Huddle being used as a disciplinary tool

[Zay]

Is using huddle as a disciplinary tool appropriate? I had this experience in the past as a new nurse where management had taken a picture of a leaking wound vac that I did not attend to properly. They took a picture of this wound vac, placed it on display during huddle and educated the staff on how to do a wet-dry dressing change. While educating, they made comments such as “we all know, who did this” , “this is stupid you guys.” I was yelled at in front of everyone. In fact, during the first huddle, the morning charge nurse and unit coordinator of this unit spent more time reiterating how stupid I was than actually educating on the procedure. This was a huddle topic for about a good month. Now I agree with the need for discipline in this situation. What I did deserved discipline. However, should a platform that is supposed to be designated as a tool for staff education be utilized simultaneously as a disciplinary tool?

[Nurse.Kelsey, BSN, RN]

Huddles are a great way to educate, even if it is a mistake that happened - if its done right. What they did with essentially shaming and belittling you. Thats completely wrong. Im sorry you have this kind of management.

[JKL33]

12 hours ago, Zay said:

However, should a platform that is supposed to be designated as a tool for staff education be utilized simultaneously as a disciplinary tool?

That doesn't even qualify to be called discipline; it's just straight-up churlish behavior from people who should know better.

No of course you should not have been publicly shamed under the guise of staff education. If your actions deserved actual discipline then that should have happened in private and if it were also a matter for staff education that should be undertaken in a professional manner.

Never had this happen but in general it works well to be non-reactive when people are looking to provoke a reaction. Who knows what their personal problems are but one way or another don't feed into it.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

That's terrible. What a toxic environment. They should have taken you aside and discussed it with you in private, not laid it all out there for everyone to hear. If I were you I'd start looking elsewhere for employment. Huddle is for strategizing and educating. I'm sorry this happened to you.

[Waiting for Retirement]

I think the others have already put out there that the situation as you described it was inappropriate.

Huddles, or staff meetings, are a great way to touch base on quick educational opportunities and that includes a photo of something found on a unit that was done incorrectly--all so that others will know how to do it correctly when it comes around to them.

I don't care if everyone knew it was you, it was wrong for leadership to make the suggestion that they did. I don't care if they thought it stupid, it was only appropriate for them to teach that the example on the screen is incorrect, and what the correct assessment/action would be. Once during huddle, maybe once again at a staff meeting if it wasn't already presented to everyone who needed to learn. Beyond that, it's ridiculous and nothing more than punitive, and perhaps even harassment. They were wrong, period.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Shame on him.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

We have had safety issues discussed but never right out shamed. Like someone gave zyprexa instead of protonix and we did try to figure out who did it without looking at the vial or med (we switched to barcode scanning and zyprexa is bright yellow at the time when mixed). The charge nurse was so embarrassed when she accidentally slipped that it was a guy. However, it was a week thing and they tried hard not to give out details.

[osceteacher]

Yes, this is normal practice imo. We had someone attach an IV to an art line and an art line to their peripheral canula, it was in the morning huddle. To be fair, there was no naming and shaming but it must have been hard for the staff nurse to hear the comments.

[Marker]

It's terrible, really. Sociologists prone to using jargon would say this was more than microaggression; it is a shaming exercise that may have been traumatic, too. It's equally terrible that people conflate education with discipline, forgetting that nursing is not like doing arithmetic on paper, where you can erase or overwrite or whatever. This is not to say that we have to excuse mistakes, just to acknowledge that mistakes happen despite best efforts to avoid them. No good nurse wants to do a bad job. Workplace equality is an important ideal. How can people, especially ones in the nursing industry, not realize that a safe environment is essential to function well? I think all mid-level staff in almost all industries should be routinely sensitized. Sure, some people at the level come with some background in Organizational or Industrial Psych, but they also need to be introduced to more specific aspects such as personality and its relation to interpersonal harmony and conflicts at the workplace (one useful text I can think of is Theories of Personality (see: https://www.bartleby.com/textbooks/theories-of-personality-mindtap-course-list-11th-edition/9781305652958/solutions)). Some argue that this places unnecessary importance of political correctness at the cost of really, effectively getting a point across, but examples such as this one show that it's important to encourage those who give feedback to regulate their thoughts and words.

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

As a manager that is shameful.

Huddles should be used to share information. If an incident has occurred e.g. A number of my nurses had reported dermatitis to me. We huddled about hand care and the importance of reporting the dermatitis so that IC and staff health could action something. Or as a debrief on any major incident that has happened e.g. MET call with a fatal outcome.

It is not a name and shame period. That speaks to your department culture....yuck.

[ArmyRntoMD, BSN, RN]

Couldn’t imagine working in a place like that, they easily could have given you remedial education, and maybe done an inservice. None of us are perfect. Find a new job. That place is toxic.

[NurseoftheVerse]

Well the reality is that they do not to proper education, training and check off to begin with. Wound Vacs at home are a hot mess and are causing alot of agency tons of problems. Watch your backs out there