New DON encourages tattle-tails

[Kashia, ASN, LVN]

Is this common practice to encourage staff to come "share" whatever about other staff....she says so she can know what is going on???

Then , the sign posted on the door read:

CNA's!!! Earn the prize....whoever charts the most often pain level along with

other vital signs will win a prize!!

Perhaps this post belongs in the humor section.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Our CNAs were once told that they would "win a prize" if they didn't lose our portable O2 sat probes after a week. Insulting.

[caliotter3]

I found this practice to be common in LTC facilities, but not the fact that it is openly encouraged as you suggest in your post, or seeing signs meant for the CNAs like you describe. Somewhat more subtle, but still the way things were handled.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

My standard refrain as Mgr is "If I don't know about an issue, can not review and if warranted take action"

That includes missing referral information, Captian Nemo RN arriving late 30 min 3x week past 3 weeks, computer not working, out of coffee filters X 1 week, toilet backed up in 3rd fl BR...

[AliceRN]

Kashia,

It depends on what you mean by "sharing". The DON may be trying to find out what the issues are on the floor. I am wondering why CNA's have to be coaxed to do their jobs??? Pain is the fifth vital sign, period. It seems she is taking a lighthearted approach to get people to do their jobs. If she is collecting and spreading nasty gossip then you have a problem. Some managers repeat EVERYTHING that is said in their office and that is dead wrong!

[l150]

I have a DON that wants to know EVERYTHING. This DON is a major control freak , has favorites and has done some incivilbility. She constantly threatens jobs ,especially of good hard working staff, but her faves can do no wrong. No matter what they do or how much they mess up. I can go and on. The staff is finally sick of her. I hope your DON isn't this bad.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

It depends on the managers motivation. I always encouraged the staff to come to me with issues. If I had no way of knowing there would be no way I could address them.. I frequently would use a reward system to launch a new directive to get the word out there about how to better improve the performance and compliance on the floor. Even simple scratch tickets were worth the few dollars or so to get the staff on board.

You get a lot more bees with honey.

No, if the boss is using it for strictly punitive means or encourages mean girl gossiping then it is wrong. I had a no whining sign and I did not promote gossiping. If they were just whining I had the Bi*#% box they could place their complaint without ramifications. I would read them just to be sure I didn't need to pull some back to being nice....but I would have open table whining sessions between offending persons to resolve issues. Sometimes I just would say....Ok.. you two don't like each other. No one is asking you to be friends or have dinner together...but you do have to act as professionals and work together.

ps. If the CNA's were losing the pulse ox's I too would offer a reward for their safe keeping... AND have them signed out to each individual and returned at the end of every shift. They are expensive!

[MomRN0913]

Why are CNA's charting pain levels? Isn't that typically a nursing assessment?

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Esme... fair enough about the pulse ox probes BUT they weren't losing them. We have disposable probes and a few years ago they thought about trialing the re-usable ones. The day we got them, an email went out that said "If the CNAs don't lose them after a week, there will be a prize." It seemed like they were basically saying, "we expect that you will lose them." I don't know whatever came of this, but my floor still has the disposable ones that are good for all of about 14 minutes. And they are ridiculously expensive- like $8 each!

And to the OP- I actually don't see any problem with a manager encouraging people to "share" if they have concerns. Sometimes there are legitimate issues that need to be addressed. In my institution, on the other hand, management has spies around that report back to them any time anyone says anything the least bit unfavorable towards them. You can barely sneeze on a night shift without them finding out.

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

I think the DON is going to find it will backfire on here. That is what happened to the DON at my facility. She was having nurses and CNA's calling her and saying "Well, CG was mean to the CNA again. And A. told the nurse to go to hell and the nurse didn't write her up for it and blah blah blah blah blah". My DON now screens her calls. Some of the calls were petty (Such as the nurse I work with calling and telling her that I was mean to the CNA for making her do her job).

Using the chain of command works so much better.

[ccso962]

I agree with some of the other posters that the motives or intentions of the DON has to be taken in to consideration. That said I have worked at a place (outside of a hospital or LTC facility but still connected to the medical field ) where there was a policy that if you saw any other coworker doing anything that you knew was wrong (even if it appeared they were just confused) you were NOT allowed to offer advice or help, but were REQUIRED to report it to a supervisor immediately. This was not just for worker safety issues either. The supervisors were more likely to get on to the person they thought had NOT reported something than the person who performed the "wrong". The end result was that this policy created all manner of animosity among coworkers. People were always trying to decide which coworker was the one that had ran to supervision. This policy didn't last long because a new supervisor above our supervisors was put in place who immediately recognized the failed logic and problems with this policy.

I have learned, however, that sometimes supervisors feel that if they are not getting on to someone for something then they are wasting their time. Sad that it is this way with some people, but some people really let leadership go to their head. Others really think that "staying on top" of all the gossip, problems, and issues is the best way to lead. Like I say I think sometimes it depends on the motives and intentions of the supervisor, but on the flip side the supervisor shouldn't do something that sends the message that they are promoting a back stabbing culture.

Being able to go to a supervisor when you witness something that could hurt a coworker or patient should always be encouraged however.

[nursel56]

It's the words "about other staff" that bother me. That sounds like she's looking for informers. I'm extra sensitive to that because I once worked with someone like that. She sucked the life out of what was a really good job otherwise.

If it's just the type who wants to put a smilie-face sticker on everything - you'll have cope with each new idea! Those people generally mean well . . .even if it does end up seeming like she regards everyone as more juvenile than they really are. :)