travduck

Sounds like too many nurses I have seen and who have left nursing. May I suggest that you look at rural small hospital nursing for a while, you will usually not have the time constraints of large hospitals, also you will see things that you wont in large hospitals and sometimes these are not familiar to other staff either so you bond in learning together and expand your own and everyone elses knowledge. Out of the box nursing positions such as home health, hospice or palliative care, corrections, clinic work in field that appeals, external education, travel nursing with emphasis on smaller employers, admissions nurse, immigrant care, public health clinic, diocese care, clinical trials nurse, or other. It may necessitate travel or moving (short or long term) but may be well worth it. Hang in and good luck - there is a place for you somewhere in nursing.

Any body remember sitzbaths that were fastened to the wall and you had to schedule time for your patient. Baby isolette chain to take 10 babe to ten moms. Patients who came in "just" for tests when they were already scheduled for major surgeries. Having to write a 5 to 6 page "care plan" on each patient and then actually following it. Having to round on each patient every hour and talking to them to get report of their condition and then verbatim charting what was said. Parents who could only visit during certain hours and no siblings allowed. And what was that green soap that you had to wash with in any procedure. I swear I had to check my hands sometimes to seebif flesh remained. The nurse as P.T., R.T.. Psych tech, Discharge coordinator. Insurance clerk, and Columbo for any and all problems, plus maid, cleaning personnel,aand general factotum.

Oops forget two of my favourits. Mixing chemo without gloves or Lammy Hood. Being told that nurses didnt need lifting or ambulation assist as only Professionals such as P T knew how to manage such things. Course we were always able to call the Lift Squard unless it was after hours, a w/e, a holiday, or one or more were outvwith back injury. But I did like the days of IV teams and assigned floor based Code teams which are going away in multiple areas. And do you remember being "informed" of your patients stats by the little on the door or above the bed push through tags likr DNR, NPO, ect.

Giving backrub and foot rubs. Menu choices instead of "standard fare for assigned diet" Actually touching AND talking to your patient for longer than 30 seconds. Putting patients first not money. Nursing administration and management who were actually ecperienced nurses themselves. Respect and ability to make change. Nipride watch. Actually sitting/staying with labouring patients Teaching patients one to one. Fire drills instead of gun fire drills. Circumcisions wuthout strap down boards Receiving verbal report post procedure, and giving report verbally preprocedure. Heated blankets and sheets in the winter with bedwarmers. Don't miss wires taped to hall floors which always seemed to magically appear on the way BACK down the hall wuth the crash cart. "Diploma" nurses. Coin drop testing of nonfitted sheets on plastic spraycovered mattress. 2weeks in bed postpartum. Home follow up of new moms and babes by delivering staff.

Ouch - hope you are not in supervision or management. Talk about eating our young, How about a hand up rather than a kick in the stomach? Not what you say but the vitriolic manner of the statements, and the assumptive manner that because you walk on water and control the weather that anyone who oops is "bad". Systems fail and though you know of no mistakes on your part doesn't mean that it might be there. Bless you please with a softer soul.

I agree with Nurse Beth but also think that if you know your drugs well, which you should it might be a good idea to do a quick scan and if something is jumping out at you to mark it and notify the pharmacist. I check my patients meds as 1) many patients are obtaining medications from multiple doctors/clinics and filling at multiple pharmacies thus increasing the possibility of not only interaction but also overdose. And 2) currently working on psych at the moment I have, in

I agree with amoLucia. This is partially a systems error. There should have been notification from the pharmacy for such a gross change in medication dispensed. If you went to a private pharmacy they sure would have covered their derrieres by making the error wasure that you were aware of such a change. But, as you have noted, the error was compounded by both the person who obtained the medications and by yourself as administrator of the medication. Having said that - yes we have all made errors in the past and until there is somehow invented a foolproof system invented, we will continue the occasional error. You were blessed in that there was no harm to the patient but now you know - and I'll bet you ne'er make the same mistake. Now put your energy into closing the gap in the system and in making sure that you build your own foolproof system based on what you were taught in school. And Yes I have made errors also and, so far, been blessed in not having a patient harm error on my conscience. Hang in.

While possible that this nurse would not be implicated in the actual fraud, if discovered she could be charged with being an accessory after the fact. Besides reporting stat she can also consult the legal department of her BORN. Also - does she really want to abandon her patient to fraudulent caregivers who are willingly committing a breach of ethics. What other yuckie and anethical behavior are they engaging in. If facility is found out later then this nurse must live with the stain on her own reputation and ethics as she knew it was happening and did not report it.

Just go ahead and list your references who you feel will give you a decent reference. I constantly get reference check requests for past workmates whom I have not heard from. I am honest about the references and if I have trouble remembering the person I just say that I am no longer working with that person and can the reference checker please refresh my memory. Only once did the requestor get huffy. They have (finally) gotten hold of an actual person and they would really like to get the reference. Most of the time just finding out where we were supposed to have had professional contact is enough to stir up the old brain cells enough to give a decent reference. Good luck.

Unfortunately, for all concerned, in the majority of management positions you are required to keep a running log of any concerns and who they were discussed with, even if there is nothing specific. After all the situation just might become "serious: and if it was not documented how are the supervisors managers to back the supervisor when he/she cannot "prove" that they have recognized the "problem' and had begun "corrective action". The first step in corrective action is to notify the "offending" party that there is or could be a problem. Then it is up to the "offender" to correct the problem even if they have not been given sufficient information to correct or even know the reality of the problem. To actually delineate the problem might, after all, result in the problem being solved or in the power being taken from the insinuator. But, unless you work for one of the about 1% of medium to large businesses, somewhere there is a note that will 'exonerate' the supervisor, and the more Draconian his/her manager and the corporate miasma are the more likely that the note will be 'enhanced' to your detriment. Which is why I much prefer small facilities that are non affiliated.

If you were spoken with there is a written report of that conversation in your supervisors file or in your supervisory file. Unfortunately.

Sounds bad. Maybe consider getting a registry job and pull one day a month. Then if things get ugly you have a foot on a lilypad from which to jump. If in a year you can get the writeup pulled then it may be square one again. But be sure to ask for and secure a personal review of your supervisory file and get a written itemization of the contents. Yes I have worked in places where the file was hidden and in places where the file was 'sanitized' before review only to be 'unsanitized' and even added to after review. Good luck and unfortunately, in the nursing field, that may be the definitive actor.

Sounds like you worked in a few of the places that I endured. Yes, there are good managers out there BUT they are often as bullied and lied about and fired as the nurses that they manage and are sometimes fired because they seek to 'protect' their employee from worse from either high-up or lateral damage. This is a particularly gruesome habit of governmental see-nothing, do-nothing administrations. I had a championly wonderful manager at the start of my career and foolishly thought all managers were like her. But it does seem as if the last 20 years has bred a spectacularly "toxic" form of manger who seems to believe that since they were able to secure their job that they can go Machiavellian and everyone will cheer them. Unfortunately often they are correct, because those above them are shielded from the cost of the pristine management figures (real or enhanced) that they submit. I heartily salute the manager in nursing who is aware that preservation of staff, except when so mismatched that they must move on, is not only the best for the employees but is also best for the company. And likewise mourn the Caligulan managers who mange for the glory to themselves.

Amen. I worked for the worst most bullying and "my territory -I'll eat you before I let you near it" places in the state (even if no one wanted their swamp ridden territory) They bullied another nurse to the point of her being taken by ambulance to an ER with possible MI. It sounds like we went thru the same nasties, I too had in multiple "centuries". But you do survive and realize that the horrors of having endured was not worth it - unless your last patient whose life you saved would not have been saved sans yourself. Give yourself a hug -

[quote=Heathermaizey;878526 Relax after graduation and get settled into this new life. ! I absolutely agree. For several reasons 1) this time at a job will give you 'real life' experience on which to hang the BSN teaching; 2) you MIGHT find that, after all that, you don't like nursing; 3) working will give you an appreciation of the "differences" between the levels of nursing education; and 4) this time may give you an opportunity to take some further classes either at college or on line that will 'lighten the load' when you do return to school. When you get employed notify your employer that wish to return to school after a time to further your education, they may have a program that will assist you and they now know your intentions and may be more likely to work with you to both prepare you and to work with you once you are back in school.

One other suggestion - IF your time in non-L&D Maternal/Infant care was good AND in the same facility - you might ask to be retransferred back to that unit. State your reason. Unfortunately closed units can become excessively clannish and while it MIGHT be something that you actually did it LIKELY is nothing you did but is a 'take it out on you' for something like they had someone else in mind for the job, they don't like transfer "ups", you are the wrong whatever, or they feel threatened by their own insecurities. These things you can NEVER conquer. But if you can return to your old unit it is sometimes amazing as to the change in attitude and you may be able to return at a later time, especially if you can now, (after having had the orientation) "float" there as needed where you are perceived as a 'help' not a 'threat'. Also you can just wait out developments in staffing and management. Try the things that Beth has suggested, but I would be absolutely sure that my union rep was aware, and if you are continuing to have problems I would have a discussion with the HR person and/or the person above your manager. It's possible that there has been past events of a similar situation. Non-relational nepotism is unfortunately not unusual; or your manager may be the root-source of the problem. Be prepared for further fallout though. Remember - almost all of us (nurses) have been there. Try to have a 'back-up' by applying elsewhere also. Good luck and hang in.

Nope - its a teaching opportunity. Guess I'm just a "patient is a human being" person. And yes I have run into the yucky bucks out there - including the doctor who told his patients that their saliva was bad for them and they all went around town spitting into cups. The same doctor informed his patient that the pain in her ovary was due to the baby(near term) sticking its hand out thru her tubes and squeezing the ovary. (In some cases you have to educate around the 'source document.'

You might have a chance IF you informed your employer WHEN you were hired. But the last 2 -3 months of the year are not only short-handed months for most hospitals but also can be VERY busy as patients overindulge and overwork and often are depressed because of season disappointments. Also it may depend on how long your "orientation" was and how long your probation will be. Now that you are "oriented" if you go off on a leave - it may be more difficult to slip right into the job. But, as said, if you were professional enough to have informed them of your possible job interruption your schedulers may have made arrangements. If someone gets "bumped" from their requested time off to accommodate you, you may return to bad feelings which will not make it easy to integrate. Congratulations and may your next forever be in a cloud of love and cherishing.

Have you written directly to the OLTC with a complaint. Expungement is expungement; forgiven is forgiven; dismissed is dismissed in most cases. If you are a member of a union - utilize their legal service department to help yourself to "expunge" this record. Most lawyers have a 30 - 60 minute no fee period that you can access thru either the lawyer referral service or state legal services. You need to get this off your "record". It might, in the long run, be worth a legal fee to get assist to accomplish this.

Good for you. None of us know everything or did everything yesterday. Better to look it up and then clarify if there are still questions rather than do harm. Lots of time you may already know - just not by that name or you have a n on-boxed type patient,

"I started walking down the hallway to the nurse manager's office and he chucked the hard chart at me, which bounced off the back of my head." I hope you sued, in a civil court, for assault until the moment before the chart hit you, and battery for the impact of the chart; or at least let this assaultive "A**" know that you had the right to greatly shorten his shift the moment that you walked to the phone and dialed 911.

"The noc nurse is on leave. Her absence was foreknown. This is a failure to plan on management's part -- not an emergency on the OP's part." thank you for having read, and digested and understood the original message. It bothers me that so many never bother to actually know what they are replying to. Makes me wonder if they bother to find out that their patient who now is in a meningital coma originally came in with a healthy pregnancy that underwent a C-section.

:Mummy: I'm so old and crusty that it done falled off o' me and I had to have these overall gauze wraps applied. 70 yo and still working, 52 years experience. Boy am I crusty.

"I would respond by saying: "I agree that everything you're saying needs to reported to the state, if you write down what you're telling me and sign it, then I'll be happy to send it in for you"." As a very long time nurse I absolutely agree with you. About 30 years ago I got the same threat, as I was leaving, on my last day of employment, and ended up working a 24, yes 24 hour shift. By the time I got to the airplane to go home a few hours later = they thought I was drunk. I had a hard time getting on the plane but, again - different times, I made it and ended up sleeping all the way across the country. My aagency was, fortunately for me, very unhappy with the hospital and informed me of "rights" and I believe that they filed nasty's with the hospital upper management. Since then I grew up, found legalities of great and lasting interest and having "served" in administration - now know that yours is a wonderful solution. It puts the ball back in their court. Unfortunately, many of our young are where I was then. As a Supervisor I know that mandation is only for last minute emergency use, and a notification of the possibility has to have been posted either at hire, or prior to the event with sufficient time for the employee to have read and understood the new policy. Too bad that so many administrative personnel believe that their title entitles them to act in a Caligulian, Machiavellian manner, thus risking not only their own license but a civil suit for threat(assault). If their is union representation then the union should be notified which will give the nurse the basis and proof for any later action. Notification to the BORN legal section would also be usefull especially if someone is fool enough follow though and commit libel.

Ours is $5.00 across the board. Some prisons charge on everything and let the inmate protest; others almost don't charge on anything and others follow the rule of charge except for chronic care, return appointments and emergencies. When I worked in appeals for this half the appeals were real, others were outright waste of time, and others were manipulation gone bad in that the charge went in when they had money and then they were left short to pay for their commissary.