To tell or not to tell!

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I am orientating on an intermediate care unit and can't believe what I am seeing. I have seen blood transfusions started without gloves, meds being pulled and set on top of the cart and left unattended, computer screen left on with patient data clearly visible and left unattended, no gowns being used in patients rooms that are on contact precautions. I can go on and on. I am a strong patient advocate and feel the need to tell someone so that these things do NOT continue. What do I do?

Specializes in Nephrology.

You can ask the manager if what you saw is okay (Obviously not), then if the manager ask you why you asked tell them that you are seeing somebody doing it that you know its not right.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

.......................and now where is the OP?????

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One of the first things I was told when I started working as a nurse was "do not tell on the other nurses, we have your back as long as you have ours. If upper management come and ask questions don't answer, we will not trust you and if you need us, you won't have us. We will help you 100% unless it's something serious until you throw us under the bus."

I thought this was a given anywhere you work.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
.......................and now where is the OP?????

Probably not gonna come back because most of the comments he got were against him.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

And he posted elsewhere how he

made a huge med error...when it really wasn't. I think being 50 years old (same age I am!) and working civilian now might not be his forte. Hopefully he chills out.

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I did not think the comment was idiotic. Perhaps I caught the humorous aspect of it, which is difficult to convey when communicating online.

There's nothing idiotic about addressing bad behavior with the people who are doing it.

did you catch the "humorous aspect" of my post? or is that selective?

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Looks like your feelings got hurt.

The grownup thing to do is not to imply that someone you disagree with is an idiot. So, since I am not particularly grown up, I am going to point out that using no caps and a smiley and stating "how's that for grown up?" is pretty funny. Might as well put "nana nana booboo" at the end and stick your tongue out.

I enjoyed your post and got a laugh out of it. It's too bad you didn't get the humor in mine.

i don't have emotions. i'm a nurse... i am in this profession because of job stability and i make more $$$ than i did in my previous career. feelings?

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Let me tell you why I've broken some of these rules in the past:

Good ol' sweet frequent flyer Dementia Dan, who has C-diff, has undone his restraints and is currently climbing out of the bed, in the perfect position to give himself a nice subdural bleed.

1) I drop the meds I was taking to COPD Cora on my workstation/cart

2) I don't minimize the window on the med computer because milliseconds count

2) I dive into his room to catch him without stopping to put on PPE because he will have a cracked skull while I am puttering around getting a gown on.

Hope this helps open your eyes to some of the real issues nurses deal with.

(As far as the blood goes, I got nothin'.)

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Instead of calling out individual nurses, it is something that perhaps has been "accepted" as standard practice on this unit. Has a new manager taken over recently? Do you have a Quality Assurance team/person you can address the issues with? It sounds like this is something that has been done on this unit for a while, that does not mean it should be tolerated. You are between a rock and a hard place. Yes, you should say something. I would take the unit manager aside in a private area and express your concerns, maybe she/he does not see what you see. None of these are acceptable practices for any nurse and if they are getting ready for inspections now would be a good time to have these areas pointed out. It would be great if you could take pictures anomously but just taking the pictures would put you at risk. Just because others are practicing like this does not make it acceptable. Also, if you came from a military run facility and this is your introduction to a public facility, you are going to find many discrepancies.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Never suggest taking pictures in a patient care area...bad bad bad. Wouldn't just "put you at risk" but will most likely get you flat out fired if management found out!

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Specializes in geriatrics.

Unless consent forms have been signed and the team is aware, taking photos is a breach of confidentiality. Termination is likely.

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So infection control, HIPPA, and drugs left unattended are NOT good battles? I have so much to learn in nursing!

Contact precautions? What was it? MRSA history? 90% of my patients are MRSA history contact precautions. A flimsy porous gown isn't going to stop anything and I go in rooms to often in the ICU to gown every time .

Gloves are a must though.

Pick your battles

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