I hope that this is the correct place for this post, but I am in need of help.
My brother ( black male working in a town which is 96% white, 3.8% other) who is also a nurse is currently working in the Dakotas and has been there for over a year and loves it there. He confided in me today that two of the CNA workers who work for him spit into his bottle of water when he was away from his desk. He stated that he was "wondering why they were laughing so profusely when he started to drink his water after assisting a patient on his floor". The sad thing is that the two other CNA workers who witnessed the incident did not say anything for a few days, but after careful reflection, they then told my brother and the management what they had witnessed. My brother immediately went to management and they told him to "stop making a big fuss over this". As a result, ONE of the CNA workers has been fired, but the other remains employed there. He has had testing for any possible bodily fluid diseases which he could have contracted, but is still bothered by the incident.
I am so disappointed in what happened because my brother is the one who encouraged me to become an RN to help others, but I have reservations now about possibly working in "rural areas" because of what happened to him. I am currently in a large metropolitan area and have not experienced this type of behavior (at least not yet). I treat ALL of my patients the same no matter what race, nationality, gender, or sexual preference ( I am in an area with a large"alternative" lifestyle population). In my opinion 'PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE' no matter what they look like or believe.
PLEASE let me know what avenues you may suggest for my brother to explore. He nor I want this to be "swept under the rug" because as healthcare professionals, I CAN NOT tolerate this type of behavior to no matter who it may happen.
So management said "stop making a big fuss over this?" Human effluent in a water bottle is tantamount to bowel movement on CEO's desk. So what's the fuss? Over the top is over the top.
"Lord of the Flies" hostile work environment at least.
If management would have acted appropriately, frick and frack would have been immediately fired. The other two information holdouts would be suspended pending firing. This is a cabal.
This kind of miscreant behavoir is beyond the pale and unredeemable.
You got a beef with someone handle it like a human, not some range roaming spitting llama trash.
If this happened to me, hey I can take a joke as long as you can take a punch.
I am afraid of an employee spitting in my food at a restaurant if he/she becomes upset with me. I don't trust people one hundred percent. I never would eat food left unattended on table. People are too mean.
I worked with a nurse at a nursing home many, many years ago during my LPN years. She was the type that always had to be the one to save the day....even would go so far as to wreck the day just so that she could save it. She and I both had keys to the med room. In there, it was OK to store our lunch and drinks as long as everything had a cover. Management even provided us with covers for opened soft drink cans. (As I said, this was many years ago).
It was well-known that I had, and still have, a very strong sensitivity to bleach. Long story short, this woman poured bleach in my Pepsi. When I returned to the med room for my soda, the smell of bleach grew stronger as the can got closer to my mouth; so much so, that I knew my soda had been tampered with. I was like WT*!! I know god**** well this **** didn't put bleach in my drink!
I put the can down, walked out of the room to find her literally staring me in the face. My thoughts were, "today, ****, let's see you save your own ***"! I went straight to management, told them my concern; we all went back to the med room, got the can of soda and sent it to one of the local hospital's lab for testing. The results indeed came back positive for bleach, and she was fired on the spot. A load of BS, yes. Racism, no.
That was a defining moment in my life. Now, today as result of that experience, anything (food or drink) that I don't finish at work once I open it, is thrown out at the moment I'm called away from it. Lots of nurses have these fancy water bottles at the nurses desk, and are constantly not within line of sight of them. Brave souls, they are...
Was her name Genene Jones? She killed patients, some pediatric, with Heparin and succinylcholine. Hopefully she is still in prison in Texas.
Charles Cullen? Insulin I think he used.
I hope you reported this mentally ill person to police. She is dangerous and is not safe to have other peoples' lives in her hands.
The only real racism I have ever seen at work was against white workers.
Back when Black folks first began to have some civil rights, supervisors became afraid to discipline them, however badly needed (routine tardiness, excessive absenteeism, disrespect to their white coworkers and supervisors, refusing to do all of their work, excessive breaks, dress code violations).
This made life very unfair for white workers and was actually a disservice to blacks, too.
The only real racism I have ever seen at work was against white workers.
Back when Black folks first began to have some civil rights, supervisors became afraid to discipline them, however badly needed (routine tardiness, excessive absenteeism, disrespect to their white coworkers and supervisors, refusing to do all of their work, excessive breaks, dress code violations).
This made life very unfair for white workers and was actually a disservice to blacks, too.
Interesting take. Thanks for sharing. I worked in a LTC facility that had a majority of Africans working there. Loved to hear of their culture and perceptions of our country. Many shifts, I was the only white person there, yet I really never felt the minority, we were all nurses and that was what I saw. I was told by one nurse that the facility discriminates against whites when giving OT and granting requests. I never saw it, but after, I did see inconsistencies. Just took it with a grain of salt and moved on. I guess we all have the freedom to choose our focus.
I am making it my mission to ensure that she is fired and is reported to the Board of Nursing. We're also talking to the board about revocation of licensure.
I'm not trying to be difficult, but can't your brother handle this himself? It's his job, his issue? I agree that both of them should be fired for doing something so disgusting, but I just don't think you should be involving yourself.
Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
On 12/10/2016 at 5:16 AM, dddubbu said:
I am making it my mission to ensure that she is fired and is reported to the Board of Nursing. We're also talking to the board about revocation of licensure.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but this isn't "your mission". Nothing happened to you. I fully agree that what happened was disgusting, and there should be consequences for it. You need to let your brother handle his own affairs and stay out of it. There should not be a "we" in this.
This seems cowardly and passive aggressive. He might try to ask to speak in private and assertively and not threateningly express his concerns and what he thought happened. Or go to grad school and move beyond working with children.
Buyer beware, BSN
1,139 Posts
So management said "stop making a big fuss over this?" Human effluent in a water bottle is tantamount to bowel movement on CEO's desk. So what's the fuss? Over the top is over the top.
"Lord of the Flies" hostile work environment at least.
If management would have acted appropriately, frick and frack would have been immediately fired. The other two information holdouts would be suspended pending firing. This is a cabal.
This kind of miscreant behavoir is beyond the pale and unredeemable.
You got a beef with someone handle it like a human, not some range roaming spitting llama trash.
If this happened to me, hey I can take a joke as long as you can take a punch.