HELP! Co-worker nightmare!

[pistolchick]

This is a long story so I'll try to leave out all but totally necessary details. Basically I try to lay low at work, not to have conflict with anyone, or confront anyone unless I really have to (for patient safety reasons, or because, well, I'm not a doormat). I have a co-worker (we are both LPNs) who started out when I was new by being extra nice to me. She took me under her wing, taught me, etc. For reasons I never understood, that changed dramatically after about 6 months. She started snapping at me, making accusations about me, and I got the feeling she was TRYING to find me doing something wrong just so she could call me on it/"tell" on me.

Well, we've since had "conflict resolution" with our unit manager, and she said she's over it, we can be friends, yada yada. I've met privately with my unit manager and DON to discuss the issues that this person and I have, and I made the mistake of trying to be mature, acknowledging that experiences are subjective and possibly misunderstood by perception. Big mistake. They basically ended the meeting implying that it was all in my head. I couldn't backtrack. I felt like screaming, "No, she really DOES hate me! It's NOT my imagination!" But it was too late.

OK - Fast forward. She was awarded a very distinguished clinical award (basically the best you can do at our place of work). Honestly, I'm not sure how she managed to even get nominated, except that she has made it her business to made MAJOR buddies with our shift supervisor (we work evening shift). My shift sup is very young and immature, and I noticed that when they became buds, she started really riding me and giving me a hard time (she actually blamed me when one of my patients fell while I was ON BREAK and I had left all his alarms intact, etc... not only that, but when I returned she stood up from the nurses's station, stuck her finger in my face and made this huge scene in front of visitors and patients and everyone. It was so humiliating).

OK, since this person has "won" this award, her work-ethic has basically gone kaput (and it was sliding downhill fast to begin with). We work as a team a lot - one person grabs vitals for the floor, one grabs blood sugars, one fill waters - but we all still have our own assignments. She has basically stopped participating, lets other people fill her waters, do her sugars, vitals, etc, while she sits around and sucks up to the charge nurse (and surprisingly, none of them ever tell her to DO anything). This is the kind of stuff she does all the time. Then tonight...

I was team leader, and she reported to me when I got back from break that one of HER patients had reported chest pain. I asked her what the VS were. She said she didn't take any. Right in front of our [young, immature and spineless] new charge nurse (who said nothing). I grabbed my stuff to go get a set, they were WNL, we determined it was likely a GERD type reaction and she said it was subsiding. I approached my co-worker and simply said: "How come you didn't take her vital signs?" She replied, "She's a code 5, hospice, what are you going to do for her?" And I was stunned. I said, "Are you telling me that because someone is DNR we shouldn't assess their chest pain?" She rolled her eyes, said she'd already talked to the charge nurse (who witnessed this but again, said nothing), and said "I'm not getting into this with you." and promptly left the scene.

Later on, one of her patient's bed alarms was going off, and she sat at the nurse's station looking at a piece of paper while an aide raced around the corner, and I followed close behind. As soon as the aide entered the door, I heard a THUD. The patient had fallen backwards into the chair (not on the floor, thank god). I helped the aide get him to the bathroom, and came to find the person he was assigned to. She was standing in front of the desk talking to another nurse. There was no way she could have NOT heard the screaming loud bed alarm, and no way she could have missed the THUD or myself and another staff person running after the alarm. I confirmed that it was her patient, and said she might want to get in to the bathroom to relieve the aide that was helping the patient.

Then she said she was going to make a "quick phone call," but she couldn't make it at the desk for whatever baloney reason....

SHE WAS GONE FOR OVER AN HOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime, her patient got up AGAIN, and this time I left the alarm on because I was up to my ears and falling behind as TL. This was before I realized she'd disappeared. Another poor nurse came to answer the alarm and she ended up taking care of him so I could continue.

So the situation is:

She doesn't do her work. She neglects her patients (since I had to do treatments on her patients, because she chose not to do them herself, which she should have, I got to observe that NONE of them had been bathed as they were supposed to have been). She wont assess chest pain in a patient who is a DNR. She leaves the floor for over an hour at a time. Nobody says or does anything. My sup must know she does this and has befriended her to the point of forgivability for almost anything. My unit manager and DON think I have this "crazy" perception of her being unkind and hateful to me, and since she was given this outstanding worker award, (comparable to employee of the year), I think they might have trouble swallowing any of this stuff if I was the one to report it. Not to mention, because my brain-tainted supervisor is the one who provides basically ALL of the information for my performance review, and she has been fed all of this hateful garbage about me for the last six months, I got a poor performance review, so it wouldn't even look like it was coming from a respectable employee.

I can't be the only one to notice this complete laziness and lackadaisical style. But nobody will speak up. There is only one other nurse who has ever admitted [privately] to me that she observes the same behaviors. Granted, she is an RN and sometimes charge, but works on another unit and it is rare. Am I just going to have to live with this, or get another job? I don't know what to do!

[caliotter3]

Well, do you think this is enough of a reason to find another job? How is the employment situation in your city? You probably don't have the time or the energy to continue to ride herd on what this person does/does not do and relay the info to the appropriate supervisors and insure that the supervisors do anything about it. It is too much for you to do, and not your job anyway. You will have to back off and let the situation be, except when it directly affects you or your assigned patients, or you can just turn around and leave for another job. For some reason this person has curried favor and there is little or nothing you can do about it. Maybe things will take care of themselves, maybe they won't. But you need to insure that your own back is never presented to this woman. Do your own job and be very careful around her. That is about all I can say to you. Sometimes we wish there were lots of available jobs so we can get away from situations like this, but it usually isn't the case.

[NurseCard, ADN]

Gotta agree. Worry about yourself and your patients and don't get yourself all in a tizzy about this person until what she does directly affects you. Yeah, it's annoying that she seems to have so much favor and seems to do little to deserve it, but... it happens.

[nursel56]

It will be hard to change things if your shift supervisor is unethical enough to base her info for your review on unsubstanciated gossip.

It sounds actually to me that you are running your tail off to do her job for her whenever she decides to yank your chain for that particular day. Unless it's literally life and death, don't do her work for her. I mean, seriously? You did all her treatments when she refused to do it on her own patients? Oh,

I don't know why people form these really toxic alliances, but to be honest, they can make your life a living hel l or even cause you to be terminated. It's awful, it's not fair, and sometimes there isn't a darn thing you can do about it no matter how sweet and compliant you are and how you bend over backwards to please them.

If you have a friendly relationship with the unit manager, she may be able to help, but it just also may cause them to retaliate. I'm so sorry you are facing this, it is very tough especially when you are trying your best to make things work. Been there, done that.

[tigger2sassy1]

i am so sorry you are going through this. have just gone though the same myself. take it from me you dont want to continue with this environment. Sooner or later it will affect your work. I had a difficult decision to make. I got the heck out of that toxic envirment. Enough is enough. I feel better mentally and physically for doing so. build on that. make a new beginning. good luck.

[canigraduate]

I've been in a similar situation and I am so sorry you're going through this.

In your shoes, I would carefully document EVERYTHING. Write down verbatim quotes, write down when she leaves the floor, write down everything that she doesn't do that you do for her. Dates, times, EVERYTHING. After a couple of weeks, maybe as long as a month, take this documentation to the DON. Present it as a patient care problem, not as a personnel problem. See where it goes from there. I would also be on the lookout for another job in the meantime just in case management is not supportive.

I hope things work out well for you!

[AOx1]

I would see if there is a possibility of a transfer. You mention that the RN works in another unit, could you transfer there? Honestly, if not, I would seriously consider looking for another job. Will there be horrible people at each job, yes. But at the same time, management should be doing something when presented with clear cut evidence that someone is endangering patients, yet this often fails to happen. I would seek out a place where the management takes this type of neglect of duties seriously. Where I work, leaving for an hour without coverage would be considered patient abandonment. A person who lets a patient fall while yapping at the desk, who neglects to offer comfort care or even listen to a patient in pain, and who won't correctly assess does not deserve a license, let alone employment. Assessment is what separates a nurse from a "nurse on a stick"- if she refuses to correctly assess for and care for her patients, she may as well be a piece of equipment for all her value to the patients.

Until you can find something better (not sure what the job situation is in your area)- lay low!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Document every treatment missed, every emergency ignored, and every unscheduled break as an incident and keep a copy for yourself. I might start talking to risk management about the incidents and state that you will be forwarding a copy to them as well. (so they don't get lost) In the meantime can you step down as TL, or transfer to another unit?

Watch your back, she will be looking for ways to make you look bad.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

You've already received a lot of good advice, so I have nothing to add. Good luck with this situation!

[morte, LPN, LVN]

pull. back. it appears she has you pegged. Stop doing her work, asap. you will never earn/get any appreciation for it. stop. right. now.

[pistolchick]

Lots of good advice. Thank you all. Just to clarify, when I was TL, I was responsible for her medications - sometimes we have "med nurse/care nurse" and sometimes primary... It is an expectation (though not written anywhere) that licensed staff do their own treatments if someone else is passing their medication. So... I felt obligated by our unclarified policy to make sure the treatments got done.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

I agree with morte, stop allowing this colleague's behaviour to take up space in your head, she's not worth it. You are not going to change her behaviour, just be civil to her and focus on your own work.