I have 5 years experience as a trach/vent nurse in home health, right out of nursing school. This will be my first experience working in a facility. I just completed my first day orienting on the floor at an addiction recovery residential/detox unit. Several things stood out to me over my first 12 hours of orientation:
1) This nurse works FAST - mostly because she is pre-pulling meds & copy/pasting her charting. (how will I ever keep up? Does everyone do this???)
2) This nurse has horrific bedside manner - Telling her patients and ME that she is the one with the medication & if she doesn't like a patient - she's going to let them suffer through withdrawal longer, & if she likes a patient, she will try to get them onto the meds sooner. Also, openly ridiculing patients about the validity of their pain & questioning a patient's claim that she had been sexually assaulted in the days prior to entering the facility for treatment.
3) This nurse is prefacing almost everything she does with "this is how I do things, but you didn't see this because JCAHO..." How am I supposed to learn how to correctly do things (I have no floor experience) if the nurse orienting me only shows me how not to do things & doesn't have time to show me according to the policy/procedures. (BTW...the week prior to my orientation, JCAHO was on site.)
First, I'd like to ask if this type of situation is common, as I have never worked on a unit in a facility.
Second, I want to be careful as to what action I take & who I approach if/when it is warranted. While there is certainly unethical behavior occurring, I am not certain what the appropriate action is/would be on my part. It's been suggested I contact the DON. I "feel" like I need to take action, but I want to make sure if/when I raise concerns, I bring only specific examples & have done my diligence.
Thank you for your input. This "new" nurse is trying to adjust to a whole new ball game.
