Trend in incident reports

[Roseyposey]

I have noticed a disturbing trend and what I consider misuse of my hospital's incident reporting system. I am sure all hospitals have something like this, and I have personally used it to document things such as med errors (yes, I have reported myself). Lately it seems that this system is being used when people get their noses bent out of joint for what the see as a nurse being "mean" to them. One of my co-workers got written up for telling a nurse that they would have to call them back to get report on a patient (due to the patient in front of them crumping). Yes, I am sure the "offender" was probably curt considering the circumstance, but this is not a rude person. Instead of speaking to them later about this, there was an incident report filed. This is just one example; it seems to be running rampant throughout the hospital. No patient harm, no real wrongdoing, just someone getting their feelings hurt and using the formal system to "tattle." Unfortunately, the accused has to defend themselves against this. IMHO, the "tattler" should be counseled on appropriate conflict resolution techniques and how to speak one-on-one with people about perceived problems. Now I am not suggesting that there aren't times when making a formal complaint is the proper thing to do, but you know, we are all human beings and sometimes patient care isn't unicorns and sunshine. When stressed, we may not always be smiley and upbeat, and we should not have to kiss each other's butts for fear of retribution. Let's support each other instead of nit-picking over petty garbage. I personally don't have time to file a report every time I have to wait to give report or every time someone isn't Suzie Sunshine to me - I would do nothing else all day long otherwise. Let's speak to each other as professionals and keep the patients' needs at the center of our practice and quit crapping on each other.

I have to find out, though, if this is happening everywhere, and why?

[CrystalSSA]

We have specific guidelines for reporting each other. You can say anything you want in private...but put a patient in front of you and it's game on...papers filed.

[Roseyposey]

I guess I should add that this was a telephone exchange - there was nothing inappropriate said, I heard the offender's side of the conversation. It literally was "I can't take report right now, I will have to call you back."

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I wouldn't have put it past an ED or ICU nurse at my old hospital to do something like that but, if that happened, we would have never heard about it because before incident reports were submitted to risk management, they went to the floor managers for review. It the manager determined an incident report was unnecessary, they deleted it and that was the end of it.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

It runs rampant where I work. We get written up all the time for a variety of reasons and usually by someone that is misinformed and does not know all the facts of a situation. We get written up a lot by ED nurses who demand everything right away whether or not they truly need it as quickly as they portray. The report is usually about the team not doing something as quikly as someone else thinks we should. Sometimes we get so many PICC orders close together we have to traige but we always make sure the patient has a PIV or two until we can get to them.

We get reported about frustrating things as well such as someone not liking how we said something. I think many people lack the skill to approach another and solve the issue or problem, and they they use the incident report to lash out at another. I also know that many department have a lack of understanding how other department function and they have unrealistic expectations of the other department. I see this a lot in the hospital since I get to everywhere.

My personal policy for interpersonal conflicts or misunderstanding is to approach the individual..if they are responsive to a discussion,then we proceed with that. If that is not working I can choose to let it go and store the info about that person or write it up.That depends on the offense. Generally, if it is about a policy violation or nursing issue I try to discuss it with them and see if we can turn it into a learing opportunity. If that does not fly..I feel that I am forced to report it.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I wouldn't have put it past an ED or ICU nurse at my old hospital to do something like that but, if that happened, we would have never heard about it because before incident reports were submitted to risk management, they went to the floor managers for review. It the manager determined an incident report was unnecessary, they deleted it and that was the end of it.

This is how it works at my facility too. Incident reports are supposed to be incidents involving patients for either risk management or patient relations to take care of / weed out / forward it to the appropriate manager. Issues with other employees are to be reported to that person's supervisor to be dealt with through the proper channels.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

What dumbass is using incident reports for interpersonal conflicts? They are risk management tools related to patient care only. Good grief. It's not rocket science.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

Apparently,there a lot where I work! Sometimes I just want to say " Are you kidding me...just toss that crap in the garbage".

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Ah, but there is where the risk managment comes in. Say that the ED nurse is told to get the patient out of the room, they need the bed. Call to unit and the nurse can't take patient. Not a personal thing, a process thing. Covers both nurses from "I told you we need this bed" in the ER to "why didn't you take the patient" on the unit.

I agree that there's times that it is petty stuff that is put in an incident report form. But if the manager reviews and finds no merit, then no harm no foul. But the manager can see trends in many things by this reporting system, that she can then deal with. I personally think that I am not going to confront (no matter how well meaning or "gentle") a co-worker. That's why the manager gets paid the big bucks. Managers need to be mindful how the staff is acting. Someone wants to not be nice, whatever, but pull me into all the drama and the buck stops with me--we as nurses are far too busy with patients to play those kind of games.