I just need to vent

Nurses Relations

Published

I am really sorry this is really long.

I have been at my job for 5 months and I am loving it. Everyone and everything is great. Until about a month ago. One CNA got upset with the nurse that I work with. No one know exactly what upset her but she basically ignores the other nurse. Which doesnt bother their job because she doesnt work until that nurse. So they just ignore each other even though the nurse tries to be civil. The cna has sense tried to get everyone to turn against this nurse. The other employees have stopped talking to this aide too unless they just have to because of this and her causing problems with other people. I was the only person on the shift that would talk to her.

Last night she told me that she witnessed a patient getting hurt and stated things that this patient is not physically able to say or do. However, because it was reported to me I went ahead and wrote it up and assessed the patient. I asked her to write out a statement since she witnessed even causing her to be rude.She got very defensive when I was asking her questions which I explained I had to do for my paperwork. About 30 minutes later I was sitting at the nurses desk with the other nurse and we were discussion weekend plans and having a good time. About an hour later my boss comes in, at this time the cna has left for the day, and my boss calls me and the other nurse into her office.

This cna sent her a text message stating that i was discussing the incident and laughing about how my patient got hurt at the nurses desk. Luckily I had the other nurse and another cna state that that was not what happened. That we were discussing plans. The other nurse explained how this cna had been treating everyone and that it was like she was out to get everyone on our shift. She wants to change shifts by the way. The boss said that since I have 2 other adults to witness what happened, nothing would be done about it.

I just worry now to what lengths this cna will go to and for what? No one knows what they did to make her angry with them. She just seems to want to make people mad. But now she is doing things that could effect my job. Had I not have had the other people there or if she said I laughed somewhere else, I could be in some serious trouble.

Any experienced nurses have any suggestions on what to do or how to handle this?

seems like everyone is overlooking the most important step...HR.

especially now your boss got involved, and you have witnesses that can vouch for you when this cna decided to try to go over your head and escalate the issue, its your turn. go to HR, explain all of this, and get your boss included. that way, if she starts gunning for you again and making false accusations or tries to get you in trouble, you've already started a paper trail that HR can look at as a series of aggressive behavior directed towards you. And i would also urge your coworkers to do the same.

this isn't about putting anyone in their place. if she continues this, i promise something will happen where she will seize an opportunity that can get you fired or worse.

0 Votes
I do try to avoid her as much as I can. She works under me so there are times that we have to speak about the patients. She will not talk to me if the other nurse is there because of the trouble she has caused with that nurse. I usually have the other nurse go with me when she states an incident has happened because she will exaggerate things and I always want a witness so she couldn't say I didn't take something seriously. I always treat everything she reports seriously and follow the facilities protocol to make sure that nothing ever comes back that I ignored anything. We work night shift so no supervisor is there. Just 4 LPN's and about 6 CNAs.

After the other nurse and CNA stated that what we were talking about/laughing about had nothing to do with the incident or the patent (or any other incident or patient), that's when the supervisor said that she believed it was a false accusation. I mean I have two witnesses who were apart of the conversation that said we were discussing weekend plans.

The supervisor basically said that she knew this CNA had been causing problems with the staff but since no one has written her up she doesn't have a paper trail to be able to do anything to her/fire her. This is the first time she has ever done anything like this to me so I have never had a reason to write her up. The supervisor is known to hearing things happen and not doing anything because she wants other people to be the bad guy.

Basically if she tries to press this that I laughed at a patient getting hurt and tries to change her story to that no one was there, I didn't know what would happen. This happened yesterday morning and I haven't heard anything else about it but I did not work last night.

"She will not talk to me if the other nurse is there ." She does not have that option.. the CNA has to communicate with the nurse.

"but since no one has written her up she doesn't have a paper trail" The supervisor has told you what they need to start the disciplinary process.

Write her up, and keep writing her up until the troublemaker is removed.

0 Votes
Specializes in LTC.

Start finding reasons to write her up then. She sounds like nothing but trouble. The sooner she's gone the better.

0 Votes
Specializes in Med-surg, telemetry, oncology, rehab, LTC, ALF.

Your boss seems to have a good understanding of what is going on with her. I would trust that she is handling the situation to the best of her abilities.

I would avoid that particular CNA from here on out, and possibly have another coworker stand by when you do have to interact with her.

0 Votes
Specializes in Transitional Nursing.
On 10/11/2018 at 9:54 AM, LPN shots said:

The supervisor basically said that she knew this CNA had been causing problems with the staff but since no one has written her up she doesn't have a paper trail to be able to do anything to her/fire her

bingo! Write her up and have the other nurse do so, also.

0 Votes

I know it doesn't feel good, but take heart in knowing that this CNA does this where ever she goes. This is not new behavior. You are unfortunately saddled with a sick individual as a coworker. Beyond pleasantries, I would no longer engage in any conversation that is not directly witnessed by another. If she asks to have a private conversation with you, instruct her that all conversations must be in groups of three.

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment