Sex in the workplace.....what do YOU think should be done?

[pawsomepooch47]

Recently, at our small community hospital, the only hospitalist on the 7p-7a shift wasn't answering his pager when a CCU nurse was looking for him about a patient. After several attempts to reach him, she went looking for him, thinking he might be sleeping(that's allowed) Upon hearing voices behind the sleep room door, she summoned the Nsg supervisor, who found the door to be locked. She in turn got a maintenance man to unlock the door. Behind the door, she found quite a sight. The hospitalist and an off duty nurse. She was naked, he scrambling for his clothes. Both are married--not to each other.

She was given a mere 2 days suspension. He works for a physicians group that staffs hospitals, and we have not seen him since.

She has worked for the hospital for many years. What do YOU think should happen to her?

[Kendel.G]

Lol...Its Grey's Anatomy come to life! Lol ;-D

[WildOne]

I feel bad for that nurse. Word will get around and she will prob get treated differently and get snide marks sent her way.

Now this is affirming the stereotype that nurses and doctors are having affairs at work. greeeat

[Creamsoda, ASN, RN]

She's off duty, so not really her problem? Like another poster said, unless theres a "no sex policy", ( I bet one will be written, haha). The issue is the Doc. What if it was just the Doc and someone who didn't work there, they can't really do anything to the consenting individual because they don't work there except ask them to leave the premise. Its the doctors problem, he should not have been doing it obviously especially when theres patients to take care of. The hospitalist group hopefully did something, but I'm not sure how doctors are reprimanded for things like this.

[Old.Timer]

Maybe the CCU nurse should be suspended for not knocking on the door with a sense of determination and needing a nursing supervisor to figure out the door was locked.

nurse156 and I are of the same generation of nurses. Regardless of your moral belief, this is something that our generation learned how to handle, especially if you worked in an academic facility. That's just the way it was sometimes.

You also knew if the docs had any dirt back then because there weren't pagers and cell phones. The answering service called the doc's home phone to reach the senior resident and attending they were on call. So....... if they weren't going to be at the hospital or home, they told the night charge nurse on the floor exactly how to get in touch with them. Didn't want the hospital calling their home looking for them when they were supposed to be at the hospital.

Come to think of it , that may be one of the reasons that relationships seemed less advesarial between nurses and docs long ago. We knew all the dirt and they knew it.

That might just be an aha moment in the decline of nurse-physician professional relationship........ the advent of the cell phone. LOL

[bratmobile]

FIRED ...both of them, life isn't an episode of Gray's Anatomy...but hey what happens off campus is no one's beezwax...have some class,, be discreet,, even if the RN was off duty it was wrong to distract during on call for the doc..you can always pork off hours..

[bratmobile]

too freaking funny

[Andy Droid]

After several attempts to reach him, she went looking for him, thinking he might be sleeping(that's allowed)

Nothing should have happend to either one.

She was off duty, so unless they're going to try and charge her with tresspassing or some such nonsense, she's free to do as she pleases.

He was allowed to be asleep, so it's not like they can yell at him for not being somewhere within 15 seconds of being paged.

They had a locked door between them and any witnesses, so it's not like they were going at it in the hallway, cafeteria or waiting room.... they were concenting adults who showed discretion.

[cardiacrocks, BSN, RN]

Oh please, this happens in ALL hospitals, don't be so naive. I'm not condoning it, I'm just merely stating fact. I know many doctors and nurses that are married, ummmm, how do you think they met! I for one would never do this, however I could careless what others do. On that note, I will say the doctor should be replying to texts, especially if he is on duty, I'm not exactly sure why she was suspended, unless like OP stated it might be a policy in the workplace.

[merlee]

He needed to be answering his pager. Whatever else was going on was nobody's business. If he was truly outside the accepted time for answering, then his manager needed to be notified - in the morning.

Repeat - it was nobody's business. And I am glad that I was never caught!!!!

[amoLucia]

Some facilities expect that an off-duty employee leaves the building when the shift is over. Some are very strict about it, so this may be a problem for the involved nurse. Her unauthorized presence was interfering with the job availability of another on-duty professional.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Hmmmm....Let me get this straight--I go to find the hospitalist, in a room where he could be asleep. The door is closed. but there is noise coming from the room. Uhm, what about KNOCKING on the door? To stand outside the door, hear noises, then go get the nurse manager, who confirms noises, then to go get maitenence to unlock the door is creepy, uncalled for, and oh so none of anyone's business. It doesn't seem like anyone was banging (no pun intended) on the door. If I were to go wake up the hospitalist, I certainly would not just walk right in without a few healthy knocks on the door, and if he were asleep, the noise was the TV, I wouldn't be too thrilled to have someone let themselves into the room while I was sleeping. Is there not a landline phone in the room that could have been called? Perhaps there should be. In any event, the nurse was off duty. The hospitalist has a responsibility to respond the page, and he did not. Whatever is happening between the two is none of anyone's business but their own.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Educate her about STDs. I bet his crabs have herpes...

Make her attend safe sex classes and define what a safe sex partner is.......

I had this happen once in a LTAC. I need the MD NOW. He wouldn't answer his page. He wouldn't answer the phone. I went to the sleep rom and I knocked alright....with my foot. I let him know in no uncertain terms he had 10 seconds to open the blankety blank door or I would call the fire department to break it down.

The off duty nurse he was with?? She's off duty...but I did tell her, her choice in partners is disappointing.