Nurses rat on nurses

frannybee · Feb 17, 2003

99% of the nurses I've seen/heard "ratting out" on other nurses have done so to protect their patients. When patients put their lives in your hands, your loyalty must be to them as much as to your fellow nurses. It's not a case of giving up on anyone or of loyalty to "the system", but a case of upholding the code of conduct of nursing, which implores us to protect our patients. Male or female has nowt to do with it.

:chair:

memphispanda, RN · Feb 17, 2003

Would you rather people cover for each other's mistakes? There are all sorts of problems with that, number one being patient safety.

leeca · Feb 17, 2003

When l went for an interview l was asked whether l would report a work mate who was doing something unprofessional, and l said that l would approach the work mate first to find out why they did what they did, but if their attitude didn't change then l would report them.

Personally l feel that if a co worker was doing something wrong and l kept my mouth shut and something happens to the patient l would feel l am responsible for what happened to patient as well, because l didn't say anything.

You will find that sometimes patients die because of unprofessional conduct not being reported, l'd rather "rat" out a nurse than live with someones death on my conscience.

Nurse Ratched, RN · Feb 17, 2003

If by "not ratting on" you really mean "covering up for" then I hope you are never in the position of seeing another nurse do something inappropriate or harmful to a patient. It's not "us against them" as in staff versus management - it's "all of us FOR the patient."

kids · Feb 17, 2003

Originally posted by frannybee
99% of the nurses I've seen/heard "ratting out" on other nurses have done so to protect their patients. When patients put their lives in your hands, your loyalty must be to them as much as to your fellow nurses. It's not a case of giving up on anyone or of loyalty to "the system", but a case of upholding the code of conduct of nursing, which implores us to protect our patients. Male or female has nowt to do with it.
:chair:

Very nicely put!

Katnip, RN · Feb 17, 2003

It's a little scary, really. Just what are EMS people keeping silent about?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 17, 2003

We out there "fighting" for our patients lives not each other. Firefighters may be a bit unique in their culture of support.

Sure there is bickering and gossiping and even backstabbing. This isn't because it's a female dominated field. Check out some of the male-dominated fields like business, finance and computers, same happens there. Sometimes when that occurs, it covers up the fact that 99.9% of the time nurses are providing good care, supporting one another, helping each other.

litepath · Feb 17, 2003

~~Tell us more about the silence thing...that sounds very interesting??

**SKM-NURSIEPOOH, BSN, RN** · Feb 17, 2003

i'm afraid in this sue happy times we live-in...it's best to watch what one does in order not to get into trouble by someone else. in other words...cyo (cover your ass)!

i understand where ya coming from...your more or less speaking about the little things that a fellow nurse might forget to do on the previous shift...& your right about those things. but unfortunately...it becomes a force of habit with some whom take other nurses for granted. i know because i've seen where some will only do the bare miminum...pushing-off work they're very capable of doing onto someone else because they perceive them as being easy or new to the scene. i've seen seasoned nurses whom are at the top of the salary ladder push-off work because they say they're tired & can hardly do the work anymore...some feel entitled to the extra help from the newly arrived nurses whose salary are at the bottom of the ladder. is it fair for the newly hired nurses to have to pick-up four hours worth of work left by the other nurses before they can start their shift's work...just because they're new? or how about the seasoned nurses whom keep cleaning-up the newbies' mistake over & over again...is that fair to them either? everyone's got a license that they're responsible for...so they should be very careful how they conduct themselves with regards in performing their nursing duties. folks can & should be professional with regards in how they communicate any problems that they're experiencing among themselves without having to *report* their fellow co-worker to the charge or supervisor. sometimes...this isn't always possible...so ya just document what ya do & just how ya did it & be done with it. if someone else constantly doesn't do their job or didn't do their documintation where they should or they forgot to do something that is potentially life threatening for a patient...then oh well...they get reported. there's only so much *covering-up* i would be comfortable & willing to do for another nurse without jeopardizing my license in the process. sorry.

cheers!

moe

sjoe · Feb 17, 2003

rsc writes: "I have had feedback from others who attribute it to the fact that nursing is a female dominated profession but that does not feel right. Female firefighters adhere to the standards of silence as strongly as their male conterparts."

As you pointed out, nursing is a female dominated profession and firefighting is NOT.

New CCU RN · Feb 17, 2003

Just out of curiosity what types of things do you feel merits a write up?

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