night nurse who leaves everything undone..

Specialties Geriatric

Published

What do you guys think of a night nurse who charts that they did an in and out cath but doesn't really do it and the residents bladder is ready to blow. To top it off this is not a one time thing, she does this a lot. I feel so bad for the resident, she must be in excrutiating agony.:angryfire

I have always worked the night shift and have been an LPN for 15 years now. I had a little lady that had to be straight cath. I had performed this at 5am. I also done a small med pass around 6am which consisted mostly of Lasix. Went off duty at 7am. By 8am the resident was dying to be straight cath. The day nurse performed this and got 500cc's. She immediately went to the D.O.N. and told her how much she got and the D.O.N. called me at home. I gently reminded her that I gave Lasix to the woman every morning as I had done the past 4 years that I was there and perhaps she could look in to that and if she needed to question me any further then I would be back to work that night at 11pm! Geez.......

Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..

Last week they tried to blame us because a resident was soaking wet when they went to get her up---what time was this?---11.00! We go off duty at 08.00!!:angryfire

Oh, Lordy I'm glad I retired!!

I worked nights most of my career, both in the hospital and in LTC - it surprises me the number of people in LTC, even, who think residents sleep all night!!:uhoh3:

Oh, Lordy I'm glad I retired!!

I worked nights most of my career, both in the hospital and in LTC - it surprises me the number of people in LTC, even, who think residents sleep all night!!:uhoh3:

Ain't that the truth! :lol2:

I agree with the last message, if this person needs draining all the time why not leave in a permanent catheter, this way the patient has not got to keep suffering with being catherised every day, because have any of you been catheterised it is very painful, and also this is introducing infection , have they thought of the infection this could cause.

Do the required procedure along with needed documentation showing exact condition of pt when you found her, your assessment, your actions. This covers you as far as the required nursing care. If this is an isolated instance, have a talk with the nurse. Maybe she just charted with the intentions of following through and got sidetracked. If this is a bad habit of hers, where she tries to make it look like she accomplished more that she really does in reality, then you should gather up some evidence, in writing, and provide it to the supvr. Once you have brought the poor pt care to the attention of the supvr, your responsibility ends; unless the behavior continues. Document, document, document, so that you are not painted with her brush; particularly if there are adverse outcomes, up to and including lawsuits/deaths. You have to protect yourself as well as see that the pt is taken care of appropriately. Yet it is not your duty to play nursemaid to your co-worker. Good luck. Put up your guard.

I think she should also do an incident report, notify the MD, and, if it happens again, notify her bosses at least 2 levels up - her immediate boss and the next one up, so the immediate one can't say she wasn't made aware of the situation.

It wouldn't hurt to bring it to the night nurse's attention but that one will probably get very angry and deny it and turn around and make some c/o against the OP. :bugeyes: That's so often how it goes. And if her superiors are wishy washy, she'll just get high blood pressure.

She should definitelyl let the doctor know that just 30 minutes after the pt was cath'ed, she was found with a distended bladder and, upon catheterization, a liter of urine was obtained.

Speaking of night shift nurse who leaves things undone, last night one of our resident's catheter came out. The night shift nurse said she didn't know how to put a catheter in, since she had only been a nurse for two years.

That's funny. Well, no time like the present. Mention it to the Night supervisor so she can teach her how to do it. She needs to learn this very basic skill.:p:lol2::smokin::D

We have a resident who is straigt cathed q 6 hrs. He is supposed to be cathed at 12a and 6a by the night nurse. she has excuse after excuse why she couldnt do both. She will cath him at 4am and that is it. I worked the night shift last week ( I pulled a double from 3p-7a) and I found the time to cath him both times. We have the hour before and hour after rule. Labs are not being done, so when I give her report, I tell her who is going to need labs in the a.m. so that way I know that she knows.

Wendy

LPN

MD needs to be notified. If pt is ok with once/night, maybe doc can change the order and the problem will be solved. Sort of, at least.

Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.
If this person is being negligent ,WE as nurses are patient advocates.Document the amount of urine you drained. But then again,are you sure she didnt do it??Certain medical conditions could cause someone to produce alot of urine.((diabetes insipidus)) Inquire about her diagnosis and possibly bring it to the DR attention maybe her condition is worsening and the other nurse might really be cathing the pt.Maybe the Pt requires more intense medical intervention.Id hate to think a fellow nurse is lying about the treatment being given.

DI - I was thinking the exact same thing. Knowing the harm that can come from excessive bladder retention, it's hard to imagine that a nurse with any sense of conscience would be so negligent.

To the OP, you said that this nurse has done this kind of stuff a few times. Do you literally mean neglected this same task on the same patient? I ask b/c that would indeed point more and more to the possibility of DI. And conversely, if you mean different tasks/different patients, well, I think we know what that means! :madface:

Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..

I'm curious to know why these pts who need cath.twice a night are not permanently catheterised on continual drainage.Waking someone up twice a night to be catheterised can't be very pleasant for them!

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