Help, I am very conflicted about turning peer into nursing board

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I have a floor nurse that administered medication to a patient after the order was dc'd, he failed to draw stat labs, and this patient ended up at the hospital with renal failure and anemia. That same nurse also initialed that he gave a procrit injection as a one time order, but the pharmacy never sent out the medication because it requires admin approval. These 2 instances where written up and given to the DON and the administrator. The MD was very upset and the administrator said this employee would be fired however he is still working and the write ups havent been issued to him. These write ups would have been his dismissal becuase he has already had so many and was given his final last week. I am torn. I feel like since our admininstration isnt doing anything about the unsafe care this nurse has a history of that I should report it to our local nursing board. I know everyone makes mistakes, however this is his trend and it puts our patients at risk. Please give me your thoughts.

Specializes in LTC/SNF, Geriatric, Psych, Med/Surg.
"have copies of the MAR's, the orders that were written, statements from the lab and the pharmacy. The labs so along with the woman not getting her procrit.

You can make a report to the board atleast here where I live you can. I just feel like that If I don't do something, the unsafe practice will continue. Pleaseknow, these aren;t the first major things this nurse has done. "

QUESTION: Who gave you permission to copy a patients chart? Or copy statements? I think I'd be careful about telling others you copied a patients MAR, and copied a statement. Think long and hard about having to explain all this to the BON. Are you this other nurses boss?

I am an MDS coordinator, I also round with the physician. I noticed the errors when gathering the information for rounding with the physician (labs, ect) I initiated the write ups when I found the errors. I made copies of the MAR's ect to back up my write up. I made copies of all of it together, one for the DON (which the admin fired today) one for the administrator and one for myself.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
basically this nurse noted orders and did not carry thru with them. The medication that he kept giving was a blood thinner, this patient was bleeding. He gave 6 more doses after the medication was dc'd because this nurse didn't carry thru with the orders...... this is bad, but it could have been a lot worse.

Oh. My. God. SIX more doses?!?! What in the heck is going on there?!?!?

My mind is spinning right now. There are SO many things wrong with this that I can't even articulate my next sentence. Wow. Just wow.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.
yes, our BON has an anonymous hotline number to call.

Then I would report him. He loses his job, the patients are protected and you won't get any stitches. Win win situation...except for him.

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stay in your lane.

allow adminstration to follow up on this individual. if they need your help, they know how to find you.

focus on your patients and stop looking for trouble for this individual before trouble finds you.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

OP, get offa this site and start your report to the BON. It scares me that someone is practicing with the godawful standards that this man is getting away with. I hope to God and all that is holy that he isn't giving this kind of sub-standard care to my family/friends.

File your report, post-haste!

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Specializes in LTC/SNF, Geriatric, Psych, Med/Surg.

we have a complete melt down in nursing. No one to follow up, no one is held accountable and no one is disciplined... its sad and scary at the same time.

Thank you all for your input, I know what I have to do to.

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Specializes in LTC/SNF, Geriatric, Psych, Med/Surg.
stay in your lane.

allow adminstration to follow up on this individual. if they need your help, they know how to find you.

focus on your patients and stop looking for trouble for this individual before trouble finds you.

Im not looking for trouble. The MD wrote the order during our rounds on Friday. I started looking for labs to follow up on Tuesday. I noticed that a patients hgb had actually dropped more and couldnt understand why if we gave procrit, her hgb did not rise at all, so I looked at the MAR to ensure that it was given. It was written on the MAR as a 1 time order yet it was initialed off 4 days in a row! The best part is that the Procrit was never even delivered!

The same nurse on the same day noted an order and failed to stop the Paradoxa and the medication was administered for 6 additional doses. That patient ended up in the hospital with acute renal failure and needing transfusions.... I wasnt looking for anything, but it doesnt take much investigating to find way more than you want to....

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"have copies of the MAR's, the orders that were written, statements from the lab .. Are you this other nurses boss?

this.

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You are allowed to copy the patient's chart for your own personal use?? Where do you keep copies of the chart? That in my hospital would in itself be reason for a write-up, possible HIPAA violation and possible termination.

Report to the BON through the hotline.

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Specializes in LTC/SNF, Geriatric, Psych, Med/Surg.

no, I am not his boss, but I do kinda oversee the skilled nusing unit. I am an MDS coordinator, RN and I round with the physician. I am the only contact between the physician and the nurses. Yes, I wrote him up and made the copies of the supporting materials, MAR's ect. I had to alert the Physician to the errors that were made, had to call the labs to find out that the labs werent drawn and I had to order them stat 4 days after the order was written. Im not trying to cause problems for this sub standard nurse... Im trying to ensure that the patients get adequate, safe care. If admin does fire him, he is just going to carry on this poor nursing care somewhere else... Im not doing any patients justice if I let that happen....

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
stay in your lane.

allow adminstration to follow up on this individual. if they need your help, they know how to find you.

focus on your patients and stop looking for trouble for this individual before trouble finds you.

The OP wrote that she is the MDS coordinator for her facility. Her JOB is to identify and follow up on discrepancies and errors. Thank goodness that she found this error and is being an advocate for patients in her facility.

I would hope that nurses don't turn a blind eye to something as appalling as the scenario described by the OP.

It is one thing to address a nurse who takes a longer break than they should, coming to work late and subsequently receiving report late, or not following up on tasks (which I would gladly let administration follow up on), but a completely different proposition when the negligent acts of a nurse cause potential harm to a patient.

Clearly, this nurse is unsafe.

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Specializes in LTC/SNF, Geriatric, Psych, Med/Surg.
You are allowed to copy the patient's chart for your own personal use?? Where do you keep copies of the chart? That in my hospital would in itself be reason for a write-up, possible HIPAA violation and possible termination.

Report to the BON through the hotline.

read the posts... I didn't keep it for my own personal use. Geesh, I made copies to substantiate my write up. I made copies for the appropriate people and kept a copy of the write up for myself to show I did actually do something about this... once this is handled, I can put it in the shredder, but right now, its the only thing I have showing that this has even been addressed. It's in my desk drawer at work.

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