Hello all! I have been a nurse for 3 years and I received my first write up a few shifts ago. I'll summarize what happened.
I was notified by my shift leader that I was going to be getting a patient (I work in critical care) who needed a warming blanket since out floors are not allowed to have a patient on a warming blanket. I prepared my room and was waiting for the nurse to call and inform me when she was bring the patient down. Over 45 minutes go by without any call. I am busy helping another nurse who has a patient that is crashing when my new patient rolls through the door. I said "oh you didn't let me know you were bringing him down." she replied "I thought you knew you were getting a patient" I told her that I was aware but nurses typically call to make sure it is okay to bring the patient up in case that nurse happens to be off the floor. The tech handed me my patients clothes so I tossed them over so I could help move my patient to the new bed.
A few hours go by and the nurse from the floor called to inform me that she was writing me up because of my "unprofessional attitude" because I, apparently, was rude and threw the patients clothes very aggressively. I had our tech and another nurse in the room at the time that can back me up and saw that I did not do that. I may have snipped at her when I mentioned the not calling thing so I apologized for coming across as rude.
I have already discussed it with my manager and she said that I did the right thing by coming to her. She told me that it seems like a petty write up and that nothing more would come of it. I am just worried since I've never had any issues before. Any advice would be helpful.
It sounds like you were helping an unstable patient. I use to work as a tech in hospitals. I have heard of nurses receiving verbal warnings for not working with their assigned patients if there is enough staff working with unstable patients. I'm just guessing.
Nurses have very different personalities and ethics. Just be careful who you work with.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
I would chalk it up to the other nurse having a bad shift, poor coping skills or some such and extend them (and yourself) the grace of letting it go. You learned something and now you can get on with it, no problems lingering. Maybe that nurse is always like this or maybe she was just not dealing well that day. Either way, if you didn't use your words and actions to communicate intent, do better next time and if you honestly didn't have any kind of passive-aggressive thing going on with the clothes then shrug it off and make note how it came across. This isn't worth your brain space in the grand scheme and I have never been a fan of "watch your back" mentality. That only has as much power as you give it.
If your manager is backing you up, and your concern is mostly about you getting in trouble, I would not spend another moment worrying about this situation because clearly it is a nurse being petty because she is having communication issues on a bad day type of situation. If anything you can be thankful that she doesn't work on your unit LOL because I guarantee you if she's escalating over something this minor, she is also creating trouble on a regular basis where she lives.
Maybe there is a tit for tat here. What is the policy for calling the receiving nurse? Just wondering. Yea, we all get a bit miffed when things don't go like they are supposed to. AND some people are so sensitive. I would have just shrugged it off if someone acted like that to me. Not everyone has such thick skins though.
Hello all! I have been a nurse for 3 years and I received my first write up a few shifts ago. I'll summarize what happened.
I was notified by my shift leader that I was going to be getting a patient (I work in critical care) who needed a warming blanket since out floors are not allowed to have a patient on a warming blanket. I prepared my room and was waiting for the nurse to call and inform me when she was bring the patient down. Over 45 minutes go by without any call. I am busy helping another nurse who has a patient that is crashing when my new patient rolls through the door. I said "oh you didn't let me know you were bringing him down." she replied "I thought you knew you were getting a patient" I told her that I was aware but nurses typically call to make sure it is okay to bring the patient up in case that nurse happens to be off the floor. The tech handed me my patients clothes so I tossed them over so I could help move my patient to the new bed.
A few hours go by and the nurse from the floor called to inform me that she was writing me up because of my "unprofessional attitude" because I, apparently, was rude and threw the patients clothes very aggressively. I had our tech and another nurse in the room at the time that can back me up and saw that I did not do that. I may have snipped at her when I mentioned the not calling thing so I apologized for coming across as rude.
I have already discussed it with my manager and she said that I did the right thing by coming to her. She told me that it seems like a petty write up and that nothing more would come of it. I am just worried since I've never had any issues before. Any advice would be helpful.
It’s petty. I wouldn’t even let it phase me, but I’ve developed a much tougher skin over time. I do really try to control how I talk to people and only get upset about significant (harmful to patient) things, and still control myself. It’s hard to always maintain your composure. We are humans, and we are fallible. Don’t be too tough on yourself (or the other nurse, she or he was probably just having a bad day and being super sensitive) and don’t let that bother you!
Nurses have told me that incidents like these happen more in nursing than people think. People getting written up for doing their jobs. Even non nursing staff get disgusted by it.
Some managers I have worked with will not agree with follow up from write ups because they don't agree with why that person was written up.
FYI non-nursing staff do it plenty themselves, LOL. Heck I will *** at someone who's not giving me report on a bad day. Now I will never not ever ever ever ever write them up or snitch but I am definitely not beyond showing that I'm irked if a patient gets dropped off on me with no report which by the way is not even remotely safe unless you're working outpatient with an established triage system.
studentnurseASN
59 Posts
From the sound of it, this does seem petty.
It sounds like you were helping an unstable patient. I use to work as a tech in hospitals. I have heard of nurses receiving verbal warnings for not working with their assigned patients if there is enough staff working with unstable patients. I'm just guessing.
Nurses have very different personalities and ethics. Just be careful who you work with.
Hope things turn up.