Have any of you ever refused to cover for an absent colleague? In what, if any, circumstances is this acceptable?
I've been doing some thinking lately, and I feel the need to step back and stop covering on things for my my colleague. It's too constant.
I've thought that one way of doing this is to stop attending her Care Conferences. For one, it isn't very a productive and efficient way to spend my day attending conferences for patients I've never met. I can also honestly say that nobody benefits when I show up. It wastes my time, and many questions go unanswered. I don't have the answers these patients are looking for, and there's not anything I can do to help them since I am unfamiliar with their case. I earnestly believe they are better having no nurse attend at all than having me.
With that said, having no nurse at these meetings is going to cause some to complain. Maybe this will lead to holding my colleague more accountable. I barely survive my own Care Conferences; I don't need to attend hers too. Honestly, my preference is to not attend any more Care Conferences than I absolutely have to.
In fact, I'm starting to think that unless someone needs 911 called, I'm simply going to stay out of her workload altogether.
With that said, having no nurse at these meetings is going to cause some to complain. Maybe this will lead to holding my colleague more accountable. I barely survive my own Care Conferences; I don't need to attend hers too. Honestly, my preference is to not attend any more Care Conferences than I absolutely have to.
Thoughts? Other examples?
Interesting story about care conferences. Years ago I was working SNF. Each skilled unit had a unit manager (like you!) who attended care conferences. However, when the unit manager was out (frequent occurrence on one unit) the floor nurses (yours truly) would have to attend the meetings.
We were expected to stop our med passes, ignore any patient care that was on-going, assessments due, abandon it all and go to this meetings. I would go but let me tell you, it was really difficult. I would get so behind from having to go.
One day the nurse on the other side of my unit was called to a care conference, again, and she refused. She had an admission, someone had fallen, it was just a mess, and she did not feel she could drop what she was doing and go.
They let her finish the day, called her to the admin office, and fired her for insubordination that day.
Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
54 minutes ago, NotFlo said:
One day the nurse on the other side of my unit was called to a care conference, again, and she refused. She had an admission, someone had fallen, it was just a mess, and she did not feel she could drop what she was doing and go.
Another example of what's wrong in these situations, when the responsibilities of direct patient care are actually prioritized LOWER than the things like care conferences. Just because they involve families and therefore have the "look" of productivity, they are somehow supposed to replace actual care.
How unfortunate that a nurse that was doing what was best for her patients was penalized.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Back in '98, while working at a community mental health center, I had transferred from being a community nurse to a position in case management. I was to manage about 125 clients and assist the two psychiatrists. I was assigned or voluntarily took on several other duties which included: setting up and running sample & assistance programs for meds, PAS agent for the southern portion of the county, mandated follow-up agent, giving two-hour lectures twice a week to court-ordered drug offenders, reviewing client health assessments, and assisting mornings in the crisis stabilization unit. There was so much negativity in crisis stab, that I initiated a morning group based on the Emotions Anonymous program.
It was during this group that I was pulled out of and into a meeting with administrators so they could fire me. This was after having worked at the center for a total of over five years. I was terminated for not meeting my job responsibilities.
The IDES adjudicator ruled in my favor and basically said, "You don't just fire someone for not being able to do their job. You work with them, give them chances, status reports, warnings, and then you fire them if there's no improvement!"
All's well that ends well. I got a really good severance package and seven weeks off drawing unemployment benefits before I began my next job as a NS at another community mental health center that was closer to my home!
Interesting story about care conferences. Years ago I was working SNF. Each skilled unit had a unit manager (like you!) who attended care conferences. However, when the unit manager was out (frequent occurrence on one unit) the floor nurses (yours truly) would have to attend the meetings.
We were expected to stop our med passes, ignore any patient care that was on-going, assessments due, abandon it all and go to this meetings. I would go but let me tell you, it was really difficult. I would get so behind from having to go.
One day the nurse on the other side of my unit was called to a care conference, again, and she refused. She had an admission, someone had fallen, it was just a mess, and she did not feel she could drop what she was doing and go.
They let her finish the day, called her to the admin office, and fired her for insubordination that day.
This makes me so angry. I would never expect a floor nurse to fill in on a Care Conference. These meetings can take an hour or longer, and are often scheduled when noon medications are being given, blood sugars are due, or other urgent issues. I would also always prioritize a fall than attending meetings that frankly tend to only serve the purpose of bashing the nursing department/staff.
I've also found that anything that is discussed during these meetings are things that can be followed up on later. Although families and patients should have their questions answered, they generally don't require answers at precisely 11AM on Thursday. They can be discussed later on after patient needs are met and the unit is less hectic. Sorry, but I will always prioritize a 911 call than a conversation regarding what time of the day someone is taking their multivitamin or addressing a complaint that someone's Tylenol was given 5 minutes late.
Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.
I don’t think I would stop covering my coworkers care conferences.
A good relationship with someone on the same level as you is so important in any job. And it sounds like this is the person on the same level as you. What if you need someone to attend your care conference?
If the request was excessive, I would talk to my coworker about that.
Also, I would have my coworker make up a cheat sheet for me for the care conference. Stuff I might get asked about or be expected to know about. Weight gain or loss? Recent hospitalizations? Behavior? VS? Med Changes? Diet changes? That also does double duty of being an extra step for the coworker to take. Maybe make her think about whether she wants to pass the buck.
Also, think of a lot of these meetings as being places where they want to have a nurse there in case some other member of the team says something really wacko that any sound nurse would say No, we can’t do that guys.
Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
13 hours ago, FolksBtrippin said:
A good relationship with someone on the same level as you is so important in any job. And it sounds like this is the person on the same level as you. What if you need someone to attend your care conference?
This is a very reasonable response for reasonable situations. If you have seen the recent posts by SilverBells it sounds like this coworker has been taking an excessive amount of time off which leads to an unmanageable workload for the remaining manager to cover. Most of us that have given feedback, I believe, are taking into account the recent threads that focus on this specific work environment and how it is not sustainable.
Generally, the supervisor already knows your being used. He/She have a lot to do as well and are probably happy that your always willing to fill in. It may rock the boat a little for you to stay in your own caseload, but really as you pointed out what good are you doing these people, you don’t know them or their cases. If an agreement is made prior to cover a meeting then everything and every person’s history needs to be discussed with you prior to the meeting.
There is nothing worse than to be used and not appreciated. Stop doing it or it will become expected as part of your job and you will look like the bad guy when you say no.
This makes me so angry. I would never expect a floor nurse to fill in on a Care Conference. These meetings can take an hour or longer, and are often scheduled when noon medications are being given, blood sugars are due, or other urgent issues. I would also always prioritize a fall than attending meetings that frankly tend to only serve the purpose of bashing the nursing department/staff.
Yeah they were ridiculous. And after that when they came to get one of us for a family meeting/care conference, they would have this look in their eye (I admit I usually complained about it a lot as I was preparing to leave the unit prior to the other nurse being fired) like "just try to complain now, hah!" They kind of lorded the other nurse's firing over the rest of us after that.
They were almost always at 11 am so ostensibly AM meds would be done and we would have some time before having to do the noon meds/blood glucose etc but that time from 11 to 12 would also be my time to try to whatever treatments I could, do a bit of charting, etc. (and that's if there were no falls, changes in condition or discharges). On the skilled floors we always had tons of dressings, wound vacs, traches and other things to attend to. Losing that hour would just throw off the entire rest of the day.
What is so incredibly disturbing is they know what they are doing to the floor nurse and hence the patients as well. Where is their caring and compassion? Why are they in this field? I can’t abide a health care professional that would suddenly place this burden on the floor nurse. For crying out loud, if you can’t lead with understanding get out of the field. This is the kind of situation that gives nursing a bad rep.
Leaders should step up to the plate and extend themselves the way the floor nurses have to do everyday.
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NotFlo
353 Posts
Interesting story about care conferences. Years ago I was working SNF. Each skilled unit had a unit manager (like you!) who attended care conferences. However, when the unit manager was out (frequent occurrence on one unit) the floor nurses (yours truly) would have to attend the meetings.
We were expected to stop our med passes, ignore any patient care that was on-going, assessments due, abandon it all and go to this meetings. I would go but let me tell you, it was really difficult. I would get so behind from having to go.
One day the nurse on the other side of my unit was called to a care conference, again, and she refused. She had an admission, someone had fallen, it was just a mess, and she did not feel she could drop what she was doing and go.
They let her finish the day, called her to the admin office, and fired her for insubordination that day.