Is this common practice or was I in the wrong??

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hello all!

i am a fairly new grad. i got my first job working in a very high acuity icu step-down type hospital (ventilator and trach patients were most common) and worked there for nine months. i loved my job but had a really hard time getting along with the new cco. this may take a minute to tell you all of it but here goes......

i was supposed to be given up to 12 weeks of training. i got 5-6 and was gradually introduced to my normal 8 patient workload. from 5-6 i struggled a bit and asked for 5 the next shift and was told they didn't want to go backwards and given a sixth patient anyway. our hospital has a very old computerized charting system. our patients were very high acuity with many prn pain medications, usually 2-3 hour dilaudid. at our hospital you will sign your narcotics out of the narc cabinet, then chart the time given in the computer system. we do not have patient id band scanning. as a new grad i had a hectic time with my charting and had to play catch up at the end of the shift many times. we were 3 months without a nurse manager after i was let loose on my own. i was called to the cco (new) office and told about 2 medication variances from 3 months prior, (signed out but not charted in computer) i was written up for each. a week later i was called for another one, from 2 months prior, written up. i talked to my head nurse and told her i was concerned because i felt that i should not be written up again for things that occurred prior to our first conversation. for all i knew i could have another from a month ago and lose my job over it! she said not to worry, i would be okay. for some reason this new cco seemed to have it out for me. to make things worse i had a med error!!! my med error was that i gave a woman 2 mg of morphine instead of 2 mg of dilaudid ivp. i still want to cry over this! i cried myself to sleep that night even though i knew it was a lesser strength dose i was ashamed that i had not caught it. so my cco tells me that i needed to be placed under a performance review and asked me to research current best practice for safe medication administration and demonstrate to them what i had learned. i was to take 6-7 patients during this time and no lpn's ivs. i was then told that i would have to present this to my coworkers as a presentation!

i told her i was not comfortable with this and had no problem with making up a board to place in the report room with handouts to demonstrate to them what i learned but did not feel it was appropriate to involve all my coworkers in my business! she said it is what i had to do. i worked, was given 8 patients and lpn's iv's because they were short staffed... worked on my board, got it done, told her i still did not like the idea. i felt that my peers were either going to look at me like "who does she think she is to teach us something" or "what the hell did she do wrong". besides this, no one else had ever been asked to so something like this. well come to find out the day it was due was not a day i worked (like she thought it was) and she was out of town the whole week! my (new) nurse manager called me and when i told her what i was doing she said, "what, that is ridiculous! i have never heard of anything like that. put it on hold till i have a chance to talk to her on monday when she gets back." monday i get a call from the cco, i try to return it, cannot get a hold of her. she calls me tuesday and says i failed to meet our agreement. i explained what the nurse manager said, she said i am aware of what she told you but we had an agreement. she says i could have turned my board in and did the presentation at another time. i said, you are telling me this now? i didn't know that.... she says she will accept my resignation. i resigned about 4 days later and stated on the letter that i resigned as requested by her. i know how hard it is to find a job and felt that was better then having to put i was fired. now i am going to have to fight them for unemployment. soooooo after this long long tale, was i in the wrong? what are your thoughts?

i also worked with some very crabby people...lol i told her the people she sees are totally different then the ones i work with. when they come to her they are on their best behavior and not the same snippy ones i work with..lol

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Specializes in Home Care.

IMHO, you should have done what your CCO requested and not argued about it. You also made the mistake of discussing co-workers with her.

Now you're unemployed in a bad economy where its difficult to find a job.

As a new nurse and new employee its best to keep your head low, do your job properly, do as you're told and don't gossip.

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Specializes in CTICU.

Wow, I cannot read that big chunk of text without space between paragraphs!

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Peds ICU.

Sounds like you're better off without that job.

I'm not sure what the last poster was referring to... I don't think you handled anything improperly here. The CCO's request did seem inappropriate and you didn't "gossip" or "discuss coworkers" as far as I can see.

Nurses who keep their heads low and just do as their told aren't generally very good at their jobs. We get paid the big bucks to exercise our critical thinking, not "lay low."

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Sounds like you're better off without that job.

I'm not sure what the last poster was referring to... I don't think you handled anything improperly here. The CCO's request did seem inappropriate and you didn't "gossip" or "discuss coworkers" as far as I can see.

Thanks Mike, I had to look back at what I wrote because I didn't remember anything about gossip or coworkers either. I mentioned my new nurse manager contacting me and explaining my situation but that was it.

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Sorry, I didnt preview the post prior to posting...didnt realize I wrote some much! Needed to vent!

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This is only one side of the story y'all. To give honest advice, we'd have to look at this from everyone's perspective.

It's sometimes very hard,I know this, but then that would be the only true way to really understand the dynamics behind whatever went on.

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IMHO, you should have done what your CCO requested and not argued about it. You also made the mistake of discussing co-workers with her.

Now you're unemployed in a bad economy where its difficult to find a job.

As a new nurse and new employee its best to keep your head low, do your job properly, do as you're told and don't gossip.

Thank you for your opinion. I did what was requested of me, as far as the board and what not. I did not turn it in to her on the 2nd of April because she was not in the office all that week. I was unsure about the presentation part as well and tried to contact her the Monday of that week and that is when I found out she was out for the entire week and told to hold off on everything by my nurse manager till the following week....

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This is only one side of the story y'all. To give honest advice, we'd have to look at this from everyone's perspective.

It's sometimes very hard,I know this, but then that would be the only true way to really understand the dynamics behind whatever went on.

Um, yea its my side, and Im the one that wanted to know if it was common practice for nurses to give presentations to their peers following a medication error.

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LOL.. maybe Im just tired but after reading your post I was like...Huh? :-)

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Sounds to me as if your were going to come out of this situation jobless, regardless of what you did... I'm so sorry. The stress must be eating you up inside. Just look at this as a well-deserved opportunity to find a better suited environment for your skill level and experience. Somebody else is going to be stuck with such a wonderful CCO and great peers... (sarcasm) And they are no longer YOUR problem. :yeah:

Don't even give all these people another moment, keep in mind itsmejuli's advice, and take what you learned from this experience with you.

Btw, I could read your post just fine. AND at my hospital, they give you a 6 month training period when you start in icu...

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Sounds to me as if your were going to come out of this situation jobless, regardless of what you did... I'm so sorry. The stress must be eating you up inside. Just look at this as a well-deserved opportunity to find a better suited environment for your skill level and experience. Somebody else is going to be stuck with such a wonderful CCO and great peers... (sarcasm) And they are no longer YOUR problem. :yeah:

Don't even give all these people another moment, keep in mind itsmejuli's advice, and take what you learned from this experience with you.

Btw, I could read your post just fine. AND at my hospital, they give you a 6 month training period when you start in icu...

Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words. I actually have been asked to come back to my previous job at the nursing home where I had worked as a LPN prior to graduating as a RN. I am back in school working on my bachelors/Masters (1st semester almost done! Whoo hoo!), and this will give me an opportunity to work closer to home (45 minute commute). So some good things may come out of this!! :-)

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