Knowledge or Information Hoarding

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I'm interested in hearing any of your experiences with nurses or other medical personnel deliberately not sharing important information that could or did have an effect on patient care. I know I've experienced this in the past with the "offender" stating they just wanted to see how long it would take me to figure so-and-so out. A trial by fire in their eyes, but a danger to a patient in mine. Anyone want to share?? Thx, Lisa

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Wow I'm not one to report much but that might have caused me to make a phone call unless it is your preceptor who had the issue under control. No one has tried that crap with me thank goodness.

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Specializes in CT stepdown, hospice, psych, ortho.

sorry, nothing relevant to add but your coworker was a jacka$$.

did they not chart whatever this was?

If it is a *big* deal or really could have adversely affected pt care, I'd consider my options carry the matter further.

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Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

That is just wrong. Wrong, wrong. We are here to serve the pt's best interest, not to test each other's mettle. Wrong, wrong. Talk to your boss.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, ER, Peds ER-CPEN.

I couldn't even imagine that! The facility I work for may be small, but I've never encountered that and I've been cross trained and worked all the units. I'd hate to see someone like that come into our family they would either change their stripes or place of employment :D if this is a co-worker are they insecure about something? or just mean spirited?

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

that is a form of passive agression and may be a violation of your facility's Code of Conduct. Make sure you have a witness when you call them on it.

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OP, are you working on your PhD

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Never if pt safety is a concern! Will I let them take a min to figure out why the pump's still beeping at them when I can see the clamped line? Yeah, but if they don't see it soon, I'll point it out. Also, absolutely nothing to make them seem incompetent. Or I'll ask them "Why are we doing this?" to try and get them to exercise their critical thinking and figure out why something's happening, but again, never if I'm actively concerned about patient safety (that'd be better done in a recap after the event).

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Specializes in ER/Geriatrics.

Bigger issue for me are nurses who don't want all the information at report time because they are too busy chatting about what they did last night with a coworker, texting or just generally not interested ......consequently these same nurses don't know how to give report at the end of their shift and so it is not information hoarding but just not having a clue

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I think it depends on how you would define information hoarding. Are we talking about the experienced nurse not telling a new grad what a drug is in an effort for them to encourage finding out on their own? I've seen plenty of folks complain about that but I don't really consider it such a bad thing...

Or, are we talking about watching you give depakote IVP rather than telling you that it needs to infused over an hour (or saying you can't give it IVP and need to look up the proper administration).

Sometimes giving information will make a person's job easier, but that's not always the best way for them to learn. Allowing a patient to come to harm rather than provide information is a bad thing, allowing a co-worker the opportunity to figure something out on their own (even if they'd rather be spoon fed!) may not be.

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Some examples of what I'm referring to are not giving complete information in order to make the other nurse look incompetent. Or knowing someone is going to do a procedure or give a medication incorrectly and letting them do it in spite of the fact that it may hurt the patient. I'm not referring to letting a new nurse figure out problems on his/her own when it doesn't cause the patient any harm.

I'm in a DNP program. I've had experience with this type of behavior in the past and was just curious about others having the same experience. I also collaterally work with someone who hoards knowledge. I'm looking for some approaches to take with this person.

Thanks for your posts so far!

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.
Or knowing someone is going to do a procedure or give a medication incorrectly and letting them do it in spite of the fact that it may hurt the patient.
Yes, this has happened and resulted in litigation. Jury Verdict 13.1 million.

EMS personnel allowed to administer a drug that would most probably be harmful. Two nurses knew this and allowed it (out of spite for the EMS personnel - ??).

Patient suffered permanent brain damage.

I'll have to look for the case name and #.

Edited to add:

This is an intentional tort:

Case Name and #: Columbia Medical Center of Las Colinas v.

Bush, __ S.W. 3d __, 2003 WL 22725001

(Tex. App., November 20, 2003).

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