beausilk74

Noted. Thank you.

It sounds like you are doing the exact same thing. Doesn't it?

No need for me to single out who said what, again, we are all different and we see things differently. If you didn't catch it then you didn't see anything wrong with it. So let it be. Anyway, we got side tracked about the whole thing. I didn't mean to upset anyone but apparently I did.

Don't get me wrong, I am with you on what you said in the first paragraph. It is a part of our job as a nurse to be as independent.

Yes, some responded as encouraging the OP to think through, but some flat out was condesending towards the OP. That was uncalled for. And why is it different? So are you saying it's ok to be rude and mean because it's online?

I am all about teaching, learning, and sharing the knowledge among each other to promote a team work. I thought this forum is for to support each other, but obviously I am wrong.

So if someone asked you something like that at work, would you say "find out on your own" instead of sharing your information/knowledge? All I was saying is that what's the harm in being supportive of one another.

Yes, I agree with you that the OP could have looked it up in a drug guide or the internet, however, my point is that if there is nothing good or helpful to say about it, it should have been better for us not to comment on it at all. Some comments on here are very condescending and I just thought that there is no need for that. I have been through this kind of behaviors at work and I just wish that we all can work together, even online as professionals.

Can we be nice about this and just help OP out? Yes, it could be in the nursing student thread, but I think it's worse that you guys are mean about the fact that OP asked the question.

I am uncertain if others did the same thing and i was the only one got told on by the patient's wife. Even if they did, i am not surprised that i got fired. Because, that is the kind of the floor i worked on.

Red Kryptonite, how would you say it during an interview? I am hopeful that there got to be a job that I would enjoy more but I am very worried that I would end up being at a job that I am unhappy again.

Absolutely, I can't agree more. I am glad, in a way, this happened sooner than later. I understand that sometimes in nursing practice, there are some situations that are strictly black and white but some situations requires to be flexibl( no matter what policy says) to better care our patients and their family members. Hopefully as I gain more experience in nursing, I will figure out when to, and when not to. AND administering medications were definitely when it had to be black and white.

I keep thinking that I should have resigned instead of letting my employer to fire me. I know it's too late. sigh~

I am learning how to cover myself better but I just didn't see this coming. I am not sure if I am just that naive or too trusting or something, I tend to believe what people say. I know it sounds bad. I used to be in the military for 10 years and I never had to deal with this he said/she said BS but now that I am in this field, I started to realize that it doesn't matter what he/she said, I need to find out on my own for sure. And the patient was a MD.

First of all, THANK YOU so much for taking your time to read my concerns/questions and giving me such helpful comments. I am a RN, and it was my first job right after nursing school. I worked at the Oncology floor and it wasn't my first choice but I thought some experience would be better than none, especially when it was tough getting any nursing positions at that time. (I am sure it still is). Anyway, it was my first time EVER to ask a family member to give medications to the patient for me and I physically have given PO meds to the patients except a few times when a patient said "I will take them later". I know (now) that it's NEVER ok to leave meds either at the bedside or with patients to take "later", it was just a bad night for all of us because we had so many heavy patients. We usually take care of 3-4 patients and on the first night, I only had 3 patients, and one of them was a total. So I spent a lot of time taking care of him compared to my other "stable" patients. Then the next night, when I came back, the 4th patient was added to my assignment. So having two patients who both had expressive aphasia, it was a challenging night for me so I did ask a charge nurse after my shift was over that I would like to take over someone else's heavy patient so I can at least communicate with them to provide a better care. Then of course, I was asked not to come in that following night and the next thing you know, I was fired. So this is how my floor is like. If you are in their circle of trust/friends, you can't do anything wrong. They cover for you for everything and anything but someone like me misses one thing, you get write ups. I never have gotten annual evaluations for 2 years I was there. Actually I was on my maternity leave when my manager was doing evals, then when I returned in Sept, he didn't say anything until 2 weeks ago which he cancelled on me but I was never contacted to be rescheduled. So, I feel like I never had a guidance/direction. Is this something I will lose my license over? Gosh, I really hope not. I read it somewhere that by law, hospital has to report me to BoN that I got fired. Besides those mistakes I have made, I was alway punctual (I was NEVER late) and never called in sick in the first year. I did a few times after having my baby. Anyway, thanks for caring!! It means a lot to me.

I was written up before but not for the same reason. I was never warned and I have witnessed others doing the same/similiar things (yes, I know, it still doesn't make it right to do it) ...(like leaving meds at the bedside or leaving "extra" meds that patient takes at the computer, etc...). So I really thought it was okay. After reading everyone's comments, I understand it now. It sucks that I lost my job but I am glad that noone was hurt and I learned a valuable lesson. However, I will have to elaborate on how my floor is like later. Thanks for your comment.

It was my fault that I didn't clarify whether the day RN statyed in the room to observe the patietnt take the pills or not. We hardly ever talk to each other (and I am intimidated by him). Now that this happened, it would have been better off if he didn't mention anything about his wife "assists" with the pills. I thought it was "ok" to do it because it sounded that was what they "do". And thank you so much for questioning that.

I must say, I am still giggling after you mentioned "with the exception of those giant bottles of bowel prep solution" and thank you for making me laugh. I definitely needed that.

Hello all, I need some advice from nurses who have been in my shoes in the past or any constructive advice that can help me move forward from this ordeal. I was terminated from my job after according to my employer's statement, I falsified documentation by scanning medications but physically I did not witness or give PO medications to a patient with expressive aphasia, instead I left medications to his wife to administer. So this is my side of story. After scanning all the medications, as I attempted to administer them, however, he (he is a MD) was not cooperative which it could be due to his medical condition or just he didn't want to. I am not sure exactly why he was not cooperative. So I asked his wife (according to a day RN during shift report, she administers medications for the patient) if she wouldn't mind giving them to him. She agreed to it and I left the room. He was not on aspiration precautions so I was not worried about him aspirating, it just takes time for him to swallow PO meds. I didn't clarify with my employer whether that day RN did the same thing or not but I knew my employer would not have disclosed that info anyway. I have been working on that floor close to 2 years and sometimes patients are not ready to take their medications right away for whatever reasons, then I would leave them at bedside until they are ready to take. Was this wrong? Was I supposed to chart as "refused" if they didn't want to take them at the time medications were due? Please help, I think my head is going to explode and thank you for reading my post.