Incompetent nurse

pdxrn · Jul 3, 1999

It's sounds like you have covered your bases as far as alerting your superiors, documenting the poor nursing care etc. I too, would say your next move is to alert the board of nursing...but before you do this, have you sat down and talked to this "50 year old nurse as a friend, not a colleague and really communicated how upset you are with her alleged incompetence? Soemtimes you will hear another story if you befriend someone and really act like you care about what's going on with her. Maybe she's in pain, or having troubles at home, or quite possibly she's noticed she's having trouble remembering things (could be early alzhemimer's?) May I encourage you to risk it and try talking to her 1:1 and really caring instead of just being ticked off about her not carrying her load. So many times there is a reason for poor care if only we would communicate better. If you are not satisfied with her answers, go ahead and write the board. Before the board though, I would also notify the county commissioner and your legislators as to the incomptetent administrators of your health dept. since they appear to be looking the other way on this nurses performance.

Oh well, just a thought.

pdxrn

ChristytheStager · Feb 28, 2008

I can relate to your situation. I work in an MRI dept were we care for pts from a level one trauma hospital and unfortunately there is plenty of oppurtunity for my incompetent co-worker to create possible life-threatening situations. Our dept recently hired this RN from a cardiac stepdown unit. This RN has given me and several other RNs in the dept reason to worry about the safety of our pts. The incompetent RN makes her own hrs, has stolen time, never signs out meds, hesitates to care for ICU pts when they are in the dept. She seems incapable of taking any accountability for her own actions and places blame onto others. She never asks any questions, disappears for 30-40 minutes at a time. On one particular occasion she choose to care for a vented pt that we had in the dept. I stayed at this RNs side until the vented pt was placed onto our MRI safe monitors, vitals were stable, the pt was settled and placed into the bore of the magnet. Following this, I left the pt in her care to attend to another pt in the dept. About 5 min later when I went to check on the RN I noticed that there was no longer a pulse ox reading, HR went from baseline of 70's to now 122, and pts ETC02 was up to 64-initially was 30's. I explained that the scan had to be stopped immediately. I pulled the pt out of the magnet and the pt was purple, sats were 98% but it was clear to me that the pt wasn't tolerating our MRI vent. I decided to bag the pt and asked her to get the ambu bag as well as get additional help. This RN had the ambu bag in hand, dropped it on the ground before hooking it up to 02 and began to ran to get someone. I had to redirect her and explain the basics. She later attempted to blame the respiratory therapist by stating that she had called them to check on the pt, respiratory came down and told her "isn't someone trained on this vent" and then resp left. She was unable to explain to me whether resp had done anything or changed any vent settings. Unfortunately, this is just one example out of many. Recently my mananger gave her 30 days to find another position or risk termination but I just found out that she meet with HR and they are going to give her another try. Her orientation has already been extended ~2 months. I am worried for the safety of our dept, and for the RNs that would have to work with her if they decide to keep her. I have definitely documented everything she has done and my manager/HR are aware. If it is our duty as RNs to ensure the safety of our pts, what can I do from this point? Should I contact the Board of Nursing....I fear that me and my co-workers will become a target, this RN has already made false accusations against others in attempt to save herself. Any suggestions????

linzz · Feb 28, 2008

I hope that one day your boss decides to listen to you before someone gets really sick. Both my brother and I have a lot of allergies. He once got the wrong vaccine and got very sick. I used to get allergy shots until one day, I received too large a dose, that was no fun enduring that. It is so unfair that this nurse' interest seems to be the priority to your boss. Hope this situation turns around soon for you.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 28, 2008

This is a friendly alert regarding the "old age" of this thread.

This thread was started nearly 10 years ago, although the information being provided still remains rather consequential and thought-provoking. Any advice that you decide to bestow upon the OP might not reach him/her, since this person has not been actively posting in a very long time.

Just a heads up. . .

lindarn · Feb 28, 2008

I can relate to your situation. I work in an MRI dept were we care for pts from a level one trauma hospital and unfortunately there is plenty of oppurtunity for my incompetent co-worker to create possible life-threatening situations. Our dept recently hired this RN from a cardiac stepdown unit. This RN has given me and several other RNs in the dept reason to worry about the safety of our pts. The incompetent RN makes her own hrs, has stolen time, never signs out meds, hesitates to care for ICU pts when they are in the dept. She seems incapable of taking any accountability for her own actions and places blame onto others. She never asks any questions, disappears for 30-40 minutes at a time. On one particular occasion she choose to care for a vented pt that we had in the dept. I stayed at this RNs side until the vented pt was placed onto our MRI safe monitors, vitals were stable, the pt was settled and placed into the bore of the magnet. Following this, I left the pt in her care to attend to another pt in the dept. About 5 min later when I went to check on the RN I noticed that there was no longer a pulse ox reading, HR went from baseline of 70's to now 122, and pts ETC02 was up to 64-initially was 30's. I explained that the scan had to be stopped immediately. I pulled the pt out of the magnet and the pt was purple, sats were 98% but it was clear to me that the pt wasn't tolerating our MRI vent. I decided to bag the pt and asked her to get the ambu bag as well as get additional help. This RN had the ambu bag in hand, dropped it on the ground before hooking it up to 02 and began to ran to get someone. I had to redirect her and explain the basics. She later attempted to blame the respiratory therapist by stating that she had called them to check on the pt, respiratory came down and told her "isn't someone trained on this vent" and then resp left. She was unable to explain to me whether resp had done anything or changed any vent settings. Unfortunately, this is just one example out of many. Recently my mananger gave her 30 days to find another position or risk termination but I just found out that she meet with HR and they are going to give her another try. Her orientation has already been extended ~2 months. I am worried for the safety of our dept, and for the RNs that would have to work with her if they decide to keep her. I have definitely documented everything she has done and my manager/HR are aware. If it is our duty as RNs to ensure the safety of our pts, what can I do from this point? Should I contact the Board of Nursing....I fear that me and my co-workers will become a target, this RN has already made false accusations against others in attempt to save herself. Any suggestions????

There are too many nurses who work on Cardiac Step Down Units, and think that they are ICU Nurses. I worked Cardiac Step Down before I went to work in a regular ICU. I was blown away by how much I did not know.

There is a big differance between Step Down and ICU. My impression is that this nurse just plain does not have enough ICU experience to safely care for the kind of patients that are brought into the Radiology Department for procedures.

More orientation in the Radiology Department will not make her a safer nurse to care for the types of patients that are seen there. You need a nurse who has sufficient ICU experience and can "hit the ground running", when they go to work. Orientation for this type of position should only have to include specifics of department functioning, department policies and procedures, etc. It should not have to include safely caring for patients on the ventilatior. etc.

This nurse probably thought that working in Radiology would be a "piece of cake" job, and applied for it. She needs to be accountable for he time, as well. One does not "disappear" for an hour, leaving co workers in a lurch.

She is clearly not the person to be working in this environment, and needs to go back to the Step Down Unit. JMHO.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

sasha2lady · Dec 16, 2009

Omg! Wrong injections to kids ok. I have a 2 yr old and I'll be the first to say that if I found out my son had the wrong stuff by an incompetent nurse the whole staff would be in a lawsuit cause I'd get a lawyer and they dig so if you're aware of this take it to the next level jhaco or whoever. Don't be a party to this and find another job before you risk your license because of poor mgmt and her. Sounds to me like shed be a better candidate for just calling pts to the exam rooms or cleaning instead.

caliotter3 · Dec 16, 2009

I wonder what the situation is now. Would hate to think that this nurse's thought processes have further deteriorated and that her political connections have protected her for ten years while she has continued to give the wrong injections to kids.