Right med but suspended

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Need help. I was pulled into HR concerning a patient's chart. I gave the right pt the correct antibiotic at the correct time. BUT it would not scan. I got caught up with a few other pts and two hrs later went in and manually entered the med was given and at what time. I got suspended. I have been a RN for two years, always on time, worked extra shifts and volunteered to come it at times.

It seems that did not matter. My supervisor was not there nor my assistent supervisor. I told them this should be a teachable moment not suspension. Also we have problems with the COWs all the time.

I feel like this was not fair.

I said that I feel that i should not be fired over this. They said " we didnt say you were being fired" but they did not say i wasnt. First time being called to hr. This does not feel right to me and i need help.

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Now you know.

Places can get away with negligence in shoring up these gaps (particularly with this scanning issue) because they know they can make each incident look like an individual nurse's issue. Unfortunately you made the wrong move and enabled their MO when you didn't deal with it in real time.

Well NOW YOU KNOW. When their crap doesn't work correctly you 1) Call someone with authority to help you address it in real time, which effectively invites them to have some skin in their own game. You document all of this appropriately. Professionally. 2) Fill out an incident report. If the whole show comes to a stop while you're waiting for authoritative advice on how to handle a situation which (now you know) you could be suspended over, SO BE IT.

You'll have to take your lumps this time because not documenting a medication administration at all (which is essentially what you let happen for a couple of hours) is not safe practice.

So much for just culture.

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

That's odd, because in my facility, we are allowed to manually bypass the scan and document the medication. As long as its documented I don't see why that is a problem.

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Specializes in Ambulatory Care-Family Medicine.

Seems a bit harsh. Our system allows us to manually bypass scanning if needed (after 2-3 messages asking if you're sure you want to not scan of course). I actually had this happen last week. Computer in patients room was frozen and taking forever to restart (we don't have COWs on my unit). I used a computer at the nurses station to manually enter the administration and put a comment on it that computer in patients room frozen, unable to scan. If it is something legitimate then management never questions us on it, but if you are constantly overriding the scanning then they would need to have a talk with you.

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Need help. I was pulled into HR concerning a patient's chart. I gave the right pt the correct antibiotic at the correct time. BUT it would not scan. I got caught up with a few other pts and two hrs later went in and manually entered the med was given and at what time. I got suspended. I have been a RN for two years, always on time, worked extra shifts and volunteered to come it at times.

It seems that did not matter. My supervisor was not there nor my assistent supervisor. I told them this should be a teachable moment not suspension. Also we have problems with the COWs all the time.

I feel like this was not fair.

I said that I feel that i should not be fired over this. They said " we didnt say you were being fired" but they did not say i wasnt. First time being called to hr. This does not feel right to me and i need help.

I've been counseled by pharmacy for bypassing the scanning process, but informally. If you're being called to HR for one incident and suspended, that is concerning. Have you had any other issues about anything else or with anyone else? It sounds like they're working on getting you out. I would start looking for a new job whether I got fired, or not.

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No other issues with anyone. I go to work, take care of my pts, and go home. I dont gossip nor am I chatty. I am that quiet nurse that is there to work.

Already started looking for jobs and will be sending out resumes tomorrow.

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I'm guessing this reprimand is more for the fact that she gave the med and didn't document it at all for a length of time, if I'm not reading too much into what was written. Not that she bypassed the scan. Although if they're going to react like this about all things related, I would only ever bypass with one of them as a witness anyway. They have her on an unfortunate technicality. It's not like they can't tell that she tried to scan the medication at least once at the appropriate time, which would be the time that it was later noted to have been given.

ETA: Sorry, CJ2121 - was typing when you posted. What is the reason that they found this to be such a heinous crime? Did they discuss that with you?

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The HR person (who has never been a nurse btw) is questioning if i gave it at the time noted. Pharmacy hangs our IVs on a peg board. I explained if im not able to give an IV at a certain time I call pharmacy so it can be rescheduled. I explained that in my training/orientation (3 days total) i was not told i could not do that.

Also, i have seen the other nurses do it. I know that is not an excuse, but it feels like i am being made the "example". And maybe that is true. It just hurts .

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That's ridiculous. When our EMRs are down, we document on a paper mar and then go back to document in the EMR once it's running again..paper is thrown away. not sure how different that is from your situation. Sounds like a disorganized, punitive place. Glad you're putting your resume elsewhere.

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Thank you.

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Agreed. This is stupid. Not sure why they put your head on a spike because you didn't document immediately due to their non-functional equipment. Find a better place to work!

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Even if this resolves favorably, I would not want to work in such an atmosphere. You are wise to start your job search.

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