Sabotaged at work

[NursingQT]

Hi all! LPN of 20+ years here and I just need to vent a little bit. Almost all of my experience come from working as a floor nurse in SNFs, a little over 5 years I made a change and accepted a position as a health and wellness coordinator at an ALF which was a pretty big change for me. I worked directly under the health and wellness director who was an RN. I always referred to myself as her "right hand man", whatever she needed me to do I would do it. Over the years we developed an awesome work partnership. We had developed a darn good routine, we each had our own tasks, things like I took care of any new orders and managed the assignment plans and she managed reassessments and care conferences. When it came to new move ins she would go out and do the assessment and develop the service plan and I would enter the person in PCC and enter all the info/orders. If either of us needed help we had no problem jumping in and helping each other. Sadly she left at the beginning of June. There was no one hired for her position by the time she left so the role of HWD fell to me. I should mention that no one ever talked to me about taking on this role, it was silently implied that I had no choice. I was also never trained for the position so to say I was ill prepared is an understatement. But I put on my big girl shorts and took one for the team. 8.5 months later and I am still the only nurse trying to manage the clinical operations for both a CBRF and a RCAC (one building but two separate sides). And it's been hell. I am overwhelmed, drowning, stressed and exhausted. I've been working 60+ hour work weeks this entire time and am so behind in various tasks. I started asking for help by mid June and making it known it was too much for one nurse to handle. In Nov a new ED came on board and things have only gotten worse, her expectations of me are unrealistic and not doable. She completely micromanages me, goes through my office and desk when I'm not there, goes to the caregivers and basically tries to get them to tell her what I am and am not doing, demands that I do various things and expects immediate results and has now started coming to me and questioning why I haven't completed something else while I'm trying to meet her other demands. On Friday morning I went in to work to find an email from her with a task list that said I was expected to have all the tasks completed when she met with me at 11am, there was no way this list could be completed in 3 hours and in order to do that I had to put my other work on hold. And then at 2pm she came in my office and told me I was being placed on suspension! I was suspended because one of my residents who I had sent out two nights before and admitted was noted to have an open area on his coccyx  and two skin tears, none of which had been reported to me ever. But she said I should have done a skin check on him in the past week. This resident had a full skin observation completed on him a month ago and I had no reason to believe he needed another one at this time. The ED disagreed. She also said I didn't do enough of an assessment on him the day he was sent out, she questioned why I didn't listen to his lungs. He had no respiratory symptoms and was a febrile. He was having increased confusion and was delusional, this resident has a history of having these episodes every few months and has been sent in during them and nothing is ever found, so I wasn't getting too worked up over it. I called his sister and updated her and she said she didn't want him sent in again and that he actually had an appointment at the clinic the next day. Well later that evening he became non responsive towards the staff, sister was called again, she came in, and we decided he needed to go in. Friday the ED accused me of not caring about this resident.. 

so now I'm on suspension while an "investigation" is being completed. I think she just wants me fired, but because she doesn't actually have the authority to fire me herself (that has to come from my district nurse and district clinical manager) I think this is her way of trying to get that done... 

[Nurse Alexa, MSN, RN]

Unfortunately, I have heard and seen many a times that "under investigation" is managements way of pushing people out the door.

First off, I'm sorry that you are going through this. It's sad that you and openly explaining to them this work is too much for you, but it appears their not listening.

I believe your best option at this point is to work in a different facility and look for jobs elsewhere. Your superiors do not seem to be on your side and without support from management it's hard to do well.

I also believe it will be better for your mental health and stress level to work somewhere that's either Union or that has more support of it's employees 

[NursingQT]

I agree about leaving. I actually applied for a position in one of the hospitals on Monday and had my first interview with them this morning. 
also had a call with my current executive director this afternoon to "talk about work". During this call not one thing was mentioned about her initial vague reason for suspending me. Instead she had a list of "missing medication orders" that she went through and wanted to know about each of them. Most of them were orders I had absolutely no knowledge of, she was questioning supposed missing orders from 5 months  but wouldn't give me any details as to what the issue was. She even brought up med orders that had been d/c'd months ago.. such as a PRN Ativan order that I d/c'd months ago for no use which we have orders to do on all residents. This tells me she is literally searching for things to pin on me which doesn't justify suspending me. And when I asked if this suspension is paid or unpaid she said "that will be determined at the conclusion of all of this".  So not only am I actively looking for a new job I'll be contacting an attorney as well. 

[beachbabe86]

Run don't walk away!

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

Run, and don't look back

In those unhealthy abusive work environments they will chew you up and spit you out. You may want to try and bring about change and its admirable. Think of your work place as a toxic organism that destroys its self before it flourishes

I've hung in longer than I should have in a place like your work place and it just about killed me.