Springdaisy04

I was written up for something that happened over a week ago. One of my patients who suffered a stroke and is not able to move her arms and legs very well and has difficulty with speech asked me call her husband one night. I dialed the number for her like I've numerous times before. They video chat. I stayed a little bit because I had to hold the phone for her. I could not understand what she was saying to her husband. After the conversation ended, the husband called the facility saying his wife said she was punched in the mouth by her aid. I reported it to the supervisor and it was investigated and the CNA was suspended but has since returned to work. I initially said I was not in the room during the phone call which I was. I was wrong for lying. Now they were accusing me that I am the one who put the idea in the patient's head and that the family confirmed. Those are all lies, I never said such things. I was with the aid when she was providing care to the resident. I know nothing happened. I know it looks bad when I said I wasn't in the room during the phone call with the patients husband. I just meant that I didn't stay there long because I put the phone in the patient's hand so she can continue talking with her husband. I then left the room. I explained that to the DON and Administrator. However a week after the fact. I was called to the office and written up for not being truthful. I understand that but why did they take so long to decide to write me up. Why did they not write me up when it first happened if they felt I deserved it. Why wait so long. It doesn't make sense to me and seems a little fishy. Maybe I am exaggerating, I don't know. Please any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again. Sorry for the long post.

You are absolutely right? It is too my? Even 20 patients is too much in my opinion. I have complained many times and so have other nurses? They just do not care. On top of that we never have enough supplies to work. It is very disorangized. I think I just need to find a better place to work. There were many times I came close to punching out and going home but I am scared I will be accused of patient abandonment. I can't continue to have my license in danger. It is time to take a stand.

You are right about that. Thanks for the input. I know what to do next time. I'll be sure not to make that mistake again.

Hi I am a registered nurse at an LTC facility in Irvington NJ. I am writing because I need to vent about a recent event that took place. For the pass 4 months we have been severly understaffed in the subacute unit. We are supposed to have three nurses with 20 patients each but lately we have only had two nurses with up to 24 sometimes 27 patients a piece. The accuity has been very high with alot of trachs, g_tubes, IV,s blood sugar checks etc. This particular night on 10\11\18 I went to hang a IV for a patient and tried to flush the PICC line but it was clogged. The supervisor also tried but was unsuccessful. The supervisor informed me that they were having problems with this patients PICC line before. We tried several times to flush it but was unsuccessful. She told me to document it and let them know in the morning about it so they can take care of it. That is exactly what I did. That evening was so overwhelming. I felt so overworked and stressed. I didn't know whether i was coming or going. I did a double shift that night. I also had an emergency where one of my patients coded and died. It was a nightmare. Over a week went by and nothing was said about the patient or his IV not being given. Now today both the administrator and DON called me and spoke to me at the same time saying that what I did was unacceptable and I need to write a statement about what happened. They said they need to talk to me some more about it. I am really scared that I may lose my job. I told about the staffing situation and how overwhelming it was for me that night. They said that is no excuse not to give people the care they need. I told them that they can't expect patients to get good care when we don't have enough staffing. they just don't care. Could I have handled things differently. I appreciate any constructive criticism you have for me. It is getting very dangerous where I work at now. How can I go about this situation?

I am very proud of you for doing the right thing. We nee to report medical errors for the safety of the patients. I too was bullied for reporting a med error. I remember working at a LTC facility in Orange NJ. The nurses there had some dangerous practices. For example the day nurses would receive very critical labs such as K± 8.0, BUN 90, they would receive the results as early as 10am because on the lab sheet it would always have the time it was received and they would never follow up on it. They would wait for the next shift to come and say that they have take of it because they were too busy and didn't have time to follow up with the lab. They don't even stop to think about what could happen to the patient. There was one nurse who had a patient with high blood pressure of 160/90 and the it would not go down. So she calls the doctor and orders midodrine which we all know is for people with low blood pressure. Even though it was explained to her, she refused to listen and it gave it to the patient anyway. The blood pressure went up to 190/100. Thank God the patient did not have a stroke. Management stepped to handle the situation. We need to speak up more for our patients. That is what being a nurse is all about. Keep doing what you are doing.

Hi I just need to vent. There was an incident that happened with regard to a patient that needed to go to the bathroom. This was at a long term care facility that I worked at. This patient was awake,alert and oriented x 3. It was in a subacute unit. I working with a another nurse. The unit had 40 patients and we each had 20 patients to care for. This particular patient was on the other nurse's assignment. The patient put on the call light and I answered it. I then told a female CNA, who was there at the time and she said she would take care of it. I had three other patients who needed help at the same time. My patients were complaining of pain and not feeling well. I had to tend to them first. That is why I delegated the CNA, to take that patient to the bathroom. An hour later the same patient puts her call light on to go to the say that no one took her to the bathroom. I think it is odd for a patient who is very alert to wait that long before saying that no one came to help her. She should have put the call light on five minutes later when she saw that no one came. She did not. She waited an hour. The patient then called her daughter who then reported it to the DON. What bothered me the most was that the female CNA and a male CNA, went to the office and said that I answered the call light and that it was my job to help the patient. The male CNA was not even there when the incident happened. He was on his break. He had nothing to do with it. Yet somehow he goes to the office and states that I was the one who went into the room to help the patient even he never saw me go in there. The patient was not even on my assignment. Yet I was the who got blamed for it, even though I delegated the female CNA to help the patient to the bathroom. For whatever reason, she did not. Instead of dealing with her, they blamed me. I feel I was treated unjustly since I was terminated for that. Irealized that I should made sure that the patient was cared for but the CNA should have been dealt with too. She was not. Sometimes I feel that CNAs get way with too much. I feel I was treated unfairly. What do you think? Hope to hear from you soon.

I am a registered nurse and I work in a LTC facility. I have some practices to me that are not safe. For example, there is one instance I member that involved levemir, long acting insulin. I was always taught that you never hold long acting insulin even if the blood sugar is low. As long as the patient is eating and has their snack, it is ok to give it. This one in particular kept holding the levemir and writing that she held it because the sugar was very low at 90. According to this nurse if the blood sugar falls below 100 it should be held. She was holding it consistently causing the resident's sugar to be high on the morning. Some mornings it would be 200, 300 and one morning it went up to 700. The patient ended up having to go to the hospital in the ICU. I spoke to nurse about this before but she refused to listen. She taught she knew better than everybody else. She try argue with everybody because she had to be right all the time. This time she endangered a patient's life. I did not report her because I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. How else could I have handled that differently? Any input would be much appreciated.

I am a registered a nurse and I work in a long term care facility. I noticed that some nurses like to whine and complain. I remember at a previous job I worked at, also in a LTC facility that there were certain nurses that like to complain. One nurse in particular, her name was Mary X was always whining and complaining that I was helping her enough. I was the charge nurse. I did all the charting, followed up on all the lab reports and carried out all the orders. I would also handle any emergency that would come up. I was in charge of two floors and the supervisor was in charge of the whole building. I would also do the fingersticks and hang all the feedings when I wasn't too busy. I also did all the admissions. Yet this particular nurse was still whining. Nothing I did was enough for her. It's like she wanted me to do her job too. Any thoughts on this?

I feel your pain. I am a registered nurse and mostly work at LTC facilities. I deal with lazy cnas all the time. Some of them are very negligent and don' t really care about their patients. It makes me wonder why they entered health care in the first place. People like that can really put your license at risk. Quit your job and find someplace else to work. It is not worth the stress or hassle to stay there. For your own well being, best thing to do is look for another job.

It was in a longterm care facility. I was talking about 2 managers from the same workplace not two different workplaces.

As a new nurse starting out of course you are going to make mistakes. The DON had the habit of correcting me in front of others and yelling at me for every mistake I made. I remember crying often. She made feel like I was a complete failure. One manger I worked with said everything I did was wrong and my documentation was wrong. The other manager always said good things about my performance and that my documentation was flawless. What does that tell you? I know what I am talking. No other management has ever complained about my documentation or skills as a nurse. It is foolish to expect nurses to be perfect. I've seen other nurses sabotaged too. It happens very often. Stop turning a blinds eye to it.

Why is it that nurses are always reporting other nurses. Nurses have gotten fired over it. I myself got fired because of nurses reporting on me and telling lies on me. I had the don from hell at my first job. She would yell at me and humiliate me in front of others. The other nurses would say things about me that was not true. The DON would always believe them .i ended being fired because she claimed my documentation was a problem. At another job, my supervisor refused to back me up when a patient refused assessment upon admission. I was terminated from that job too. There is so much backstabbing in nursing. I can't understand why. Any advice on how to handle backstabbing nurses. 12/19/198112/19/1981