I worked third shift last night and received complaints about the nurses who cared for my patients on day shift. I passed these complaints on to the supervisor on day shift this morning. She told the RN from days that she wanted to speak to her about some patient complaints at some point today and the RN pressed her to talk immediately. The supervisor went on to tell her the complaints (while I was sitting next to her). As I was walking down the hall to clock out both the RN and her tech approached me and told me from now on to come to them first before going to the supervisor.
The complaints were from a pt who stated that a dose of her phenergan IVP was slammed into her IV site and from a pt (and her family members) who complained she had been left in the chair for entire first shift - she is "bed bound" at home.
I thought I handled the issue properly - these patients would have talked to the head nurse today themselves I am sure - I was just giving her a heads up. I like to think I take the patient advocate part of my job very seriously.
