Hello, I am a registered nurse in need of some advice. In my place of work there is patient abuse, and staff abuse that has been going on for some time now, it is my belief that nepotism is keeping the abuser from the receiving the justice that they greatly deserve. The abuse is being committed by a fellow RN. I'll start with the first incidence I know of, the RN was assigned to care for a man on hospice with not much longer to live, the patient had no motor function from the neck down, and had a excessive amount of salivation requiring frequent oral care. At change of shift the oncoming RN found this patient with gnats all over his face with a "kleenex" box wrapped in a washcloth tucked under his chin , this was reported, nothing ever came of it. Another patient the abusive RN cared for required transfer to ED and died 2 days later, the nurse left this patient outside during the winter time for the majority of the shift, Foley bag ready to burst, patient skin reddened from the cold, unstable vital signs. Another patient of this abusive RN simply asked for a muscle rub cream to be applied to his leg, this RN decided to rub an excessive amount onto the patients genitals, this caused the patient a great deal of pain, some of the cream ended up in the patients urethra, the nurse laughed and bragged about it, when this particular instance was reported to management, the nurse manager said "he must have accidentally put the cream on the wrong body part or maybe he looked at the wrong order" the nurse manager even found the instance slightly funny ( this patient does not nor ever has received any cream to/for the genital area). A different RN made a complaint to management about the abusive RN stating that the RN threateningly backed her into a corner in a highly confrontational manner, the manager blew this off, the nurse suggested to the manager to watch the video recording as this event happened directly in front of a camera, the manager never watched the video, nothing ever came of it. Many patients on the unit frequently request/almost beg to have this person as their nurse. Patients say that this nurse is rough with them, rushed, this nurse frequently leaves the floor to smoke and is often not readily available for the patients. The abusive nurse has a family member that is a nurse manager on a different unit, that manager is friends with our nurse manager, both managers and the abusive nurse are friends with the manager's boss, who overseas all of the units in our section of the hospital. All of the atrocities have that this abusive nurse have committed have been reported to management, and nothing has ever been done about it. People are afraid to report to any "higher-ups" because we do not know how deep the rabbit hole of nepotism goes. The ethical nurses who have reported on these instances have been the targets of many forms of retaliation from management, including bullying, hostile working environment, changes to the nurses work schedule, false accusations despite documented proof (time stamps, camera recordings..etc) and many other forms of retaliation to the nurses who try to make a difference. If anyone has any advice on how to proceed please share, thanks... concerned RN
So its not such a straightforward problem @JKL33 especially when the appropriate authorities to report it to are the ones retaliating against the whistleblowers.
It seems that your subsequent posts contain relevant information that was not available when I replied. (Although many nurses have faced retaliation including job loss from much smaller players than what you are implying).
What everyone is saying is that your only option (according to nursing ethics and the law) is to report and figure out the rest later.
45 minutes ago, Ethical_RN said:
are you saying that pretty much no matter what that when i report this I will most likely have to find a new employer?
Maybe. But the question also is always, why do you want to continue to risk this type of environment anyway? I'm not saying that being terminated would be great or fine, just that you should want to get out of there and practice somewhere that their basic culture of functioning does not place you at inherent risk.
We reported this morning to our direct Supervisor, she said that the abusive nurse is currently under investigation, the "higher ups"are currently conducting patient interviews, the one thing I don't understand is why is this nurse still allowed to work during all of this? Also a little personal background info, I'm newer to this facility and I just started hearing about these instances from co-workers over the last 3 days, I'm also a fairly newer nurse, I obtained my aprn as soon as I was eligible to the program... So not a whole whole lot of experience, so I truly do appreciate the advice you guys have given me on here, it definitely helped when I talked to my supervisor..thank you all(nurses)
Calls to the BON are anonymous. I would still do that. They will start an investigation that does not depend on the cooperation of management.
Honestly I would advise you do this too. Since you say that nepotism rules in that place I certainly would not take "it's being investigated" as an answer!
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
15 minutes ago, CharleeFoxtrot said:
Honestly I would advise you do this too. Since you say that nepotism rules in that place I certainly would not take "it's being investigated" as an answer!
Exactly. Investigations of this type usually involve the subject being put on administrative leave. Still working while being investigated for outright patient abuse? Unusual and unlikely. A year from now when it's still going on and you ask about the investigation? "We didn't find any evidence." That's why you need to take it outside the system, like the BON.
OK first off, forget your legal liability for a second. You mean to tell me this woman has left patients in the cold and rubbed muscle cream on someone's genitals and you've done NOTHING? Not only should she not be a nurse, she shouldn't be allowed to touch someone's hamburger. Much less a human. She belongs in jail. I seriously hope you take everyone's advice. I understand you have bills to pay and need a job.
Once made a report to the authorities after I ignomiously left a job for being witness to abuse and such. Always wondered what happened. About two or three years later I found out there had been an “investigation”. The ‘complainant’, of course, me, being gone, no one else would breathe a word of truth. The perpetrator must have batted her eyelashes quite well since among other attributes, she was very attractive, and now she was being compensated as an RN instead of an LVN (me, I was unemployed). No good deed goes unpunished.
Specializes in RHIT with a crap load of medical experience..
I am not sure how your state handles issues like these but where I live, you can go online to Department of Health and Human Services and those guys will be at the facility. I would be dropping names, titles, family relationships and everything that has transpired. I would be on their website daily reporting this unconscionable behavior. There are lawyers that only sue SNF and enjoy it. I cannot wrap my head around this. You cannot even hold a patient tightly, that is abuse, especially when it leaves a mark on their thin skin. Please do something.
You need to find out the law in your state and for your level of care. In CA at least, reporting to supervisor is NOT considered reporting. In CA for SNF level of care, we call the local law enforcement, ombudsman and dept of public health. The facility has to do an investigation too. Please find out your legal responsibility and protect these patients.
One of my co-workers and I have submitted an anonymous report to the BON and ombudsman, I told the Co-worker about me reporting to a supervisor and he said "did you forget about all the nepotism around here" so we ended up deciding to report to the appropriate bodies. Thanks again for all of your advice on this, I will keep you guys posted, I go back go work in 2 days, hopefully that nurse will no longer be working by the time I get back.
One of my co-workers and I have submitted an anonymous report to the BON and ombudsman, I told the Co-worker about me reporting to a supervisor and he said "did you forget about all the nepotism around here" so we ended up deciding to report to the appropriate bodies. Thanks again for all of your advice on this, I will keep you guys posted, I go back go work in 2 days, hopefully that nurse will no longer be working by the time I get back.
JKL33
7,041 Posts
It seems that your subsequent posts contain relevant information that was not available when I replied. (Although many nurses have faced retaliation including job loss from much smaller players than what you are implying).
What everyone is saying is that your only option (according to nursing ethics and the law) is to report and figure out the rest later.
Maybe. But the question also is always, why do you want to continue to risk this type of environment anyway? I'm not saying that being terminated would be great or fine, just that you should want to get out of there and practice somewhere that their basic culture of functioning does not place you at inherent risk.
Good luck ~