Published
I am a fairly new DON at a 118 bed facility in East Texas. We have a new administrator who I thought I liked, but things are not so wonderful right now. A couple of weeks ago, we had a new resident with psychiatric issues in her history. She had been living alone, but was sent to a hospital and subsequently placed in our facility by Adult Protective Services. One evening, she had an episode and got very angry. During this time, she began yelling, felt that she was being held against her will and began calling the police every few minutes. There were no medications ordered, so I called the physician on call for the nurse since I was still in the building. She refused the injection and I called the administrator. She told me to tell the nurses to hold her down and forcibly give her the medication. We did not feel that was a prudent plan of action and I called my regional nurse consultant. She was not available, so I called the lead nurse consultant for our corporation, who told me not to do what the administrator instructed. My beliefs that this was battery and chemical restraint were confirmed by her.
Yesterday, I was reprimanded by the administrator for calling the corporate nurse. She said that I should not question her directives and should have done what she told me to do.
Also, when I was hired, I was told that I was on call 24 hrs a day. The ADONs (I have 3) are on a call schedule. This administrator told me in a meeting that I would be in the call rotation from that point forward. I asked if that meant that I would not be on 24 hour call and she said "No, you are on call all the time, you will just take a call rotation, too." Last week, she announced to the ADON on call that I would be taking 2 shifts that Friday (16 hours) as charge nurse. I have not worked a floor in 13 years. I have an MSN with an emphasis in nursing administration and have been an occupational health nurse for the last 13 years doing case management and managing a clinic for a healthcare system.
I feel I should look elsewhere and now. Suggestions? I really do want to stay in long term care. Am I crazy - is this normal behavior in LTC?