KatyM

Thankyou. Yes I am in an Intensive care unit. The whole situation has been stressing me beyond belief. I've waited years to find my niche, and have finally found my 'calling', and really want to make a difference. I've not worked much in my past (teen mum) have battled mental health issues myself, and when I finally embark on something I've been waiting to do for years, I encounter this. I've only been there for eight weeks, and have hardly had time to build my own confidence with the basic issues within the job, but I can't ignore this, yet I suspect that such are the staffing levels, and the demand to supply a qualified member of staff each shift, that sometimes a blind eye is turned. I don't know. A qualified member of staff tenatively touched base with me last night about Zealous' behaviour, and we swapped notes. It was also hinted that I should 'watch my back', and was told to make sure I kept accurate logs on incidents. it's not so much the 'official' responsibility I carry, or not as the case may be, but the moral one which is chewing at me, my current inaction and how that effects the patients, but on the other-side of the coin a good working relationship is fundemental to the team in this kind of environment, and I'm not convinced the Z is disliked enough on a personal level among the team for me not to be sent to coventry (so to speak) as a result of being the new upstart who has made waves. If this happens I will never cope in the environment and won't be able to offer my strengths to the system in the longterm. This is what I am going to do. I'm going to chat with my Clinical advisor and tell her exactly how I feel, and suggest (and I think she will back me up on this) that I request that I am not put on the same shifts as her as much as they are able to cater for that. The guy who draws up the shift pattern is my favourite member of staff, and has been absolutely invaluable to me as my unofficial mentor (I never received one, there has been a staff turnover, my official mentor was off sick when I joined, and no replacement organised, so they all kind of mentor me), he doesn't consider himself my mentor I'm sure, but I see him as such. I shall simply tell him that although I realise that I am being unorthodox, that unless I am able to avoid working with her as much as possible then she is likely interfere with my confidence and progress in finding my feet with this job, and that I want to be able to build this confidence before I have to deal with working with a member of staff I find difficult. I shall tell him that I have no intention of going into detail with him as I realise the conflict of interests involved in airing such concerns among team members of the same level or lower, and that I'm simply asking that he cater for my reservations by taking the fact I have difficulty on board whilst drawing up the rota in future. Meanwhile I will have aired my concerns with my clinical advisor who happens to be an extremally close friend of my 'mentor' and is on a different team, and I shall give my permission for her to discuss this with him if need be. I know he dreads working with Z too! He is also my Union representitive, so any concern I have will be taken extremally seriously by him, but I think he is a lower grade than Z. I am hoping that between him and my advisor, Z will be watched/considered more carefully and hopefully a more senior member of staff will report an issue (and there's always plenty of them) that they get to witness first-hand. The latest shift involved a disorganised schizophrenic with learning disabilities (the guy who goes through periods of not liking to be touched) who, whilst on his unescorted time out for the first time brought a lighter back to the ward, which is he is not allowed to have, she demanded he hand it over, and he refused. She asked him several times, and eventually told him that if he didn't hand it over that she would restrain him. When he looked as though he was going to continue to refuse, she hurriedly put down the papers she was holding, and jerked toward him as though she was going to restrain him, her body language suggested she was being emotive. I was the only member of staff in the immediate vicinity, and I do not yet have C&R training. What was she going to do? Grapple him to the ground herself?! Luckily he decided at this point to hand the lighter over, but never once did it occur to her to say for example..... "Now you know you are not allowed a lighter on the ward, how about we put it in your box in the storeroom, you can come with me if you like and put it in there yourself and then maybe you would like to go for a cigarette?....or Now come on M, you've been so good, you managed to get your unescorted time out, and we are really proud of you, you came back on time and everything, I don't want to see you lose that over something as silly as a lighter...." Later there was a potentially violent issue between him and another patient, and as I just managed to persuade him to back away from the situation, and was calming him down/reassuring him, she approached him and said; "I'm going to tell the day staff you had a lighter" He responded that he didn't want to get into trouble and that he had only just managed to earn his time out, to which she replied "Yes, yes, you WILL get into trouble" This immediately after a volitile incident :angryfire: Later still he promised to buy her chocolate when he had his time out the next day, and when she excepted, he became excited and asked what chocolate she wanted, whether she wanted a bar or a box of bars (she said a bar would be suffice) and could she write it down so he wouldn't forget, and looking pleased with herself she then pointed to her cheek and asked for a kiss, which he became uncomfortable with. She stuck out her cheek for ages, saying "come on, come on" and when he eventually summoned the nerve to say he didn't want to, she pointed to me, and asked whether he'd give me a kiss, he said "No", so I told him it was ok, and that he didn't have to. She simply laughed at him. This is what happened before during and after the touching incident with Zealous The incident which followed, may well have kicked off anyway, but it makes me think, especially when Z has a reputation of violent incidents occurring more often when she is on shift. Another thing she does is every time I request members of staff with C&R training to help me deal with a potentially volitile patient, she offers herself and rarely asks for another. As far as I am aware C&R is worthless unless there are at least two members of staff with this training. She seems to think she is a one man army. The amount of times we have has to bolt from a room is beyond count. I need to be more assertive, but it's difficult when I've not worked, and am finding my feet, and my confidence is becoming battered each time I work with her (she tends to nanny me/ pull me up on stuff on the main ward). Ironically I am becoming more capable of being firm with the dangerous patients on my ward, but she is a nightmare, she never stops to listen. Katy

Edited the first post so it's less of a handful. Katy

Eeek! I'm really sorry. I must have missed one (auto message). I have had one non-obscentity censored though....maybe it was that? Katy

A senior staff member on my PICU unit is overzealous and provokes the patients. She has a terrible reputation for the alarms going off when she is on duty. The other day she deliberately tapped a very ill patient on the arm after he told her that he didn't like to be touched. I'm new, and the other staff just get exasperated with her, but nobody actually takes any action. I believe she puts the staff and patients at risk with her behaviour. What can be done about her? Katy