Vent about coworker

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I have this patient who has two nurses (myself and one other). Everything was fine and working out really well, but now I'm hearing things from the patient about the other nurse and I've noticed things myself.

I've noticed that the nurse documents a near perfect blood pressure every shift with a small deviation so it's not the exact same thing every time where as I get blood pressures that are sometimes low and sometimes elevated. There was one night were the patient said "oh, the other nurse forgot to take my blood pressure yesterday", but when I look in their notes there is a blood pressure documented and of course it's what they usually document. My patient also told me that this nurse has told them that they think I don't know how to take a blood pressure. Why would they say that about me?

Tonight I was told that the other nurse didn't take o2 sats at all the previous night, so I look and there is a pulse ox documented as well as one documented every 2 hours.

I was also told that the other nurse is always late. Thursday night they were 3 1/2 hours late and Friday they were 1 hour 15 minutes late, but they documented that they were here the entire time.

And while all that is bad, I was informed that the nurse put the patient on the vent, turned off the light, covered up with a blanket and went to sleep. The patient woke up in the middle of the night and clapped their hands to get the nurses attention and wasn't able to wake them up for a good 10 minutes.

I told my patient they have three options... talk to the nurse about it, talk to our boss about it or ask me to talk to our boss about it. I really don't want to be the one to bring it up so I really hope they call and talk to our boss about all of this, but I know it has to be reported so I'll do it if I have to.

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Good advise to the patient. Don't get involved. Also don't let the patient vent to you about the other nurse, they are trying to drag you into this issue. Why tell you about how late they are, they had to have signed on.

imho....

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I wouldn't get involved in the he said she said nonsense. You can't be sure your patient is being honest as you aren't there to witness the other nurse do or not do her job.

If you get involved, report her and it turns out to be false information, you look bad.

Patients have been known to flat out lie about caregivers for all sorts of reasons.

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That's true, but I would never go to my boss and flat out say so and so isn't doing this. I would present her with what the patient has said and what they are concerned about. If anything, the sleeping needs to stop!

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The patient could very well be lying, but it feels wrong to just ignore the accusation. I feel that if I keep my mouth shut it could come back and bite me in the buttocks.

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Specializes in nursing education.

That's what Nannycam is for.

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SHGR, that really is an excellent suggestion.. even though the patient is an adult. I'm assuming you can turn it off and on at will... otherwise I'm not sure how the family would feel about a camera watching them 24/7.

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Maybe it's because I'm a new grad, but this turn a blind eye attitude is everywhere.

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Agree with previous posts. However you should distance yourself from implication in the fraud allegation by reporting in writing what the client told you in a factual manner, to include your instruction to the client to report this to the agency. Make certain you have told the client that if he does not report this, he can be accused of complicity in any resulting investigation.

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Specializes in Peds(PICU, NICU float), PDN, ICU.

I would encourage the patient to talk with the agency about any concerns they have. Talking to you doesn't get the patient anywhere. You can also hint to your manager that a follow up call to the patient nay be needed and then hope the patient opens up to your manager. You can also document in your notes when the other nurse arrives and eventually hope someone catches on.

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Specializes in Peds(PICU, NICU float), PDN, ICU.
Maybe it's because I'm a new grad but this turn a blind eye attitude is everywhere.[/quote']

Its everywhere. I see it all the time. I've even seen VS charted for the next day! The supervisors knew and did nothing. Real life is nothing like school/clinicals.

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And this is why I love this forum...all wonderful suggestions. Thank you so much.

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