Mobbing support - threats, hostile work environment

[NurseBrittney]

I have a meeting with my manager today.

I know that she feels I am the problem. I have asked to transfer shifts as well as opportunities in the hospital in the past, only to be told explicitly now. I have expressed my concerns to my boss before in regards to my treatment and she calmly listened, and seemingly took no action. My best guess is that she assumed it would just go away.

I was physically threated by a coworker Sunday when she stated to another nurse "I am about to kick her ***". This was because I asked her to work as a team. As charge nurse she has to help me take care of my patients, if she feels I am not doing an adequate job. She refused. Stated she did not have time to do my job. All this while my patient was being appropriately cared for.

For a year and half I have faced challenges with these 4 women. But I can honestly tell you now is the first time I have feared for the safety of patients among these nurses. I also notice they throw other new nurses, techs, pulled nurses to the wolves and often call other departments and nurses "stupid". I fear my my safety at work as well. I don't want to go into the med room, supply room, or walk to my car at night for fear of a verbal assault.

I am doing my very best to do the right thing. 2 of the nurses will be leaving in December, for different opportunity. 2 will be left.

I really enjoy the patients, doctors, and care I am allowed to provide in my current position. I have so much faith in the good of mankind that I hope for these best out of these situations. I also am fearful for the safety of these patients. Not so much with them, but the patients of nurses that aren't in their social group.

What can I do to make this better? How can this be fixed?

[NurseBrittney]

Another nurse involved the charge nurse, they are best friends. She thought there was an issue and that I wasn't handling it. There was never a question in my mind as to whether or not the patient was breathing appropriately. There was a question of malfunctioning equipment. When I voiced this the charge nurse, she stated to another nurse, because she would never directly address me, " I had her all day yesterday and it was fine." I had checked her on the portable o2sat multiple times, and had replaced the probes several times as well. I wanted to call the physician to ask if we could discontinue the sat monitoring, but charge and the other nurses stated that would be "inappropriate" because they felt she had respiratory issues.

I asked the patient and family several times if she or they felt she was have any difficulty breathing. They told me no. The alarm sounded 6 times that I know of. 6 times in 6 hours. I attempted to remedy the problem each of those times, but apparently, not to the their satisfaction. At about the 4th hour I asked for help, because I was unable to correct the erroneously alarm on my own. Help was refused to me. She continued to insist it was not the machine and that there was a problem with respiratory status. I disagreed, continuing to site my frequent assessments and portable pulse ox reading. She refused to listen to me or acknowledge anything I had to say other than to tell me she did not have time to do my job as she sat with her arms folded chatting with the other nurses as "FREE" charge.

My boss believes the other nurses over me. She had already written up the disciplinary form prior to hearing my side of the story and refused to alter it in any way. When I asked her if she asked any other nurses about the threat the nurse made to me. she stated she did not. At that point she wanted to end the conversation and told me that if I wanted to pursue the threat, I would have to do so with HR that she could not substantiate my claim. She pretty much spent as little time discussing my concern as possible, and as much time telling me how i handled things inappropriately and i should just be quiet, go with the flow, and not nitpick.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

Out of curiosity, why was it so important to you to convince her it was the machine? Why couldn't you just say, "She seems to be breathing okay to me, but if your think it is a respiratory problems we should certainly call the doc."

I have learned it is better to bend like a willow in the wind than stand fast as an oak and be broken.

[NurseBrittney]

She had already called the doctor before she made those statements. I continued to stress that I thought she was breathing OK, and that the patient stated she felt fine. I was told by charge I needed "better assessment skills".

[Blackheartednurse]

Jules A said:

Lol, I wasn't complaining about my position just adding that it might not be the charge nurse's sole duty to do other nurses work as some have written.

Definitely you have a right to refuse to be a charge nurse--also in general charge nurses get compensated for their extra duties..lastly I was talking about charge nurses who dont carry their own patient load and basically sit on their *** all day eating salads or drinking coffee.

[Blackheartednurse]

Pepper The Cat said:

I remember one day when I was

Charge plus had a full patient load - and as we practise Total Pt Care that means I was responsible for every aspect of my pts care - plus all the Charge duties. At the end of the day, a new staff member was complaining to another nurse that I never helped her. That nurse came to me around lunch time and asked me if I had helped "Jane" at all that morning. I said "No - she never asked me for help and besides, I was pretty busy myself". She then said "Well, Jane only had a 20 minute break in the morning". I informed her that that was 20 minutes more than I had gotten so I didn't really know what more Jane wanted from me. It never occured to Jane that if she was busy with the easiest assignment on the unit (we always try to give new staff member easier assignments) that perhaps the person in Charge might have just been too busy to help her.

to the OP - are you sure that the Charge Nurse never checked your pt? Could she have checked the pt when you were in another room? And did you every tell your charge nurse that the sat monitor wasn't working correctly? Or did you just assume she knew? How much info were you providing the Charge Nurse? And just perhaps she saw something that you did not which is why she called the MD. I know that when I have been charge and have discovered something critically wrong with a pt, sometimes I let the MD know first - then the nurse.

I'm not saying the Charge Nurse was right, and you were wrong, or vice versa. I'm just looking at it from another perspective.

Ok but you were a charge for one day ,so what your point again?

[metal_m0nk, BSN, RN]

SuesquatchRN said:

I have learned it is better to bend like a willow in the wind than stand fast as an oak and be broken.

Heh...And then some charge nurse comes along and decides to sit on your willow limb until you have no choice but to break in order to be free to do your job.

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

Toomuchrock, I'm confused with the pulse ox incident. Were you in with the patient every time there was an erroneous alarm? What were the alarms set at, were her sats/heartrate dropping when she slept, did you try a new machine?

If you were not in the room and seeing this pt with your own eyes while the alarm was going off I would not have asked to D/C monitoring either, sounded like something was going on.

But that does not condone workplace bullying and should be handled assertively by you and management.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

toomuchrock said:

Another nurse involved the charge nurse, they are best friends. She thought there was an issue and that I wasn't handling it. There was never a question in my mind as to whether or not the patient was breathing appropriately. There was a question of malfunctioning equipment. When I voiced this the charge nurse, she stated to another nurse, because she would never directly address me, " I had her all day yesterday and it was fine." I had checked her on the portable o2sat multiple times, and had replaced the probes several times as well. I wanted to call the physician to ask if we could discontinue the sat monitoring, but charge and the other nurses stated that would be "inappropriate" because they felt she had respiratory issues.

I asked the patient and family several times if she or they felt she was have any difficulty breathing. They told me no. The alarm sounded 6 times that I know of. 6 times in 6 hours. I attempted to remedy the problem each of those times, but apparently, not to the their satisfaction. At about the 4th hour I asked for help, because I was unable to correct the erroneously alarm on my own. Help was refused to me. She continued to insist it was not the machine and that there was a problem with respiratory status. I disagreed, continuing to site my frequent assessments and portable pulse ox reading. She refused to listen to me or acknowledge anything I had to say other than to tell me she did not have time to do my job as she sat with her arms folded chatting with the other nurses as "FREE" charge.

My boss believes the other nurses over me. She had already written up the disciplinary form prior to hearing my side of the story and refused to alter it in any way. When I asked her if she asked any other nurses about the threat the nurse made to me. she stated she did not. At that point she wanted to end the conversation and told me that if I wanted to pursue the threat, I would have to do so with HR that she could not substantiate my claim. She pretty much spent as little time discussing my concern as possible, and as much time telling me how i handled things inappropriately and i should just be quiet, go with the flow, and not nitpick.

Sounds pretty bad. It would appear you are on a sinking ship and need to jump. I would leave - not a good work environment and they will be looking out for things to get rid of you.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Blackheartednurse said:

Ok but you were a charge for one day ,so what your point again?

Actually almost every weekend I work I am charge plus a full load because we drop down 1 nurse on weekends.

My point is that just because the Charge nurse doesn't jump in and help you out, doesn't necessarily mean she is just sitting around doing nothing.

[NurseBrittney]

As I have stated before, she was.

[Jules A, MSN]

Blackheartednurse said:

Definitely you have a right to refuse to be a charge nurse--also in general charge nurses get compensated for their extra duties..lastly I was talking about charge nurses who dont carry their own patient load and basically sit on their *** all day eating salads or drinking coffee.

Are you a nurse yet? Not trying to be smart just that some of the things you write don't sound like any of the experiences I've encountered while working as a nurse, not that I've seen it all yet. ? At my hospital sure you have the right to refuse charge but you'd be looking for another job rather quickly.

[NocturneNrse]

Oh dear, if you're feeling hostility toward you PLEASE REPORT IT IMMEDIATELY! I've made the mistake of letting things go... and it has only made it worse for me.

Good luck !