Should I tattle?

[beachmom]

There is a nurse, "Janet", who worked at my hospital for years, was a traveler for awhile and now has been rehired and is working as a charge nurse.

I floated to her unit last Friday and had a horrible night. She kept dumping stuff on me. I ended up with six patients, one died, one was an admit, and a couple others were quite ill and needed lots of care. At one point my patient had an important need, and she took a half hour to help me. I was running so much, I was not really safe with my patients. She had less than half the work I did. We had someone we could call in, and I asked her several times. She refused, because then "we'd get all the admits that night." (There was only one more admit in the hospital that night.) I got overtime that night trying to get finished, and she was still charting when I left!?

I wasn't going to say anything to the manager. It was just one bad night. I don't want to tattle just because I don't get along with someone. Also, I don't want to get on the bad side of "Janet."

Then I talked with older nurses who worked with her in the past, and they have all said she is horrible to work with, dumps work on others. They say "I can't believe they hired her back." One said she often was not safe - she would watch other people's patients and they would "have a seizure" or "turn blue" or something to cause a big work up to be done - like an odd Munchhausen syndrome.

Do I go to the manager? My experience was just one bad night, but other people are saying things that aren't safe for patients. Do I tell her what others are saying? She is on that 90 day probation for being on a new job, so it would be easy for the manager to let her go.

[KarmaWiseRaven]

You know i give people benefit of the doubt. Those people who told you that about her might have something against her. I would wait and see what happens. And if it's a on going problem then go to my Nurse Manager or who ever is in your chain of command. As far as getting on someones bad side well no matter what you do, no matter what you say, no matter how many times you will swallow your pride just to keep the peace you will always rub someone wrong on purpose or not. So don't worry about peoples bad side they are the ones with the problem not you. These are my words use them as you wish

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

Careful; you're salivating all over the post.

[Orange Tree]

We all have bad/busy nights. I think it's bizarre that you'd even consider "tattling" on someone you worked with for one night ....especially when there's not much (if anything) to tattle about. What are you going to say? ...that you were busier than she was? That you "heard" she causes patients to have seizures and code blue? I hope you have evidence beyond what, "some older nurses who used to work with her said". And how were you able to keep up with what she was doing all might when you were so busy, yourself?

The charge nurse does have extra duties and should have a lighter patient load, IMO. From what I've seen, they also have limitations as far as calling people in. I wish our charge nurse could decide to call people in when we get busy, but we have to meet a grid requirement for that to happen.

[squirtle]

I agree with Karmawise, but also want to point out that you said she was still charting when you left, so she didn't have that great of a night either. Management, especially these days has really been trying to cut costs down. I would assume she has been given strict criteria on when to call people in. Hang in there and chalk it up to a bad night... and don't get involved in the gossip, it always makes things seem worse.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

And what exactly would you say?

I mean, you were busy but not too busy to notice what she was doing...

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

I think it ironic that you use the term "tattle". I thought that we were adults.

My question is that if she is in her first 3 monthes, why is she in charge? And bluntly she may just be getting her bearings. Duties as a traveler are different than a chg staffer. And given that she has only been back a short while, how can "everyone" know how she is? Also, most facilities have strict regs on how many pts rate how many nurses, and justify calling one in.

She spent a half hour helping you.....be greatful - in some places the chg has the same bumber pts, and she would be hard pressed to give you that much. As far as "dumping" on others, the chg is supposed to not take the heaviest, because they need to be able to do chg duties and help out as she did.

If you feel the need to complain, please find something concrete.....she was filing her nails/chatting on the phone to family/facebooking for 30 minutes or more ignoring every call light/code alarm/ while all others are running like chickens. If she is running ragged, well, she can't be two or more places at a time.

[AOx1]

It's interesting to me that instead of directly confronting the issue we seem to prefer gossip and backstabbing. Why did the older nurses not go to Janet with these concerns directly when these supposed instances occurred? If it were me and I had safety concerns, I would first see if I could help Janet better understand, then discuss concerns that were not resolved. Also, if they really believed she was harming patients, they are as much at fault for allowing her to watch their patients and not reporting the issue.

Nursing is stressful enough without us slandering and backstabbing each other. You should speak to Janet respectfully and privately about being overwhelmed and not make upper management your first stop. Follow the chain of command, and don't assume she intended to make your night horrible without more evidence than "I was busy." it sounds as if she was also very busy. Is anyone even trying to help Janet as she adjusts to her new role? Sounds like they are too busy running her down.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

Watch your back; it seems like those nurses you talked to want to get you in trouble. I mean, what's the complaint? When I was on the floor, I had nights like that all the time, and I was thrown head first into the deep end of the pool. If you "tattle" about the alleged code blues and seizures, who's going to be in trouble? YOU ARE. You've just committed slander, you could get sued for creating a hostile work environment for her, and all based off what? When a lawyer asked you why you made the allegations, the first thing he'd ask is, "what have you personally seen and witnessed? And you have how much time as a nurse on this kind of floor to know the normal vs. the abnormal? And you've performed the tasks of a charge nurse on this floor how many times?" Sounds like your "friends" were setting you up to do their dirty work. RUN!

I used to work on a telemetry floor. I know there was a TON of extra crappola that that the charge nurse had to do, and it was better if she didn't have as many patients because she still had to eval all wounds, restraint documentation, deal with admissions, trying to get enough bodies to do the work, sign off on LPN charting, handle any complaints and "problem" families and yes, if you got a nurse to come in, the house supervisor would dump every admission she could to your floor or unit. What you've said sounds pretty normal in my experience...

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

I'd confront Janet in person. Leave everyone else out of it.

[msnurse14]

Looking at all the other post, a few seem a bit harsh. If I'm reading between the lines correctly it seems as if your upset because you felt like your assignment was too heavy and you didn't get a lot of help from the charge nurse. Days like those are rough!!! But there are times when we have to accept the nursing profession for what it is. The charge nurse could have been very busy. She would have been very hard to observe in an accuarte state since you were busy also. I find it far easier to find a scapegoat on bad days than to admit that maybe someone did all they could do to help you. At this point I would go home, relax, have a glass of wine and let work stay at work.

[cecilsgirl]

a strange "Munchhausen"? ...... really?