What's the dumbest thing you ever got called on the carpet for?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

Just curious to see what cockamamie things the rest of y'all have to put up with. I used to work in a locked psych facility, and there was a rule in place that stated the number of call ins you could have in a certain time period. After a certain number was reached, you had to be warned verbally.

Well, I was PRN, usually worked full time hours, and was often called in to replace the people who had called in for whatever reason. I began to notice a pattern. The same ones always called in, and most were never talked to about it. It was never mentioned. I had my 3rd call in about this time, and it just so happened that the DON chose to inform me of that fact on the day when I had agreed to work 4 16's in one week. I had the call book open, writing down a call in, when she came up and said, "You know you have 3 call ins, right?" I was incensed, but I looked down at the tally sheet, seeing all these others who were never bothered with such mundane details, then looked back at her and said,"Really? Three? Do I get a prize?"

I was never reprimanded again. :lol2:

Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

My body language. I had the Head Nurse from He**, worked full-time 3-11 as an LPN doing patient care, went to school full time days. "Your body language says you don't want to be here."

No-call, no-show on Christmas Eve. Except, I did call in; the house supervisor for the evening forgot to write it down but then informed management *before* I got called in. I had an ER record (I had taken my son in, who was a baby at the time). I didn't blame the supervisor, she was a great person who admitted to her mistake and apologized to me; the director called me in, anyway!

Then on my last evaluation for the clinic where I formerly worked: your office is cluttered (my private office, not a patient care area) and you eat in your office. I finally told the manager I needed him to come to my office and point out exactly what I needed to change to be less cluttered; he never did. I also pointed out that I ate in my office because I usually worked through lunch to catch up on my AM paperwork before the afternoon started. He wasn't aware of that, nor that I worked late about once a week, nor that I spent an occasional Sunday afternoon at work, to get paperwork caught up. He certainly wasn't there any of those times.

For the first time ever, I was so frustrated and stressed out I actually cried in front of my co-workers. I was called in by the manager the next day, and told that if I ever again felt the "need" to cry, I was to go somewhere private and alone to do so, lest I "scare" the other nurses.

I resigned.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

I got told i made a CNA cry because i asked her not to try to do PCA teaching for a patient that hadnt yet needed to start using her pump. The CNA gave her the button and told her to use it but proper teaching on pain management hadnt been done yet. I had told the patient to call when she first started having any sensation of pain at all and I would give her instructions on her pain pump. Well to bad, if she cried it was probly because she knew she was out of her scope and frankly i didnt care if she cried because she needed taken down a notch or two. It wasnt like i was mean about it anyway, i just asked her not to do that anymore until i could do proper teaching for the patient.

Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice.

I got hauled in by the ear (figuratively) for "not being able to be found and not giving baths". What ticked me off was not one of the nurses bothered to come looking for me or ask me where I was or what I was doing. They just ran to the unit director and tattled. Where I was was helping a student because the other aide was off the floor for a smoke break. It was supposed to be a simple assist to the bathroom, but it ended up being a 15 washcloth cleanup, and a complete bed change. I couldn't leave the student to do all of that herself, so I pitched in and helped-- and got an earful for helping out. DUH... thought that was what expected of aides... to help out the people that need us. Guess I was wrong... :angryfire:banghead: I have never seen nurses so anal about baths as they are on this floor.

Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.

Being accused of saying "I don't like medical records people, because Imake more money then them". I don't even have time to think up such nonsense. I refused to sign the write up and went straight to the administrator and threatened resignation. I told the adm. that the DON needs to get off her a** get out on the floor and see the real world, her small office is giving her hallucinations.

Being accused of saying "I don't like medical records people, because Imake more money then them". I don't even have time to think up such nonsense. I refused to sign the write up and went straight to the administrator and threatened resignation. I told the adm. that the DON needs to get off her a** get out on the floor and see the real world, her small office is giving her hallucinations.

:roll:roll :roll

That is hilarious!

Specializes in RN- Med/surg.

I worked LTC as a CNA while I went to school for my RN. I worked full time nights for 2 years before I went to part time the last 2 years of school. Way back when I started...I'd been told I could leave early in the am if i was done..that they prefered we leave as they didn't want to pay us if we were done with our assignments. I usually finished my work early...got up an extra person or two..and still left 15 minutes before end of shift. (our shifts overlapped by an hour)

The last year of school....I found out one night that I had been written up 2 weeks previously for leaving early. Apparently they changed their minds..never let me know..and never told me about the write up.

(this was by a nurse who couldn't stand me...commented to others how smart I was..maybe jealous? I found out later that HR forbid her to talk to me about it..so I'm guessing the write up disappeared as I was never asked to sign anything)

Specializes in L&D.

This is from when I worked at a very small dental office---I had a pt "Mrs. X" who, at the beginning of her appt, told us all (including the dentist) how at her last dental office, she had the cops called on her b/c she had pitched such a fit when it came time to pay her bill. At the office I worked, we had pts pay in full and then had insurance reimburse them--this was a new thing, about maybe 2 months old. So I heard from a lot of angry pts. Well, when it was time for "Mrs X" to pay her bill in full, she started to get a little irate, raising her voice and all. Since I did all the insurance claims, I knew the exact amt that her particular insurance would pay, so I had her pay the difference and submitted her claim to pay us directly. She calmed down and left--disaster scene averted...I thought I had handled it pretty well (esp considering the dentist left the office when the pt came up front b/c she didn't want to deal with the pt any more). I figured that, hey, we got all our money in the end anyway and I had diffused the situation, no thanks to that dentist.

The next day, I got in trouble from the dentist for taking only the pts portion of the bill and not making her pay in full. But of course, had she been a "friend" of the dentist, it would've been just fine for me to take only the co-pay.

Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I got written up for insubordination to someone that had absolutely no supervisory authority over me. Not only did I not work for him, he didn't even write to my supe...he wrote to the CEO of the corp.

Supe came to me & said what he'd done and I told her I thought it was a load of crap. Nothing ever came of it.

Specializes in ICU, ER.

Wrong thread-sorry.

Work in a small hospital who has a financial agreement with a post acute care company. I made the mistake of having lunch with a competing company. Strangest thing though, the person who tattled was eating lunch with me. I was told to be more discrete.

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