a small dilemma...

[night owl]

I am working with a nurse who is on light duty for a torn muscle in her shoulder and supposedly can't do too much of anything, not even type on the computer, so her five monthly nursing summaries were given to other nurses to do on top of the ones they already have. She has been seen on the computer and when you log on, you always see the person who has used the computer prior to you. Many times I have logged on and her name was there as the person who used it before me. My question is, If she can't do her monthly summaries and other computer related work but has been seen on the computer, then would you refuse to do her monthly summaries? I mean what's fair is fair.

[Y2KRN]

Get a group together, confront her, you don't need to be doing all of her work for you when she is obviously capable of at least doing her computer charting responsibilities. Just my 2 cents for what it is worth.

Y2KRN

[SmilingBluEyes]

ITA w/everyone here. CONFRONT and END it. Good luck to you.

[thisnurse]

this behavior really pushes me over the edge (short distance these days)

i have been on light duty...i worked as much as i could and more.

i could have milked it big time...neck/back injury....but what the he11 for? we are ALL in this together...or supposed to be...id tell her i think the way shes acting is screwed up. maybe your manager should call the doc that wrote the light duty order and tell him/her they dont understand the limitations. ask for an explanation...lol

betcha light duty orders change.

[RNforLongTime]

Hmmm..Doesn't make sense that she can drive to work but cannot do any computer work.

[mattsmom81]

Perhaps it is a questrion of how LONG she can type on the computer and she's testing her time tolerance?? I don't know...why not ask her?

I guess coming from an injured standpoint myself, I would feel badly that my coworkers were thinking badly of me and would rather they speak honestly to me about it. Maybe she is looking at computerized forms and/or data to stay current with info????

Please don't automatically assume she is trying to weasel out of something. Too many nurses resent injured employees for not 'pulling their weight' when they have a legitimate injury and restrictions. JMHO.

[moonshadeau, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, APN, NP, CNS]

you know there are voice programs so that you don't have to type. I assume she can still talk up a storm like most nurses that complain too much.

[night owl]

Took it to the ethics committee and now the HN has to justify why she was on the computer and boy is she ever angry...The injured employee just happened to call out today.. So far nothing has been said to me. Thinking about this, I say if she can punch out numbers on a telephone, she can certainly type an "X" to questions on a template. And after a year you would think she'd be coming off of light duty. Why can't she do all of the glucometers? We have enough of them to keep her busy. How strenuous can taking vital signs be? Getting every weekend off, every holiday off, no rotation, and working only from 8-2 doing secretarial duties? She's got it made. She doesn't do any nursing duties whatsoever, so why is she even on our unit? Sneaking onto the computer knowing the next person to log on will know she's been on is alot of nerve. If I have to do one her nursing summaries, knowing full well she's very capable of doing them herself is cause for some resentment from myself and the other nurses that have to do the rest of her sumarries. When we pull 110% of our weight out there in the trenches and she sits at the desk doing not too much of anything is like getting a kick in the teeth. She should be off the unit in the nursing office like everyone else who was on light duty. We'll see what happens next. Knowing management, they'll come up with some lame excuse as to why she was logging on the computer and we'll still be stuck doing her work. Hopefully not, but we'll have to wait and see...I hate waiting.

Standing up for myself and the rest of my coworkers for something I/we believe in isn't called complaining, it's called making a difference.

[night owl]

Just had to let you know that this "light duty nurse" will be moved off the unit July 1 to the Nursing Office to do clerical work. She was wrong for going against her guidelines of light duty. I believed that I could make a difference for myself and my coworkers so I spoke up...and in this case it certainly paid off.

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Good for you for pressing the issue, night owl. Legitimate injury is one thing - may we all have long careers with healthy backs - BUT already-low morale is trashed even further when (1) management thinks an injured worker can assume their old position with prohibited duties passed around to the remaining (already-overworked) staff or (2) light duty is abused or "milked" by the injured worker.

[Jenny P]

Way to go, Night Owl! It sounds like you had reached the end of your rope with this nurse; but you stuck by your guns and were able to resolve this problem.

[adrienurse, LPN]

A few months ago, I was working with a nurse who was on light duties. Although there was no doubt that she truly did not have use of her right hand (due to an occupational misshap), but she drove me absolutely nuts. Trouble was, I am the person who had assumed her position while she was off, and she felt she had some kind of divine ownership of my patients.

She was not supposed to be carrying out regular RN duties, but that didn't stop her from forever second guessing my nursing decisions, and basically interfering in situations with family members that really had nothing to do with her. She would be forever finding "projects" for me to be doing on top of my own work. She also felt that it was her divine right to take em under her wing and educate me. I remember being involved in a very complex dressing change witht he CNS, when she burst in and started trying to review somebody's kardex with me. I would try to talk to her about it, but she didn't think she was doing anything wrong.

She has returned to long-term-dissability, and boy is my life less complicated.