inappropriate comment made by RN in front of patient

[uscstu4lfe]

a few days ago i transferred a patient of mine to a different floor. she has end stage cancer, but is perfectly alert and stable - just in a lot of pain. anyway, when i got to the floor with the patient, i asked the desk secretary which nurse would be assigned to this patient. a nurse at the med cart (which was about 4 feet away from me and the patient) said something to the extent of "i guess i'm going to be the one stuck with her!"

I was really disgusted by this but didn't say anything. as i wheeled the patient to her room, she said something like "no one wants to take care of me?? i heard what she said." I made up some silly story about how she was joking and completed the transfer.

A part of me REALLY wanted to go back and say something, but i'm the "new nurse" so i'm not sure quite how I fit in with everyone else at this point. am i overreacting? should i say something? should i not? I was thinking of writing an anonymous letter, what do you all think I should do?

[Ang_RN]

Okay that just breaks my heart. That is one of the main reason WHY I am going into nursing. I want to care for the people that noone else wants to.

[Riseupandnurse]

Oh,ugh! I recognized the thougths I have as the nurse who gets "stuck" with the new admit. I am always disgusted with myself by these thoughts, and would never verbalize them in front of a patient. You might think about discussing this with the nurse in question in a gentle manner to start. Maybe the nurse will resist you or just maybe the nurse will see what a horrible thing he/she did and how it impacted the patient. I don'think you should just let this go.

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

That breaks my heart too. I think I would have went directly to the nursing supervisor for that shift or floor and told them exactly what was said and request another nurse for the patient.

Since you are where you are now, if I were you I would pull that nurse aside in private and tell her how upset the patient was who heard the comment. Admit that you can understand her frustration and you are assuming she had a bad day and this isnt something she normally says, but tell her you just wanted to give her a heads up that this patients feelings were hurt.

What has happend to good manners, when did it become acceptable to be rude?

[whodatnurse]

If it were 'me', I would have confronted her. I would have gone to her immediately and said straightforwardly, "That was cruel. She was really hurt by that comment." (But I'm pretty fearless and couldn't stand NOT to do that, so I'm not suggesting that's what YOU should have done if that's outside your personal comfort zone...)

[shelly304]

That comment made my heart sink....

[BinkieRN, BSN, RN]

i had a similar situation happen today and i filled out an soe and reported it to my nurse manager. the patient had a major and painful infiltrate of potassium. the nurse stood outside the patients door and loudly proclaimed. "i knew that was going to happen because i knew the iv was bad when i hung the potassium". i was seeing red!

it was not my patient and i did not interfere in the situation by talking to the nurse or the patient but i felt i should report it. obviously my name is on the soe but i don't care about that.

[michaelarose]

Oh man, that sucks! I bet that poor patient thought about that comment the entire time that nurse was taking care of her. I really hurt for that patient. Perhaps that nurse should consider a transfer to another unit or another part of the field, if she is so obviously burnt out where she is. That comment was just ridiculous.

Are you going to follow up with the patient?

[michaelarose]

but i'm the "new nurse" so i'm not sure quite how I fit in with everyone else at this point. am i overreacting? should i say something? should i not? I was thinking of writing an anonymous letter, what do you all think I should do?

Please please please, don't feel like you shouldn't be empowered to do something about a potentially bad situation just because you are new. If you feel that doing something to help out that patient is the right thing to do, then do it.

[PurpleMyst]

Well, I'm not a nurse but common sense and mere human decency would prevent me from ever saying something like that. I guess being the big mouth that I am sometimes (new nurse or not) I would go to that nurse and tell her "hey you know what? The patient heard you and was very hurt by what you said. Then tell her she might want to be a little more careful about what she says. I bet she made that patient feel like a piece of meat.

[damarystx]

Say something, I have learned that not enough people stand up for what is right, not enough people are willing to rock the boat, but behavior like that CAN NOT be tolerated. Everyone has bad days, everyone gets an admission or transfer at the worst possible time but that should never be taken out on the patient. If the nurse felt in some way that she was getting "stuck" with a patient and that it was unfair to her because of her work load then she needed to take that up with her supervisor not voice it so that a patient is aware of her negative feelings. I know that being a new nurse is hard but don't let your desire to fit in cloud your judgement and compromise your morals and values. We work with people who are at their most vulnerable, people who are literally trusting us with their lives, by accepting this incredible responsibility we are obligating ourselves to advocate for our patients, they are trusting that we have their best interests in mind, that we care about them, and that we chose our job because we want to help people. Stand up for what you believe in, SAY SOMETHING ! she needs to be reprimanded for her behavior, go to her supervisor. I understand the desire to send an anonymous letter but a letter with a signature holds much more weight, and you should not be afraid to stand up for what is right. I have been in your situation and it's a hard one and it sucks, in my situation the person ended up losing her job because it was an ongoing problem, the things that were being said were harsh. I did not know that she was going to lose her job and when I found out that the person was told who brought it up I was scared to go back to work, she had friends there and we all worked in the same area. But I did it and in my situation it worked out for the better. The supervisor put a "gag order" on the situation so when it was done it was done and that was the end of it. Maybe she was just having a bad day and needs a reminder that venting is best done in private or maybe it is an ongoing problem and more information from more people is needed to handle the problem. I wish you luck.

[ERNurse752, RN]

Write her up AND tell her that her comment was beyond rude, and unforgivable to say in front of a patient - much less a patient who is DYING.

I would feel like a piece of crap if my nurse said that about me. Like it isn't already bad enough to be in that situation.

I had a similar situation, and I went back later on to confront the nurse. Was glad I did it. I was also pretty new at the time. I think I took my charge nurse with me.