Is it wrong to do the right thing? (long)

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Alzheimer's Disease, Geriatrics.

I have been reading some post about "whistle-blowing" and bringing certain things to supervisor's attention and that it was the right thing to do but some how the nurse faced some retaliation. And then when I read the replies some of them say it is better to keep thier mouth shut, you don't want to be the one that causes problems, just try to get along with everyone. (just to name a few).

And i just read an article that said "Being different than, or disliked by, peers and supervisors or Being the person who repeatedly gets in trouble" are things that will make you more likely to be reported than another person.

When I worked in a LTC facility as a med aide (I know how ya'll feel about them...) I did 16 hours on sat and sun, when i would come in sat I would noticed med errors like crazy and I would take it to my nurse's attn and she would write a report. and this kept happening like crazy, and it wasn't just med aides it was the nurses writing the orders on the mars also. And so I brought it to my DON's attn and she talked to the week girls and they retaliated in that they would save all med orders through the week until friday night and then the meds would show up on sat night around 930pm and i would be there until 11-1130pm just checking in meds. And this went on for weeks. We (me and nurses) told DON of problems and DON said she would take care of it. Well major med error and I talked to DON my self and she told me " You know, not every one is perfect, so if you could just stop nit-picking at everything, that would make your life and everyone else's easier." I said ok and walked out and handed in my two week notice the next day.

I think that even if you are not liked by everyone and if you do the right thing and do it professionally then you should not be at a greater risk than the person next to you that ignores everything. Is that just me? Or is it better to not speak up that way you don't bring attn to yourself?

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It sounds like things ended for the best anyway. If the place is anything like you describe, it doesn't sound like a good work environment.

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you tried

and for this you deserve appreciation and respect.

maybe they should have been trying a bit harder

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Specializes in med/surg, physician's office, mrdd, ltc.

You did the right thing. Never compromise a patient's safety for popularity.

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You did the right thing for you. By criticizing you, the DON was indicating that she does not fully support your efforts. Sooner or later, the others would have found out that the DON was not going to support you. If you would have continued, you would have eventually tired of dealing with the situation each time you came to work. It is unfortunate that those who do not take their duties seriously were able to make it impossible for you and that they managed to railroad you into leaving your job. I can assure you that they are commenting about their victory. Now they can return to their status quo, the DON can rebury her head in the sand and as far as they are concerned, all is well. Please be aware that this is something that you may find time and time again as long as you stay in the field. You will have to come up with your own way of dealing with the extra work involved in correcting errors and the discomfort encountered when it is necessary to bring things to other people's attention or when you get attacked or backstabbed for doing things the right way. You will probably never be a popular employee but at least your conscience will be clear about the kind of care you render. I hope you are able to find that rare place of employment where conscientious employees are not made out to be the bad guy. Good luck.

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If there were that many med errors you should have reported it to more than a nurse.

I don't "retaliate." It just isn't in my nature. But I cannot hide my disdain for tattle's and do-gooders and people who feel they are so flawless they become self-appointed directors. As a matter of fact, I would not even report a nurse I disliked if I felt it was an honest mistake on her part. Just a couple of months ago I was working with such a nurse on a private duty case. She is the kind of nurse who wants to walk in a place and take over even if that means pushing you out. In fact, she was downright rude and I couldn't stand her. Anyway, the patient was on an insulin schedule of 60U in the AM and 20U in the PM. Noticing that the patient's blood sugar was unusually high one night (almost 400) I looked through the MAR to see what had been signed off. Low and behold, she had mixed up the doses of insulin and gave the 20U in the AM instead of the 60U. I could have jumped on the phone and started filing incident reports all over the place, but what would that have accomplished? Really? Made me look like a big hot shot who can do no wrong? Earned brownie points for myself? Feed my ego?

I could see the patient was not going into shock, sure, her sugar was higher than normal but is that not why we had the sliding scale? I did make note to let her know about it ASAP but she was moved to another case before she could come back.

Mistakes happen. Yes, technically there is a so-called "right" thing to do but is it really the right thing to do? Not always. We have to use some common sense and to people who cannot discern the difference there isn't really a lot that can be done to get them to understand.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

There is such a fine line between telling and doing the right thing and then, understanding that some mistakes do happen. Usually, I try and tell the nurse involved, and I have never encountered bad feelings in my young career, but I have seen people get railroaded from the other nurses, the DON and others.

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If there were that many med errors you should have reported it to more than a nurse.

I don't "retaliate." It just isn't in my nature. But I cannot hide my disdain for tattle's and do-gooders and people who feel they are so flawless they become self-appointed directors. As a matter of fact, I would not even report a nurse I disliked if I felt it was an honest mistake on her part. Just a couple of months ago I was working with such a nurse on a private duty case. She is the kind of nurse who wants to walk in a place and take over even if that means pushing you out. In fact, she was downright rude and I couldn't stand her. Anyway, the patient was on an insulin schedule of 60U in the AM and 20U in the PM. Noticing that the patient's blood sugar was unusually high one night (almost 400) I looked through the MAR to see what had been signed off. Low and behold, she had mixed up the doses of insulin and gave the 20U in the AM instead of the 60U. I could have jumped on the phone and started filing incident reports all over the place, but what would that have accomplished? Really? Made me look like a big hot shot who can do no wrong? Earned brownie points for myself? Feed my ego?

I could see the patient was not going into shock, sure, her sugar was higher than normal but is that not why we had the sliding scale? I did make note to let her know about it ASAP but she was moved to another case before she could come back.

Mistakes happen. Yes, technically there is a so-called "right" thing to do but is it really the right thing to do? Not always. We have to use some common sense and to people who cannot discern the difference there isn't really a lot that can be done to get them to understand.

That is a GREAT post!!! :balloons:

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