Nurses reporting nurses to BON

[adria37]

Do you think self policing of the nursing profession harms or helps professional cohesiveness. Doctors rarely testify in court against a fellow doctor and you rarely hear them degrading another physician to another. I wonder if nurses quickness to call the BON against another nurse and the way nurses talk about other nurses has as big an impact on the public and other healthcare providers view of nurses as professionals as I think it does.

What brought this on was I heard a nurse talking to a patient about another nurses skills (IV access) and to tell whoever scheduled her to put them on her schedule. This struck me as the height of unprofessionalism.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I think the culture of doctors protecting other doctors through a code of siilence is dangerous.

We don't hear about it, but it's not necessarily rare. Even if MD's aren't reported by MDs, but by lawyers suing them they still face a medical board of MD's and they aren't easy to please.

I say let nurses police nurses. No we shouldn't tattle on every little thing, and we don't. While there may be flaws, it works for me.

However, this is a completely different issue than the unprofessional nurse degrading another nurse to a patient. That is definately wrong and unprofessional. I agree with you there. I have heard doctors badmouth other doctors before as well.

[KatRNagain]

We call this 'dirty nursing' and it is the epitome of unprofessionalism.

We are currently dealing with such a nurse. She feels that by pointing out others in a negative light, somehow enhances her own level of self worth. This has a domino effect of low moral, paranoia, and second guessing.

The problem is, she's the one that picks up all the extra hours (and complains about it too) so she's not to likely to get pink slipped and cause a pretty significant shortage.

[adria37]

I have a friend that works at the BON in the discipline department. She said the number of bogus complaints against nurses by other nurses is astounding. I agree that dangerous behavior should be reported but she said the some of the calls are just vindictive with no merit.

[widi96]

If the nurse is truly unethical and behaving that way - yes it should be reported. If this is an accident that can be rectified in house, then deal with it that way. As for degrading nurses to patients - that is completely uncalled for.

[Dixielee, BSN, RN]

I must be pretty nieve and trusting. In 34 years, it has never once occured to me to report a nurse to the BON. I have on RARE occasion reported a nurse to a supervisor, but never to the board. My thoughts are that there are many layers to go thru before putting a nurse through that.

[PANurseRN1]

Just look at this board. It astounds me how many people advocate calling the BON over the smallest matters.

Follow the chain of command, first. It would have to be something pretty egregious for me to go straight to the BON. In 22y, I've only done it once, and believe me, it was a very serious matter, and there was no higher up for me to go to. It was the last thing I wanted to get into.