GETTING WRITTEN UP: What is the most ridiculous thing you have been written up for?

Kir · Feb 19, 2004

Believe it or not I got written up for wearing flowered underwear under my white uniform. :imbar Now it is only the granny whites for me

LOL! I was written up for panty lines under whites so I wore a flesh toned thong and got written up for not wearing support hose. My dh and my best friend swore they couldn't see the thong! I was so livid!

Irwin0111 · Feb 21, 2004

this thing just happened a week ago. i was written up for at having failed to inform an OBROD when I brought the patient up for endorsement at the OR for local procedure HLA where we usually advised them to wait outside OR doors until called, sometimes until after the local room is prepared and ready and usually a little later after the doctor is IN. that has been the usual procedure generally done to all patient for locals. but then she came after me shouting, unethical and unprofessional, that for what I did/failed to do, the consultant was the first one to know about it. and she was scolded for that matter.and she obviously wanted to get even for what has happened,and when I tried to answer with some of her accusing remarks. not only did I get an ASAP show up with the Nursing director for explanation together with a request to ask apology and an incident report.I faced Until today Nursing my grudge towards that OBROD that she didn't give me a chance a try on my willingness to follow if only she has asked me to for whatever of the things she wanted done. Even going beyond the general procedure applied in admiting patients for local procedures.

futuregaspasser · Feb 21, 2004

The only write ups I have had were ridiculous.

Once about 6 years ago working in LTC a patient had washed her face with a wash cloth and hung it on the rail in her bathroom. I was written up for not cleaning up the bathroom. Mind you, the CNA found it 4 hours after I had been off shift, and who KNOWS when she put it there!?

The other one was a matter of a nurse getting her ego hurt. I was working as an orderly in the OR. We had a new nurse still orienting that told me to take some breast tissue down to the lab. I asked her if she wanted formalin on it (common procedure for some things), and she told me she "wasn't sure" but she "thought" we weren't supposed to put formalin on breast tissue. I told her I would check with the other nurse who was training her to be sure. Later one of the other orderlies told me she was complaining that I didn't listen to her about the formalin (turns out she was right), and said she was pretty upset. I went to her and apologized, and explained I thought she was unsure and just wanted to clarify. She said "Oh no, it is fine, I just wanted to find out for myself the procedure so I know for next time." She then wrote me up.

This lady had a problem with writting up everyone and everything. When I was called into the office over it, I was told they weren't even going to mention it because of all of the write ups she turns in. I think they only called me in to get ammo against HER, and she was fired shortly after.

Scotty · Feb 21, 2004

Thankfully I no longer work in places where this crazy writing up occurs. We do have adverse occurrence reports, but they are supposed to be blame-free and to highlight problems and improve future practice. I do wonder how long they are held and whether they will ever bite us in the a** when blame-free is no longer fashionable.

Years ago I worked in a place where the writing up was so insane that we just laughed about it. My good friend and IMO very good nurse holds the record for getting written up 23 times in two weeks :chuckle I think it had a lot more to do with her being pretty, blonde, popular and married to a doctor, than to any poor nursing practice.

I was 'phoned at home and written up for binning the faeces ingrained underwear of an unkempt alcoholic who probably hadn't been washed since the last time he was discharged from hospital. I wish I'd left the foul smelling things in the unit manager's office with a little note saying I was unsure of the policy for dealing with these and could she advise me.

RNKPCE · Feb 21, 2004

I think somethings should be documented so if things are called to court in a year or more there is some written record. I have documented things that either I have done or have happened on my shift to my patients, such as falls, complaints, etc. It was drummed into my head where I work that occurrence reports are not suppose to be punitive. In theory that works most of the time.

There are people I work with that are just lazy and try to do the least work, it is not something I can write an occurrence report on, as it is a general work ethic problem, to me that is when someone should be "written up".

But if a patient pulls out his cvp line with no previous evidence of this kind of behavior then an occurrence report should be written up just to have written documentation. If a family member comes to visit and is drunk then an occurrence report should be written. I know it is not my falt, dear son came in snockered.

Just last week our phlebotomists were very short and my new admit had cardiac enzymes ordered stat on admission, they were done 2.5 hours after the order was entered. I did an occurrence report not to get the 2 phlebotomists in trouble, actually to the contrary, to protect them and myself and to alert management that having that few staff on causes major delays.

Gompers, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2004

I've only been written up once, and it still bothers me to this day!

I had gone to PICU to pick up a baby that was being transferred into my NICU because Peds was full. He was a few months old, but still very much an infant, and he had to be on monitors because apnea was one of his problems. So I put him in our transport isolette because that's the only place we have portable monitors. The PICU nurses got very upset, saying that I was cruel for putting him in the small isolette! I called my charge nurse who told me that I HAD to put him in the isolette, that it was unit policy. The PICU nurses were still very upset even though I showed them that he had plenty of room to move around, and that he could see out all four sides because it was an uncovered isolette. Then I made the following joke: "Come on, if a kid can't fit into the isolette, he's probably too big to be transferred to the NICU!"

Oooooh, I was in my manager's office the next time I worked, and she told me that their charge nurse had reported me for being rude! I told her the whole story, and she agreed that I had done the right thing. She agreed that when she is not at work, the charge nurse has the final say on things and I had listened to the charge nurse. But she said she still had to write me up because I was a poor representative of our unit.

The other issue is that I had been informed that the baby had gotten an X-ray that showed a healed skull fracture, and that they needed to do a CT to see if maybe this was causing problems like his apnea, and that DCFS was going to be informed. When I got report on this baby, the nurse didn't mention the fracture or DCFS at all, and when I inquired about it, she yelled at me, saying that "We DON'T ACCUSE families of abuse on this unit!!!!" I calmly told her that my charge nurse had told me this was on the patient's problem list and that I just needed to get the full report. Well, they told my manager that I was flinging accusations about child abuse!

To this day, I fully believe that the reason I've not been asked to be a charge nurse is because my manager believes that I will do something to embarrass the unit.

Cratties · Feb 22, 2004

The charge nurse was late one morning, so the night charge ask me to make assignments. I made them and put them on the board and when the charge nurse came in 1 hour late I was written up for delegating for performing a duty that I had not been checked off on. Give me a break!!

casper1 · Feb 22, 2004

Not drying off a patient well enough after a bed Bath. I gave her a bath and proceeded to dry her off. She told me she wasn't dry enough so I dried her off again with another dry towel, she stated she still wasn't dry enough so I dried her off again.

Again she still wasn't dry enough so I handed her the towel and told her she could dry herself. She yelled back thats your job. I told her I had several other baths to do she was dry and I couldn't spend any more time washing her. I was reported and told I wasn't allowed to care for her again ,Yippee ! The women stayed 4 weeks and allienated the entire staff. I was re-assigned to her after 2 week because most of the staff refused to care for or she would'nt allow them in her room. At that point she remembered nothing of our previous encounter and I became her favorite Nurse.

nowplayingEDRN · Feb 24, 2004

Got written up for accidentally punching out 17 (yes, HN went through all the security tapes to see when I walked out the door and noted the exact time!) minutes early, thus closing PACU down 17 minutes early, all because I looked at my watch wrong! Tried to say that I abandon my post!!!!! (There were no patients in PACU)Ooooooooo, I was sooo mad.......and if the HN had so much time on his hands that he could go thru security tapes after he found PACU locked up early.....well, let's not go there...besides there was nothing in the OR either! Anyway you slice it.....it was petty, especially as it never ever happened before or again! :rolleyes:

soltera · Feb 24, 2004

i think i can top all of you. i got in big trouble for bringing a box of sugar free candy to my diabetic patient. was told i was spoiling her!!!! everyone else would have candy and she would just sit in a corner and watch. it made her so happy that someone thought of her. she even invited me to sit with her and share the candy. it tasted awful to me but she was happy.

RedSox33RN · Feb 24, 2004

i think i can top all of you. i got in big trouble for bringing a box of sugar free candy to my diabetic patient. was told i was spoiling her!!!! everyone else would have candy and she would just sit in a corner and watch. it made her so happy that someone thought of her. she even invited me to sit with her and share the candy. it tasted awful to me but she was happy.

That was very sweet (no pun intended!! :rotfl: ) of you! As a Type 1 diabetic, I know what it is like to be left out of things like that, and no way should you have been written up for something as stupid as that. If that's the worst thing they can write you up for, you're a damn good nurse!

P.S. Yes, I agree, sugar-free candy tastes like s###!! :eek:

RedSox33RN · Feb 24, 2004

I must admit, I'm shocked at the one that was written up for not wearing make-up. I don't wear make-up at all, as I'm sure a lot of women don't.

What would be the reasoning behind this? "Hey woman, you're ugly and you don't have make-up to hide your ugliness so I'm writing you up!" LOL

Actually, I'm being serious, because that really, really disturbs me that you can be told you HAVE to wear it. I don't like it, and am not going to start wearing it because my employer tells me to. I'd be filing a discrimination suit so fast.....and I'm sure there would be a LOT of lawyers and ACLU groups interested in that kind of thing.

I can see someone being ASKED to wear deodorant if they're smelly, or not to wear strong perfumes/scents or an abundance of jewelry - stuff like that. But the feces would be hitting the rotating device if I was TOLD to wear make-up!

Am I the only one that feels like this?