Sent a CNA home

[Lovesnursing83, RN]

I had an incident the other night. I was finishing my shift, I was on a double, and a resident started wheeling down the hall I was in towards his room. He was visibly upset and screaming obscenities at one of the CNAs. He said she called him a retard and was making fun of him for wheeling up and down the hallway.  I was trying to calm him down as it was 10:30pm and most of the residents were sleeping, but the CNA was down the hall at the nurses station and she kept reacting. She wasn't yelling back but she was laughing at him, making faces, and being snarky in her responses which just made him more upset. The exchange escalated to the point of racial slurs towards the CNA and the resident was threatening to call the police. I ended up sending the CNA home, not as a punishment, but to deescalate the situation. She would not walk away. When I told her to go home, she started yelling at me saying I was wrong and I should have sent him out for behavior. The other nurse just sat there and did nothing and I was the bad guy. My DON says I handled it properly but I still feel terrible about the whole thing. Could I have handled this better?

[offlabel]

...and she kept reacting. She wasn't yelling back but she was laughing at him, making faces, and being snarky in her responses which just made him more upset. 

 Clean out your locker, you are no longer employed here.

[barcode120x, RN, NP]

Was there a way to move her to a different floor, unit, or side of the facility? Back on the floor whenever a patient had issues with their primary nurse, we would try to de-escalate the situation but the patient ended up "firing" the nurses we would just swap the nurses out or even the CNA. I feel like this would have been the most optimal solution, mainly because you wouldn't be shorthand a CNA.

Another solution would have been pulling the CNA aside and just essentially informing, instructing and/or ordering her to stay away from the resident the rest of the shift. 

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Since I doubt you have the managerial power to fire the CNA on the spot, yes you did exactly right. What she did was resident abuse. If upper management responds correctly, she should be suspended pending review; if the review finds wrongdoing, she should be fired. That behavior sounds bad enough to be reported to the state, but I wouldn't be surprised if the employer doesn't open that can of worms. 

[Patricia Ordnung]

You did the right thing.  Many years in nursing have taught me that you can move some staff members (thankfully the majority I've been blessed to work with were very good) anywhere you want to, and they will conduct themselves exactly the same way.