Accusations

Nurses Relations

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Specializes in ER.

Ok, I'm pissed. So a nurse accused me of not charting on a patient two months ago. I want to say ******** on her claims but there is no way to prove either way. This came up today at shift change.

First it pisses me off. She couldn't give me concrete details. It started out as a psych patient and then it was a chest pain that had elevated trops. Two totally different patients. Of course she "remembers" that I didn't have a critical patient or something that would explain why I didn't chart on a patient for two supposed hours. She is also certain that the patient was not moved into the room from the waiting room. I also wasn't able to compare chief complaint to entire complaint (which could explain a potential delay for tasks such as a vague complaint may not fit into any protocol orders). Heck the other day there was a bounce back who turned out to have an elevated trop at a different facility.

I also wonder if she didn't know where to look for stuff. We switched to a new charting system that did cause some people grief. I did well because I've used it before and I had a few ideas how to chart items.

I'm mostly pissed because there is no way to defend myself. It is vague details that happened two months ago. She claimed she hadn't seen me since then except I saw her last month. She claims that it isn't her place to babysit me when I asked her why she didn't say something. She also said I must not have been dinged because she did all the charting.

Anyway, I'm pissed. That is a serious accusation. I can't prove either way whether I did something or not because of length time and how vague her claims are. I usually over chart on patients although with the new system it is hard. I haven't heard anything from any of the charge nurses or the nurse manager so that is also frustrating since I can't defend against some vague claim that may have been not charting on a psych patient or may not have been a chest pain with an elevated trop. Heck, I can't go back that far without flagging in the system to show her x, y, z.

In fact, around that time a charge nurse said my charts had been passing all audits. Now, it's just the ones that they flag but still.

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

Sounds like she might even have the wrong dang nurse. She seems too flighty if you ask me for her accusations to be valid.

Regardless, I'd be livid too!

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Specializes in ER.

I'm not as mad as I was but I am still annoyed. She did say that she shouldn't have brought it up but seriously, if you accuse someone you should have the story straight at least. Not "I think he was a psych" and then a few minutes later think it may have been a chest pain with an elevated trop.

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Unless she's your boss I'd tell her to pound sand. Surely if you really did miss some charting, a supervisor, not a peer, would be tracking you down.

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I say unless she can give you the actual patient's name or medical record number to verify, it is a non-issue.

I might be bold enough to tell her that next time she decides to critique documentation, she needs to make sure she has her facts and patients straight.

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Did you hand this patient off to her or was she doing audits? Doesn't sound like t or you would have heard about it long before now.

If not what the heck was she doing in the chart to begin with?

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Specializes in PICU, Pediatrics, Trauma.
I'm not as mad as I was but I am still annoyed. She did say that she shouldn't have brought it up but seriously, if you accuse someone you should have the story straight at least. Not "I think he was a psych" and then a few minutes later think it may have been a chest pain with an elevated trop.

I agree with what others have said about her being "flighty" etc... I understand your anger/annoyance, especially when it comes to trying to defend yourself months later for a patient you don't even remember or cannot even get consistent info on. Just let this be an example of what not to do yourself. I also don't understand the "Im not your babysitter" statement. Whatever happened to the days where we nurses supported one another? Why not bring it to you in the moment, in case you did make a mistake, so you can correct it? Maybe it was a chart audit...who knows? Just know you will be criticized by some who have nothing better to do than to bring another down when they are insecure about their own practice.

Do your best to defend yourself when and how you can and let it go.

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