I cannot believe a nurse did this......

Nurses General Nursing

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My grandmother in law is a resident at a local nursing home. My husband took my kids to see her today (I was at home with the baby). The nurse there took the cotton packing out of the top of a bottle of medicine she was opening and tickled my 4 year olds face with it. My husband pulled him away and told me about it when he got home. I'm furious about this. No telling what kind of powder or residue was on the packing..it could have been a chemp drug or who knows what. My husband didn't think to ask, just wanted out of there. Am I crazy for thinking this is absolutely unacceptable? I'm actually thinking of reporting her to the nursing board (she's done a lot of other crazy stuff we've noticed while granny is there). We've talked to admin before about stuff this nurse has said and done, but this is over the top.

I think that these are some harsh answers. Parents do get overprotective of their children, and most especially when Mom is not present. Seriously. Hence why perhaps if one is sensitive to someone touching their child, no matter how well intended(and some parents are) re-think visits when Mom is not there to "supervise". The child perhaps should not be running up to a med cart to begin with. Not sure how many nurses bring entire unopened bottles of anything into a patient's room, open it, take out the cotton, etc. This is all done, in my experience, at a med cart, so apparently the child was doing a bit of "exploring"? This is totally assuming, and I was not there, but neither was Mom, so you can not and should not report a nurse for something you were not a party to. And what Dad is going to say "Junior was getting restless so I let him wander". The child is unharmed I am assuming, make note for next time that all visits to Gram are going to be done with you present, or the kids stay home with you and let hubby go visit his grandmother. I get that you are upset, but an experiment that often works for me is, ask your husband again exactly what occured and you will get a)more details that were not initially apparent and b) the exploring child grabbed the cotton--most likely from the trash--and the nurse was trying to take it away from him/her or something of that nature. Kids are curious, they like to explore, and they get really, really bored really, really quickly when visiting over the holidays (or any time, really).

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Specializes in NICU.

You're having an overreaction to this. I'm sorry that your husband's grandma is in a nursing home. It must be hard for him and you to see her like this. But you cannot take it out on the nurses taking care of her. It's not right to that nurse... you can usually seek EAP at most employments for counseling if this is affecting you this badly about this "incident."

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Specializes in IMC.

Thank you for the laugh this morning! :roflmao:

OP: Are you kidding me!!! Get a grip! Get a life!! Seriously!!

I work LTC, and I cringe when I see little ones come into the facility because that means within a couple of days some of the Resident's will be sick with either a stomach bug or URI.

Leave that nurse alone! As others have stated she was just trying to make your child feel more comfortable.

Have a good day! Some of the responses seriously made me laugh out loud very loud!!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I think we need to be respectful of each others opinions and feelings.

Here at AN.....we promote the idea of lively debate. This means you are free to disagree with anyone on any type of subject matter as long as your criticism is constructive and polite. Additionally, please refrain from name-calling. This is divisive, rude, and derails the thread.

Our first priority is to the members that have come here because of the flame-free atmosphere we provide. There is a zero-tolerance policy here against personal attacks. We will not tolerate anyone insulting other's opinion nor name calling.

Our call is to be supportive, not divisive.

OP......I can understand your frustration and fear about this nurses behavior.....if someone swiped my child's face with the cotton from a med bottle I'd be outraged! But.....are you sure they are a "nurse" many LTC facilities use med techs to pass meds. Yes there are some "chemolike"meds like methotrexate and tamoxifen, to name 2, that do not belong around children.

Regardless of what med it is inappropriate and unprofessional.

The real concern is this person's behavior and I would take this up with the DON/CEO of the facility. I suppose you could go to the board.....but the board may not find this sufficient evidence to investigate....that is even if they are licensed personnel. After you speak to the DON/CEO and you do not receive satisfactory responses I would hurt them in their pockets.....report them to the Joint Commission.

http://www.jointcommission.org/report_a_complaint.aspx

I wish you the best.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I have to agree that some of the answers are harsh as I too think that what the nurse did was slightly inappropriate. Nothing at all wrong with trying to make the child feel more at ease, but with a cotton ball from a med bottle? Weird.

Still, the OP and her husband both overreacted just a bit.

I'm curious OP, what else has this nurse done; you said she's done some other "little" things.? Provided that this really is a true story and not made up. =)

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Specializes in Oncology.

Am I the only one who is now wondering what "other crazy things" this nurse has done? Did she give grandma a sip of water at the wrong temperature? Did she give pills 20 minutes past their scheduled time? Honestly, my thoughts reading the OP were, "Oh, you're one of those family members."

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Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.

Going to the the BON over something like this seems way beyond the pale. I can only imagine the OP is going through a stressful time and therefore might be prone to overreaction. (?) Either that, or something is missing from this story.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

OP, I imagine you feel fairly dogpiled, and I apologize for my participation in that. I stand by what I wrote (except the "ridiculous" comment). I'm sorry if you feel attacked. I do think you overreacted, but I have to assume perhaps there is more going on here than what you wrote. Did something else happen?

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/Onc.

Why wouldn't chemo be given in a nursing home? Hydrea is chemo and is given in LTC. There may be others as well, Xeloda, Alkeran, etc. There are lots of chemo pills out these days. If a patient is in LTC for rehab, they might be getting these meds.

OP, you are overreacting.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/Onc.
... Yes there are some "chemolike"meds like methotrexate and tamoxifen, to name 2, that do not belong around children.

Regardless of what med it is inappropriate and unprofessional.

The real concern is this person's behavior and I would take this up with the DON/CEO of the facility. I suppose you could go to the board.....but the board may not find this sufficient evidence to investigate....that is even if they are licensed personnel. After you speak to the DON/CEO and you do not receive satisfactory responses I would hurt them in their pockets.....report them to the Joint Commission.

http://www.jointcommission.org/report_a_complaint.aspx

I wish you the best.

Methotrexate is chemo, Tamoxifen is not. And I'm pretty sure JTC has little to do with LTC.

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Seems like you are making mountains out of mole hills. Not to be mean, but as women we can be very dramatic sometimes for no reason. This sounds like it is one of your times.

Oh and by the way only bottles of pills or tablets have cotton. If it is an oral suspension or something of that sort that comes in powder form it would not have cotton inside the bottle.

Please speak for yourself. It is not accurate that women as a gender are overly dramatic, sensitive, fragile, and in need of humoring. Some PEOPLE, including men and trans people, are overly dramatic and sensitive. Overreaction and helicopter parenting is not exclusive to the "weaker" sex.

@mappers: I've given methotrexate in LTC/rehab.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/Onc.

@nursedirtybird. Earlier I responded to others who said chemo isn't given in LTC. I stated that it was, hydrea being an example.. The previous poster called methotrexate "chemo-like". It is chemo, not "chemo-like". Tamoxifen is a hormone modulator, not chemo. Not disagreeing, just clarifying.

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