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!
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!!!
Pamelalayn, I agree with your comment about HEADINSANDRN. Hopefully, she is not one of those administrative nurses whose nose is raised up high, with a clipboard walking by all the scrambling nurses as they try to get done, and then enjoying watching the carnage, going "tsk tsk--stupid nurses that don't know what they are doing. It's their own fault!"
you admitted fault in what you did.
your time would be better invested in finding good malpractice insurance instead of finding fault in others.
Well, you have a valid point. I know that in the strictest sense, I was wrong, and before I worked in this joint I didn't believe in shortcuts of any kind. Now, though, I see why sometimes it is absolutely necessary to cut corners now and again or we will NEVER get done, and I resent the attitude by this social worker which demands perfection without even seeing that there may have been extenuating circumstances, or even caring about it. So, okay, I admit pills should not be left at the bedside, but couldn't she have at least asked me why I did it? Don't you see that this may have been more about her getting a few jollies out of getting someone in trouble than caring about the patient?
Just forget it. I'm actively seeking new employment but this time I'm going to research the facility before I jump in blindfolded.
Thank you all for the replies. This board certainly is interesting. I love the animated "discussions!" Good luck everyone!
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
I usually enjoy reading these posts but, come on people....enough with the personal attacks. You may not agree with Headsinthesand, but you should keep your comments to the topic at hand and not kill the messenger.
I have people report things to me all the time. I love it when the housekeeper who barely speaks English comes to tell me Nancy Nurse was rude to a patient because she raised her voice. "Oh, thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. Did you know that particular resident is almost deaf and you have to holler so she can hear?" Or the therapist will stop by and complain that the nurse didn't medicate the patient before therapy. "Did you give the nurse a schedule?"...no...."Then I suggest before you come and complain to me that the nurse couldn't read your mind, you spend YOUR time making a schedule....or maybe I'LL go to YOUR supervisor and tell him that you constantly take people off the floor without checking with the nurses to make sure they've had all their meds." Said with a smile.
We're all in this together...or at least we should be. If that social worker had come to me to report a nurse, I would have asked her why she didn't say something right then and there to the nurse. If it is so horrendous that she needed to find me to report it, seems it was important enough to be dealt with on the spot.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i usually enjoy reading these posts but, come on people....enough with the personal attacks. you may not agree with headsinthesand, but you should keep your comments to the topic at hand and not kill the messenger.
i have people report things to me all the time. i love it when the housekeeper who barely speaks english comes to tell me nancy nurse was rude to a patient because she raised her voice. "oh, thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. did you know that particular resident is almost deaf and you have to holler so she can hear?" or the therapist will stop by and complain that the nurse didn't medicate the patient before therapy. "did you give the nurse a schedule?"...no...."then i suggest before you come and complain to me that the nurse couldn't read your mind, you spend your time making a schedule....or maybe i'll go to your supervisor and tell him that you constantly take people off the floor without checking with the nurses to make sure they've had all their meds." said with a smile.
we're all in this together...or at least we should be. if that social worker had come to me to report a nurse, i would have asked her why she didn't say something right then and there to the nurse. if it is so horrendous that she needed to find me to report it, seems it was important enough to be dealt with on the spot.
you sound like my kind of manager. however, i've learned over the years that must nurse managers are nurses who somehow got promoted to manager, not managers who happen to be nurses. your suggestions sound fair, make sense and seem intuitive, yet i've had numerous managers who will track down the nurse in question and "counsel" them without checking any further into the circumstances. it seems to be the rare manager who will stand up for her staff in the way you recommend.
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
When I was a staff nurse, I was on the receiving end of some of these witch hunts. The head of rehab said I was using restraints illegally and threatened to report me to the DPH. Before I could even draw a breath, off she went to the DON who came fuming around the corner hollering. Don't get your panties in a twist, I said. Here...in the chart...if you'd bother to look, if the order for the restraints, the signed consent, and oh, by the way, the care plan. I decided long ago not to treat my fellow nurses like I'd been treated by managers who had no business managing anyone.
I think one of the reasons personnel attack each other over nothing, or at least seem desperate to assign blame, is that they are so afraid they themselves will be blamed for something. At least in my nursing home, everyone is so scared of the state cracking down and finding deficiencies and that they will be held responsible that they want to be sure that someone else is going down with them, even if it is an unrelated offense.
I would never again work at a place that has such a bad history with state reviews. You take your license into your hands in that situation. Or worse, their hands.
Unfortunately, I have found if I want to work in a LTC facility, I can not find a position in one where there is not some degree or another of scrutiny or there are problems of some sort, ongoing. The perfect facilities have a permanent staff who won't give up a job until they enter the grave.
That's very true. You wouldn't believe the number of nurses that come and go so fast your head will spin, at this place. Since I've been there, 3 months, there have been at least 6 nurses start and get out of there within a month! We even had a new DON who lasted almost, not quite, 5 days!!!
My shift keeps getting "reported" to our unit manager for not monitoring a dementia patient by a dietary aide. The woman needs one to one. We're the weekend shift.
What I don't get is why the unit manager doesn't realize that we cannot keep an eye on the dementia patient if we have a 1:9 CNA ratio and why she listens to a dietary aide who has no frickin' clue what nursing is about. During the week there are a lot of CNA's on light duty and pretty much she has 1:1 sitting.
Why this dementia patient is on our rehab unit is a complete mystery to me as she is totally unable to comply with PT.
But yes, you can be reported by any fool for anything they perceive that you are/are not doing and THEY WILL BE LISTENED TO.
Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.
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
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!
I've reminded our SW on occasion that it is called the nurses station, not the social worker station.
"But yes, you can be reported by any fool for anything they perceive that you are/are not doing and THEY WILL BE LISTENED TO."
Agree! And it does seem as though the less they know and are connected to the nursing staff, the MORE they are listened to!
What they don't understand is that ancillary staff are responsible for their own small portion of resident care, but we are responsible for everything.
headinsandRN
138 Posts
you admitted fault in what you did.
your time would be better invested in finding good malpractice insurance instead of finding fault in others.
i am not a "she".
hope your situation improves soon.
good day.