Parents and Firing Nurses

[sunny17]

Hello,

Just wondering how your units handle these difficult situations, where a parent ( for whatever reason) tells the manager they do not want this nurse taking care of their baby anymore AKA firing a nurse!:argue: Does your unit follow through and not allow the nurse to care for the child or do they use another strategy.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

unfortunately we have had these situations...usually its a personality issue. i think it hurts the unit overall if parents are allowed to dictate who cares for their babes, especially if the issue isn't really a matter of care given, then its ridiculous. i think management should step up and support the bedside nurses in most circumstances, i can't imagine such a thing happening in an adult icu.

i've worked in adult icus for 25 years, and i have to laugh because it happens here, too. in fact, the header caught my eye because we have a family up here right now who only wants certain nurses caring for their mother. why? because certain nurses ignore the rules in favor of pacifying the family. rules like "no more than two visitors in the room at a time" have been stretched to read "no more than 20 visitors." "npo" has been interpreted as "as long as the doctor doesn't catch me giving ice chips to this trached patient with an incompetent cuff" and if mom doesn't feel like being turned for 12 hours, she isn't turned.

i've found over the years that families who start "firing" nurses usually end up with the "scraping the bottom of the barrel" nurses who won't stand up for what's best for the patient -- and they're getting exactly what they deserve!