Should I report this nurse for unprofessionalism?

[crosew]

I've been working as a home health aide for about 2 months, so I'm fairly new to healthcare and dealing with RNs. I have a regular client who can be a bit high-strung, I guess. He likes things done a certain way and can be a bit picky. But there are effective ways of dealing with people when they're difficult/particular, and as healthcare workers I feel that's our job to figure those ways out.

His RN is a really prickly woman to begin with. At first she took it out on me, in a number of passive-aggressive ways, but I just kept doing my job figuring that something must be going on with her if she feels the need to treat an aide this way. But this week she took it out on the patient. To start with, he said something a little annoying, but she totally blew it up, and they got into a full-blown argument (over something relatively minor)--but she took it a step further by raising her voice and then attacking his character, saying he was a bully, no one wanted to work with him, etc. This went on for about 10 minutes and was really uncomfortable.

My friend thinks I should report her behavior to her employer, and I kind of agree. But I'm also afraid that she won't be removed from the case and then I'll have to deal with her when she might figure out I reported her. Since I'm also new to this field, I don't want to overreact and cause drama, either. Anyone been in a similar situation? Am I being over-sensitive? Should I say something to her employer? I just think it was so unprofessional, and my friend pointed out that she probably has similar problems with other clients if she acted this way.

I get that we all get frustrated at times and it can be hard to keep cool. But she always seems to be in a nasty mood and I thought her response was ignorant and unecessary.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I would report her, as the patient indicated that this has happened before.

And that is has happened before, and this nurse is still on the case is interesting.

[Libby1987]

I'm HH and there is a leaning curve for dealing with patients in their homes, whether this nurse is at the beginning of this curve or if this is the way she is, we would want to talk to her about it.

We don't want our staff arguing or using raised voices, that is not the way we want our clients treated nor our reputation painted. I've seen hundreds of patients and their personalities have run the gammet, never once would raising my voice and sustaining an argument been called for.

As stated there is a professional way to set and adhere to boundaries and an inappropriate way, you'll have to be the best judge of that.

I would suggest you speak with your manager about it and discuss whether this was an abuse or only unprofessional and decide who to report to from there.