asks that in any other profession. I used to be a manager in the corporate world and I can't believe some of the pettiness I hear on these boards about nursing.

If someone tried to write me up for something like that I would make a complaint. All that does is lower the morale of the staff. It doesn't matter if something is done about it or not, but someone needs to send a message that it's not okay to nit pick people to death until they quit. Also, if a certain nurse manager gets enough complaints about her or his decision, maybe she will start picking her battles in order to protect her own job.

Granted, I'm not a nurse yet, but I used to manage a large staff and my boss lived in another state. What I told my staff was the last word with the backing of my boss, but he would start to question my abilities if my staff made complaints about me. Even if they weren't justified complaints, if there were enough I could have lost my job for not managing effectively.

Not that I disagree with parts of your post; however, lets see if you still think/act the same when you make it to the other side (become a nurse). Whole different world out here :nurse:

Every career is different, but some things are universal.

I don't doubt some things will be harder than my previous profession, but many things will be easier being a nurse. I've noticed people try to overdramatize how "hard" everything is. There is, of course, some truth to it, but I will not get caught up in that game.

Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.
Every career is different, but some things are universal.

I don't doubt some things will be harder than my previous profession, but many things will be easier being a nurse. I've noticed people try to overdramatize how "hard" everything is. There is, of course, some truth to it, but I will not get caught up in that game.

Agreed. Just wait and see when you become a nurse, how 'hard' things really are and if people "overdramatize" or not. Hard to accurately judge for yourself until you fill those shoes. Hope things are a little better when you join the ranks of the working nurses-that's all I can say.

Good luck!

Specializes in MDS/Office.
Every career is different, but some things are universal.

I don't doubt some things will be harder than my previous profession, but many things will be easier being a nurse. I've noticed people try to overdramatize how "hard" everything is. There is, of course, some truth to it, but I will not get caught up in that game.

:uhoh3: Didn't think I would "get caught up in that game" either.....

Nobody does........

When others jobs are on the line...Guess what?

They start "throwing people under the bus."

There is a lot of info out there about the detriment of punitive responses in the medical field. Experts write about it in AORN and I am certain other nursing journals, saying that the whole negative response needs to be done away with, for the pure fact that our goal should be, how can we fix the system so that the likelihood of this happening is reduced, instead of oh no, I am going to get in trouble so I'm not going to admit that I ever do anything wrong. A wise, darling scrub tech I work with, told me something when I first came to the operating room that I pass on to every orientee and all of my coworkers on a regular basis. She said, don't think you are so unique that you are the first person to make any mistake out there. Any mistake you can possibly make has already been made by thousands of people before you. Every effort that we make should be on standardizing the system to eliminate human error, not punishing personnel for being human. I don't know if it is most prevalent in the medical field, but I have heard people say, if you make mistakes like that you shouldn't be working in the medical field. Well, then there wouldn't be anyone working there. Kudos to you for returning the pager the "right" way. If we all would lift our chins in the air and stick by each other when this crap happens, I think it would stop happening.

Nursing is sadly a dog eat dog world to some. I've worked with nurses and managers who will "write up" the slightest thing. I don't get it myself. I'm a charge nurse, tough but fair, I think. I had a marginal nurse working with me who would say "they are trying to fire me" to everyone she could. I did write her errors up such as failing to report critical lab values over and over but only after I'd attempted to provide direction. I would ask her to "just let me know" trying to take the pressure off her and she still failed to understand her responsibility as an RN in direct patient care. She was an seasoned nurse of 30 years who seemed to get by on the old "I didn't know" or "no one told me" excuses and a sad personal life. Our department down sized and her errors became more evident. She'd been on "probation" with educational support and failed to do any assigned educational opportunities offered to her by administration. Sadly my last write up got her fired. She failed to pre-medicate a chemotherapy patient who then had a reaction. How do I know she failed to give the med? 1. not documented 2. pharmacy handed me the med as I was dealing with the reaction. Sadly or smartly my standard of practice is to copy the supporting documentation for review later ( I don't write people up on a whim). When it was reviewed later by my director the medication omitted was squeezed in between 2 other medications in the documentation that she had given it. Better to say I missed it. I felt horrible. If she would have just said she missed it she would have been written up but maybe not fired. I'm not a fan of write ups. I try to work with the problem first. I think in her case, to many people didn't write up her errors early on in her career or her personal life got in the way of her job.

Didn't think I would "get caught up in that game" either.....

Nobody does........

When others jobs are on the line...Guess what?

They start "throwing people under the bus."

Oh, I've been there before, believe me. One thing I try to do is rise above it and stay away from the negativity of "this job is so hard and it's just not worth it." That's from my other job, but I hear it here, too. It can start to poison your mind and make you feel that way, too. I try to be positive and take the good with the bad. I still feel burned by a few co-workers, but I won't let that color my entire experience in that field.

KMRNOCN-I can't stand when someone says that she didn't know or wasn't trained as a lame excuse. I've had to fire and write up my fair share of employees, but like you, it's over really good reasons.

Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

Most heavily customer-service jobs have similar issues. I was a travel agent for 3 years, and we could be written up for a variety of issues. Production was the main issue, but inappropriate contact was another. Poor language, sarcasm, etc.

But the issues in nursing need to be looked out in a different way - - why was the wrong med given? why was a treatment missed? Not just a punitive issue, unless the nurse has some very bad habits, or truly went around the normal channels. Some are system errors, and then it comes down to the nurse.

I would like to know if the pharm tech who left the wrong med in the drawer got written up when I found it! At least one other nurse gave the wrong med that day.....I chose to tell the pharmacy first, then just mentioned it in passing to my head nurse, so I could explain why the med was 'late'....

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