We recently discovered a memo in the house supervisor's office from administration that clearly instructs the house sup.'s to work the floor short (no agency) if an employee calls in sick. I work med-surg. I guess they think the nurse's peer pressure will prevent unnecessary call-in's. This doesn't seem right or safe to me. I was thinking of the legalities of this and what would happen if there were a sentinel event (not to mention increased back injuries, nursing burn-out, patient satisfaction, med errors, etc...)?
Question for the OP- how was the memo "Found in the House Supervisor's office?" If you are going off of the memo alone, then are you not jumping to the paranoid conclusion. In my previous career, I received an e-mail (along with every other field manager) from our exec. vp as a directive to some very unpopular changes. We were scheduled to have a conference call to discuss it, but me in all my charm decided not to wait and called the VP to air my concerns. The VP saw my point of view and decided to scrap the plans. On the conference call, others were angry and litterally screaming their objections to a plan that no longer exists.
My point, is just because there is a memo, doesn't mean it is policy. Did you know that in the 13 states that were the originally Colonies, that it is still against the law to "cross a river, stream, or any other body of water on Sunday"- just because it is a written law, doesn't mean you are going to get arrested for crossing the Hudson River this weekend.
Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.
What a statement. The LTAC I recently started working for is all about money too. Their nurse to patient ratios is ridiculous at times. Corporate has no idea what constitutes good patient care. The hospital I came from spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on hiring people from the Six Sigma Group to come in and tell them how to run patients through the hospital more efficiently thus increasing customer satisfaction. Sheesh!!! And then spent that much sending current employees to training to become "black belts" so they could come in and train employees. If that hospital would have saved all that money and instead turned the problem over to the nurses, they would have had problems solved a lot less cheaply. But no one ever asks the ones who take care of patients how to improve everything around these facilities. Oh well. Someday these same corporate people will be patients in these facilities they are cutting staff in and maybe they will realize the problems they caused by cutting staff so much.
Pam
Oh my goodness, don't get me started about Six Sigma! They came into our lab this past year and tried to convince the Medical Technologists to let untrained lab assistants run the chemistry and hematology analyzers. Never mind that this is not allowed under CLIA '88 federal regulations! I understand the need to save money, but our Six Sigma consultant had a background in manufacturing, not healthcare. As a consequence many of the recommendations he made were unworkable or ill-advised.
Sorry this is off-topic but I had to rant a bit :)
We recently discovered a memo in the house supervisor's office from administration that clearly instructs the house sup.'s to work the floor short (no agency) if an employee calls in sick. I work med-surg. I guess they think the nurse's peer pressure will prevent unnecessary call-in's. This doesn't seem right or safe to me. I was thinking of the legalities of this and what would happen if there were a sentinel event (not to mention increased back injuries, nursing burn-out, patient satisfaction, med errors, etc...)?
Ever seen a memo like this?
Kris
Seen it posted in our Nurse Manager's office at an Oak Cliff/Dallas Teaching Hospital, lived it and left it... [Mind you this is still going on] Also included in the memo is no pay for OT (that meant NO PAY AT ALL) if having to stay past shift, even if there was no one to give report to & mandatory volunteering to work through the unpaid 1/2 hr meal break. If you complained that no pay for work is "illegal," you were written up as "not being a team player" during the hospital's financial deficit that' s occurring because of the building of a new hospital in another part of the metroplex (management was saying it was due to all the free charity care it had to give and left out the part that it was building a new hospital). My favorite cost cutting measures were the one bandaid limit per patient per shift and the encouragement to reuse the alcohol packets until they dried out naturally If there were any "unfortunate events" that resulted from this, the nurse is responsible for it because there are a group of cronies to verify whatever management wants to say/lie about.
Seen it posted in our Nurse Manager's office at an Oak Cliff/Dallas Teaching Hospital, lived it and left it... [Mind you this is still going on] Also included in the memo is no pay for OT (that meant NO PAY AT ALL) if having to stay past shift, even if there was no one to give report to & mandatory volunteering to work through the unpaid 1/2 hr meal break. If you complained that no pay for work is "illegal," you were written up as "not being a team player" during the hospital's financial deficit that' s occurring because of the building of a new hospital in another part of the metroplex (management was saying it was due to all the free charity care it had to give and left out the part that it was building a new hospital). My favorite cost cutting measures were the one bandaid limit per patient per shift and the encouragement to reuse the alcohol packets until they dried out naturally If there were any "unfortunate events" that resulted from this, the nurse is responsible for it because there are a group of cronies to verify whatever management wants to say/lie about.
Sounds to me like you are miserable? If you hate your hospital so much then why not quit? There are plenty of jobs out there for nurses........so why stay?
Are you folks there in Texas savng these memos? If not, why not? This is the kind of stuff that you turn over to the news, papers, and JACOAH. This is the stuff that your lawyer uses to defend you in an Wrongful Discharge/Whistleblower termination. It is worth it to keep this stuff, to use as evidence. Or just in case of, what if. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. As I stated in a previous thread, nurses must start to practice "defensive employment", to protect themeselves against retaliatory discharge, abusive employment situations, etc. Right to work state or not, they cannot break the law. Join up with the other nurses from Texas who are trying to organize with 1199. JMHO.
Actually, the correct answer is d. More mistakes will be made. And the institution opens itself up to substantial legal costs. ?Punitive damages, anyone???
Management is forgetting that the business we're in is human lives, not a production line. :angryfire
Sheesh. Why should we have to explain this to them????
That wasn't one of the options and it wasn't taught in the books. Believe me, I argued that point, but the professor said that was irrelevant to the course. And hospitals wonder why they have problems.
Are you folks there in Texas savng these memos? If not, why not? This is the kind of stuff that you turn over to the news, papers, and JACOAH. This is the stuff that your lawyer uses to defend you in an Wrongful Discharge/Whistleblower termination. It is worth it to keep this stuff, to use as evidence. Or just in case of, what if. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. As I stated in a previous thread, nurses must start to practice "defensive employment", to protect themeselves against retaliatory discharge, abusive employment situations, etc. Right to work state or not, they cannot break the law. Join up with the other nurses from Texas who are trying to organize with 1199. JMHO.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
Are you sure this kind of memo protects you legally? My understanding is that understaffing cannot be a legal defense if you accept the assignment. A hospital may be liable for understaffing but, that doesn't necessarily get the RN off the hook.
Actually, the correct answer is d. More mistakes will be made. And the institution opens itself up to substantial legal costs. ?Punitive damages, anyone???
Management is forgetting that the business we're in is human lives, not a production line. :angryfire
Sheesh. Why should we have to explain this to them????
Because I'll bet any amount of money that they've already crunched the numbers: and they've found that it's still a lot cheaper to pay for the occassional lawsuit than to pay for proper staffing.
I think it's outrageous .... but, I'll bet that's the thinking behind it. Until the lawsuits cost them more, or until more ratio laws are passed, it probably won't change.
Question for the OP- how was the memo "Found in the House Supervisor's office?"
Printed email from administration that is taped to the wall in sup.'s office. It wasn't published in our break room. One nurse noticed it while she was talking to one of the supervisor's. Later that evening, the supervisor brought it out and showed it to me and the charge nurse while we were trying to figure out staffing for the upcoming shift.
Sounds to me like you are miserable? If you hate your hospital so much then why not quit? There are plenty of jobs out there for nurses........so why stay?
Are you folks there in Texas savng these memos? If not, why not? This is the kind of stuff that you turn over to the news, papers, and JACOAH. This is the stuff that your lawyer uses to defend you in an Wrongful Discharge/Whistleblower termination. It is worth it to keep this stuff, to use as evidence. Or just in case of, what if. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. As I stated in a previous thread, nurses must start to practice "defensive employment", to protect themeselves against retaliatory discharge, abusive employment situations, etc. Right to work state or not, they cannot break the law. Join up with the other nurses from Texas who are trying to organize with 1199. JMHO.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
Amen! I learned in the military, 2 plus decades ago, to always CYA!
Sounds to me like you are miserable? If you hate your hospital so much then why not quit? There are plenty of jobs out there for nurses........so why stay?
There may be plenty of jobs out there, but in a lot of rural areas, the jobs are more than 60 miles away...sorry, but I don't think it is logical to drive 120 miles a day in the snow and ice to work. Here, there is one option if you want to work in a hospital...
If there were any "unfortunate events" that resulted from this, the nurse is responsible for it because there are a group of cronies to verify whatever management wants to say/lie about.
BamaBound2bRN
202 Posts
Question for the OP- how was the memo "Found in the House Supervisor's office?" If you are going off of the memo alone, then are you not jumping to the paranoid conclusion. In my previous career, I received an e-mail (along with every other field manager) from our exec. vp as a directive to some very unpopular changes. We were scheduled to have a conference call to discuss it, but me in all my charm decided not to wait and called the VP to air my concerns. The VP saw my point of view and decided to scrap the plans. On the conference call, others were angry and litterally screaming their objections to a plan that no longer exists.
My point, is just because there is a memo, doesn't mean it is policy. Did you know that in the 13 states that were the originally Colonies, that it is still against the law to "cross a river, stream, or any other body of water on Sunday"- just because it is a written law, doesn't mean you are going to get arrested for crossing the Hudson River this weekend.