Upset about work

[vanillaskye]

I have been working prn in a LTC facility. There are two nurses on the wing that I work. I just have to vent about what happened to the other nurse last week. This woman returned back from the Dr's office with her Mother, and that other nurse was on the phone, straightening out an order with the pharmacy. So, I talked to that patient's daughter. She gave me a prescription slip and I gave to to the other nurse who was on the phone with the pharmacy. I asked the patient's daughter if they had sent a green progress note back, and the daughter said no. She then said that she wanted to talk to other nurse and would wait for her to get off the phone. I went to pass some meds. I guess all hell broke loose while I was gone.

Apparently, the woman did go back into the patient's room for a few minutes, then returned and began to go off on the other nurse, accusing her of being rude, etc. The other nurse did need to finish her phone call with the pharmacy because they needed to send out the meds before they closed. The other nurse claims she was on the phone with pharmacy for 10 minutes. She said she apologized for the wait. I heard the patient's daughter cursing and throwing things in the patient's room. Before I could ask the other nurse what happened, the daughter came out of her mother's room and threw the wadded up progress note at the other nurse and told her that she would be in the DON's office losing her job. She continued ranting for a few more seconds and then went into the patient's room and resumed her temper tantrum there. We called up the house supervisor, who said she was too busy to come, but then she did show up. Turns out that she knew about the order that the other nurse was on the phone with pharmacy trying to straighten out, but didn't tell her. She came up to put the order in the sheet in the chart. She heard the ranting and raving and asked what was up, but wouldn't try to talk with the daughter. She told us that it was all no big deal, that the patient's daughter was all blow and no go!

So imagine my surprise when I get a call a week later to come in and talk to the DON about what happened! I gave my description of what I saw. I talked about how we notified house supervisor. Turns out the house supervisor denied getting called to the floor, denied being up there that night. The other nurse did get written up for being rude to the patient's daughter, and she is looking for another job. I asked the DON what should have been done in this situation and she said that he other nurse should have gone to the med room and used the phone in there.

This particular daughter is verbally nasty to everyone. At one time, the facility was going to call the state hotline for elder abuse of her Mother. I am thinking seriously about telling my agency that I don't really want to work at this place anymore. I did consider calling the cops and making a disturbance complaint.

[riern]

Not sure what to tell you. Sounds like the DON should be talking to the house supervisor about her spell of amnesia and not doing her job. The good thing is that you work for an agency and you are there to help.......and you don't have to go back if you don't want to. That's what I loved most about agency work.....I could always say Never again!

Good Luck

[bobnurse]

I wouldnt feel comfortable working in an environment where your administratration are liars and handle situations poorly. We all deal with these types of families, but there should be documentation present in regards to the family members behavior.......

There are incident reports for non-patients or visitors. I would fill one of these out everytime the family member acts violently. One day you will need it. If you or that other nurse would of filled one out, maybe things would go your way.

You have to remember, the patients/families always right, unless you have documentation to prove otherwise....In nursing, You are guilty until proven innoncent. This is a shame.

Also, the house supervisor states she wasnt there that night. Doesnt she clock in? OR sign in? Or im sure someone else saw her there that night. Looks like she needs to go.......If people can falsify events such as those, what else are they falsifying?

[heart queen]

Our "write up" forms have a place for a response. If you are willing to help the nurse who was repremanded, you both should have your written account of what happened placed in that nurses file and her response should be "I disagree with this discipline, see attatched note.

This at least gives a rebuttal.