I was reported by the social worker.........

Specialties Geriatric

Published

My unit coordinator came to me yesterday to tell me that the social worker complained to her that she saw one of the residents taking his medication without me present. What she didn't know is that I was right outside the room and just about to go check on him when she walked out. There's a whole big story why I left the meds with him momentarily and I won't go into that now but I know that it was the wrong thing to do and I guess she was probably right to report me.

However, it does gall me that every single day I run my you know what off like crazy to pass meds to 30+ residents, do a dozen fingersticks with insulin injections before breakfast and lunch, vital signs and treatments, the endless charting, taking off orders, filling out no less than 10 forms when a resident falls followed by a million phone calls, chase the aides around, talking to relatives, and all the other thousands of tasks required of a med and treatment nurse. In fact, we are not even called med and treatment nurses here. We are referred to as "charge nurses," even though we each take a hall and the "unit coordinator" actually functions more as the charge nurse. (However, when she doesn't want to take responsibility for something she will say, "Well, you are the charge nurse down that end.")

Anyway, I guess it irritates me that here is this social worker who has no idea what my job is, and evidently she has taken it upon herself to decide what is appropriate and inappropriate. And the reason I'm irritated is that, believe it or not, this was the first time I had turned my back on a resident after having given him the meds, and wouldn't you know that I would have the misfortune of having this twirp watching me MY VERY FIRST TIME. You would have thought maybe she would have given me a chance and then if she saw me do it again (as though that is her business!) then she may have gone to my coordinator. In fact, even my unit coordinator felt it was inappropriate that this social worker didn't come to me first rather than going directly to her.

Okay, I know it's a big no no to leave meds and it is not my habit but honestly with all the tasks and demands they ask of us, do they REALLY expect us not to take a shortcut now and again? At this particular nursing home, I am convinced the higher ups really don't care whether we actually do the work or not, they just want to make sure we charted that we did it and there is at least an appearance that we are following the rules. I'm sick of it. I've only been there three months and I'm really sick of it! :uhoh3:

Anyway, it's a fine thing when a social worker gets to monitor what nurses do. Isn't it nice she gets to sit in her office and no one sees her work!!!

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Yeah, don't you just love it when social workers stick their noses into the nursing department? At my last facility, our SW made up rules for the nursing staff all the time.....usually when she herself did something foolish, like spill soda all over the chart she was working on. After that incident, we were forbidden even to have covered food or drinks anywhere but in an alcove way at the far end of the hall, which made it extremely unpleasant to work in that building on a 100-degree day :devil:

However, being the sort who never lets something as inconsequential as a ridiculous rule get in the way of running my floor as I see fit, I flat-out ignored this dictum and kept my drinks at the nurses' station and on my cart, all with appropriate covers to prevent spillage. I also allowed the CNAs and med aide to keep theirs within easy reach, and ignored the pointed looks from the SW whenever she spotted a contraband drink container.

Now, if it had been the unit manager who'd issued the ban, I'd have fought it, but I would've followed it; IMO, however, social workers have no business telling nurses how to do their jobs, and I wasn't about to let this one make life miserable for me or my staff. So the water bottles and the travel mugs found their way back to where they could easily be accessed, and that SW never said a word about it.

I'm with the posters who said the SW knows not whereof she speaks, and needs to mind her own business. Nursing has enough "bosses" as it is; we shouldn't have to answer to someone who knows nothing about what we do all day. Yes, LTC is a multidisciplinary endeavor, and we SHOULD work together for the good of the residents; and in a facility where the SW knows her/his place, it's pretty easy to do so.

That said---for the safety of your job and your license, NEVER leave meds at the bedside of a patient, no matter how A & O s/he may be. There's always the possibility that s/he will forget to take them, or decide not to take them at all, and therefore miss out on vital medications. And of course, we've all heard the horror stories about some not-so-oriented person who meandered into the wrong room and took another patient's meds by mistake......I saw it happen once, a number of years ago. The poor confused resident had a bad reaction to one of the pills and had to be sent to the hospital, and the nurse who left the meds on the bedside table lost her job AND had to answer to the BON. It's just not worth the risk to walk away from an uncontrolled med cup!

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Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

I know of no other profession that is so freekin punitive with all the write ups. That is one thing that I do despise about the profession....and yes everyone has an opinion about how nurses should do their job. Yo do have to get used to it...BUT remember you still have your voice and your opinions. So tell your side of the story..recognize what you did wrong or could do better;;;learn from it and move on. Remember what kind of person that social worker is...who you are dealing with and file that little tid bit away.

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You will find these type of people all over nursing in every unit, every shift, every department, every facility etc. I came across a few people who just do nothing but kiss butt to the Unit Manager. You skip one initial and they will photo copy the MAR and will turn you in. We all make mistakes and forget an initial here and there. After I heard of these few select people I always make sure that I double check my initials, I dot all my i's and cross all of my t's because I really don't want to get into anything with these select perfect nurses who never make mistakes.

One of the perfect nurses actually made a HUGE mistake when taking a T.O. and instead of photo copying it, I decided to write her a little note alerting her of her mistake and to fix it before the Unit Manager gets a hold of it. There was no thank you, nor did I expect one, but it was fixed the very next day.

I actually needed a clarification of a MD order and he was mad at me because I couldn't read his chicken scratch. I immediately told him that I was new, and that if there's a question on any order I will phone the MD. Do you know what he told me? Learn to read, it broadens the mind. I immediately thanked him for the suggestion and told him that I do read on a daily basis because it broadens the mind. I also told him that good penminship is very important in the medical field because if you can't read a MD order, you can potentially kill a patient. As a patient advocate it's my job to clarify something I don't understand. Then I hung up. :D I finally saw the MD face to face, he apologized for his behavior and immediately thanked me for being a good patient advocate. The unit was surprised because they say he's always like that.

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That social workers name must be BUSY BODY! They have no idea what we do how we do or why we do! You don't need to explain yourself to her she is no one. When anyone approaches you as to what was "seen" you need to to stand your ground and be direct. Or the rest of your existence at that place will be the same.

Oh, the HEADINSANDRN is exactle where she says she is. IN THE SAND.

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BLAH BLAH BLAH

If someone came to you with something that was really effecting them you'd be the first to reply "YOU MUST"VE DONE SOMETHING".

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BLAH BLAH BLAH

If someone came to you with something that was really effecting them you'd be the first to reply "YOU MUST"VE DONE SOMETHING".

I'm sorry, but WHAT are you talking about???

back to the main topic, I thought of something else. This is how, in a perfect world, the situation SHOULD have gone in my opinion:

If the SW was so concerned about the unattended meds, why didn't he/she wait in the room with the resident and see how many/ what pills were currently there and page you. The SW should have waited for you to come back, explain what he/she saw in a non-confrontational manner, waited for you to do your job regarding the med pass and then left. Then, at ANOTHER TIME during the day, away from the patient, express his/her concerns over the topic. You, then, would probably have said something to the effect of "thanks for letting me know, I understand what you are saying and it won't happen again."

And you, knowing that someone saw you do it and truly understanding WHY you shouldn't have done that, change your behavior.

In a non-punitive, adult problem solving, manner!!

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That social workers name must be BUSY BODY! They have no idea what we do how we do or why we do! You don't need to explain yourself to her she is no one. When anyone approaches you as to what was "seen" you need to to stand your ground and be direct. Or the rest of your existence at that place will be the same.

Oh, the HEADINSANDRN is exactle where she says she is. IN THE SAND.

what exactly about my post drove you to assume i am a "she"?

while the topic of this thread may be a sensitive subject for you, insulting me doesnt discredit my post or make your comments more valid.

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The professional thing for this social worker to do would have been to first speak with the nurse if there was a question about what she thought she had seen. The social worker took the easy way out and avoided confrontation before returning to the comfort of her office where her work is not subject to direct monitoring by those from other disciplines.

If this social worker were truly interested in being a patient advocate, she would be advocating for appropriate staff to care for the patients and not tattling on a nurse trying their best to do their job given imperfect circumstances.

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The professional thing for this social worker to do would have been to first speak with the nurse if there was a question about what she thought she had seen. The social worker took the easy way out and avoided confrontation before returning to the comfort of her office where her work is not subject to direct monitoring by those from other disciplines.

If this social worker were truly interested in being a patient advocate, she would be advocating for appropriate staff to care for the patients and not tattling on a nurse trying their best to do their job given imperfect circumstances.

i agree there are a number of ways this scenario could have played out that could have been more favorable for the parties involved.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
My unit coordinator came to me yesterday to tell me that the social worker complained to her that she saw one of the residents taking his medication without me present. What she didn't know is that I was right outside the room and just about to go check on him when she walked out. There's a whole big story why I left the meds with him momentarily and I won't go into that now but I know that it was the wrong thing to do and I guess she was probably right to report me.

I don't understand why everyone is dogging on the social worker. You say right here she was right to report you!

Social workers are there for the resident to make sure their needs are being met, right? If she saw something inappropriate, she was right to report it.

You have the right to vent away about being over worked and not enough time in the day to get it all done.. but I don't think the SW was wrong.

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I used to have SW and PT and OT staff come to me all the time and complain that x nurse hadn't given the patient their meds. Don't know why they always complained to me...

Anyway, I would say "did you tell the nurse you were taking the patient off the unit? Because we don't have time to be running around the building chasing down patients."

Erm, no. Never occurred to them to talk to the nurse first, they just think that if they are taking care of a patient, then the entire world revolves around what they need for that patient.

Also a huge problem with pain meds - it drove me batty when PT and OT would come back from therapy complaing about how the patient was in pain and why didn't the nurse medicate them before therapy....again, I would say "you need to tell us when you take the patient, there is no way we can know that."

Then I would remind them of how unfair it is to do therapy with a patient who doesn't have pain meds on board.

The SW was out of line, but it happens all the time and there is no way you can keep on top of everything, someone will always complain. You just have to keep doing what you do, taking care of the nursing end of things, in the end you are the only person who can do that job, not the SW or the PT/OT team or any other non-nursing staff.

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I don't understand why everyone is dogging on the social worker. You say right here she was right to report you!

Social workers are there for the resident to make sure their needs are being met, right? If she saw something inappropriate, she was right to report it.

You have the right to vent away about being over worked and not enough time in the day to get it all done.. but I don't think the SW was wrong.

I agree with all of the above. It would be nice if people came directly to you with things they notice or if they have complaints, but they don't. Sometimes, past experience has taught them well that the confrontation can result in highly unpleasant consequences for them. I've seen nurses tear down other disciplines face to face when observations were made about their nursing practice, and it is not pretty. It is especially unpretty to see nurses here continuing to defend cutting corners and potential patient rights violations by spouting "short staffing" or tearing up other disciplines for not knowing what it's like to be a nurse. It's not about knowing what nursing is like, or what other disciplines are like. It's about maintaining patient and resident rights. Everyone who works in health care has the obligation to take action when they see problems. It doesn't matter how or to whom they go, as long as the problem is addressed.

Further, yes, it's true that as far as you know the social worker does not know what it's like to be a nurse but as far as we know you've never been a social worker and have no idea what it's like to be one. As far as we know, you've never been OT, PT, ST, a pharmacist, a physician, an NP, a PA... but let's not waste a moment getting in there and cutting them to ribbons for doing the jobs they are charge with and for defending patient rights. That we almost universally never fail to criticize others who have rightly criticized us, even when we know they are right, is highly unattractive.

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