Had a horrible day!!

[julie13s]

I recently started working at a Assisted Living Facility. Im an LPN and this is my first job. I am on my own for about two weeks now. I thought I was doing pretty ok until New Years Day. So im doing my med pass and all my patients were doing good. They all came down to breakfast except one(he was feeling dizzy-i took his vital signs and they were ok. He gets dizzy frequently due to his condition.) All of a sudden my supervisor comes up to me and tells me i need to be more interested in my patients because 3 of my patients have diarrhea and i didnt do anything about it. The nurses aides did not mention anything to me-they went straight to my supervisor. So I try to explain to her that the aides did not mention anything to me but she didnt even listen. Than she sends another nurse to the patient that was dizzy to take his vital signs.I got so upset and feel like im a failure. Did I do something wrong? I was off for two days and all i do is keep thinking about what happened and what i could have done. am i a horrible nurse? Im so scared to go to work tomorrow because im afraid since im still on orientation they will get rid of me. I cant eat and cant sleep because i keep thinking about this.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Your supervisor should know that you are a brand new nurse, and that this is your very first job. Perhaps she should have had more patience with you.

In addition, there are three sides to every story: your side, the other person's side, and the truth. Any good supervisor or manager would have wanted to hear your version of events before making any decisions regarding the care that you provided. The fact that your supervisor immediately sided with the CNAs and believed them without bothering to listen to your side of the story leads me to believe that she might have been treating you unfairly.

Please don't lose sleep over this, because you can be assured that the other people involved are not losing one second of sleep over you. Simply remember there's a chance that a few of your coworkers cannot be trusted to act with integrity at all times. Good luck to you, and keep learning!

[systoly]

You didn't have a horrible day, you just have a horrible supervisor. Apparently the supervisor believes there was some delay in addressing patients' conditions and subsequently proceeded to reprimand you. Is this reprimand going to address the issue ? No! Is this reprimand going to improve delivery of care ? No! Who benefits from this ? The supervisor only, in the form of temporary satisfaction. Perhaps the supervisor needs to be more interested in the patients instead of selfishly seeking the easiest and quickest way to meet her needs, especially when dealing with a potentially serious problem that could affect the whole facility. I'm taking your post at face value and as such, your supervisor failed miserably.

[cecilsgirl]

oh my, this supervisor needs to walk in your shoes, not stomp your feet like that!! please approach her again, and talk to her, if she still wants to blame you for something you didn't even know about, please look for a nicer job! this is exactly the kind of things that makes being a nurse not seem worth it some days!!

[Sparrowhawk]

You can't do something aobut something you didn't know about. You may want to test the waters an dlook for another job...they may be trying to get rid of you...esp if your aides aren't saying anything to you about things. Dn't loose sleep over it. You didn't do anything wrong.

[juzme]

I agree with Sparrowhawk! look for another job, esp. if these aides are the ones you need to depend on regularly to alert you to pt's condition. Where I use to work, 99% of the aides were awesome and reported anything even remotely suspicious. I always told them how much I appreciated them and how important it was for things to be reported. You need a meeting with the aides and the supervisor. I know also where I use to work there was a problem sheet filled out by the aides every shift and turned into nursing and if it wasn't on there, then it wasn't reported! Maybe something like that can be used.