i was suspended today. I have been reporting major med errors and omissions to my unit manager and director of nursing for a couple months and was told they were being taken care of. Then a few weeks ago, a nurse practitioner and I were discussing a patient’s stop date for antibiotics and I informed her that he had missed two doses. I was brought to the DONs office with the HR director and spoken to about not following chain of command. At this same time I reiterated my concerns about other patients consistently not getting their medications - one patient had only received 21 out of 45 doses of Xarelto and another had not received any protonix for 14 days. I was again told not to do anything further and that it would be taken care of. I asked if I could inform the NP and get an order to dc the protonix since the patient was asymptomatic after not receiving it for two weeks. I was told “no, we have a plan.” I work 7-3, the xarelto is due on 3-11 and the protonix is due on 3-11 and 11-7. A week later when I informed the DON it was still going on, she said “Be careful who you accuse of not giving meds.”
Wednesday, I asked the HR director to be present while I informed the ADON that the patient was still not getting her xarelto, and a couple other examples such as one patient had only received 33/45 of his rifampin doses for sepsis. The DON was on vacation. I was told this would be taken seriously and that they would report it to the NP that evening, but that they had to call the DON first. I was told not to worry about being reprimanded because I was following the chain of command. I had yesterday off and when I returned today, I was suspended for “having knowledge that a medication was not being given and not following through.” No other nurses are being suspended or terminated.
I am not doing any of this to rat other nurses out; I want to protect my patients! What should I do now?
Call state, it’s your responsibility and it will buy you some time because it’s illegal for them to retaliate. You will have to resign because you will become a pariah and they will eventually fire you. I’m speaking from experience.
Call state, it’s your responsibility and it will buy you some time because it’s illegal for them to retaliate. You will have to resign because you will become a pariah and they will eventually fire you. I’m speaking from experience.
Queen Tiye, RN
239 Posts
Call state, it’s your responsibility and it will buy you some time because it’s illegal for them to retaliate. You will have to resign because you will become a pariah and they will eventually fire you. I’m speaking from experience.