Scary Nurses

[NurseEmmy]

I am at a loss. Why do we continue to allow scary nurses to continue to practice? Why do employers continue to keep these nurses around? The nurse "training" me right now sleeps for several hours during the shift. He also leaves the floor to go "food shopping" on other units. The charge nurses have reported it to admin, he admits he has been written up several times for sleeping and having a bad attitude, and yet he still remains. I have also found out that due to his neglect a sentinel event occurred and he was banned from working on a unit for a long time because of it. The same behaviors continue so obviously he hasn't learned a darn thing. In fact they are now training him for tele patients.. I just don't get it.

He's toxic.

He's dangerous.

Other good nurses are quitting because of him (myself included once I find another job).

We all make mistakes. The fact that the issues remain despite the event baffles me.

So why do bad nurses keep their jobs?

[Castiela]

Report him to the BON?

[NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

Who knows? Maybe he's training his replacement and doesn't even know it...yet. Ohhhh, the element of surprise!

[roser13, ASN, RN]

I have no experience to equal yours so I can't speak to "bad nurses". You can only report on your individual experience, which sounds toxic.

[Sour Lemon]

I've known a few "scary" nurses. One lost her license for something non-nursing related, two got fired (eventually), and one was so scary that she was allowed to continue in whatever way she wanted to. I'd call her violent, but can someone be violent if they haven't pulled out their knife and started stabbing people yet? I'm not an easily intimidated person, but she terrified me (and everyone else).

Decent people seem to get written up and fired all the time. I don't understand it.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

I am at a loss. Why do we continue to allow scary nurses to continue to practice? Why do employers continue to keep these nurses around? The nurse "training" me right now sleeps for several hours during the shift. He also leaves the floor to go "food shopping" on other units. The charge nurses have reported it to admin, he admits he has been written up several times for sleeping and having a bad attitude, and yet he still remains. I have also found out that due to his neglect a sentinel event occurred and he was banned from working on a unit for a long time because of it. The same behaviors continue so obviously he hasn't learned a darn thing. In fact they are now training him for tele patients.. I just don't get it.

He's toxic.

He's dangerous.

Other good nurses are quitting because of him (myself included once I find another job).

We all make mistakes. The fact that the issues remain despite the event baffles me.

So why do bad nurses keep their jobs?

So why do bad nurses keep their jobs?

Because his manager is allowing it. Manager KNOWS what is going on... and are protecting him for WHATEVER reason they have.

Save your breath.

[nursel56]

It can be attributed to the employee having a personal connection to somebody pretty high up the food chain who has no familiarity with the unit, but has the effect of causing the actual management of that unit to avoid any circumstance they feel could put their own job in jeopardy.

I've seen that happen, and unfortunately it can come down to the best choice of a bunch of difficult choices.

[Everline]

I haven't met any scary nurses of the caliber you are dealing with. But I have witnessed scary people in other professions who continue to rise up to the top despite their utter incompetence. I have no answer for you.

[NuGuyNurse2b]

So...where do you work that a nurse can even entertain the idea of sleeping for hours on the job? I'd like an application. Cause I can't apparently take even 15 minutes to eat my lunch. This just sounds really exaggerated.

[Agatha12]

In my previous job, there is a nurse that really love to abuse people, students, nursing assistants and is very lazy. However she is very smart and with wide knowledge. Few people left because of her and once she was reported to university by student. Nothing really happened, she continues to working and being almost right hand of my previous manager. Why? Its abaolutely difficult to grasp because my ex manager was very fair person but she is overprotective with this nurse for unknown reason.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

I've worked with a few nurses over the years whose level of incompetence made me question how they ever managed to even get a nursing license much less keep one. Including nurses that slept on the job. Even one that had sex with a co-worker on the clock in empty rooms. But I guess that's not poor nursing so much as being a craptacular employee. Eventually they left, or were fired when they did something so egregious that even a complacent management couldn't ignore it.

[TriciaJ, RN]

There are so many reasons to keep a terrible employee on the payroll. Some have already been mentioned: he's related to someone higher up, he has dirt on someone higher up, management is desperate for a warm body (although this backfires if it's causing others to quit), management is worried about him being litigious or retaliatory or they're just plain lazy and can't be bothered to start the necessary paper trail. If you're unionized, they'll blame the union even though there is unlikely to be anything in your contract about useless employees staying on the payroll.

Your best bet at this point is the BON. When they investigate they can subpoena his employment records. If management withholds the records, then they're complicit but there will be no way for you to find out if that's the case. All you can hope for is one day he's finally gone.

Otherwise, you'll have to join the ranks of your fed-up previous coworkers and move on. It really doesn't say much for a workplace that allows what you've described.