Was Boss passing the buck?

[hhrhrn41, RN]

Hey guys and gals....

I need to know if all of you feel the same way that I did about a situation that happened to me the other night when I unfortunately was the Charge RN.

First of all, I find out I have 3 admissions coming in for my shift(3-11) and no clinical secretary scheduled. My boss says she will stay a little late to help me try to get some of the orders off. I work brain injury rehab and when an RN is in charge we do all admits, discharges, cosign orders and handle any and all problems that may come up. Anyways, my boss's husband kept calling her and asking her when she would be leaving. Well, after he called her for like the fifth time she told me that she would be leaving and that MOST of the orders were signed off. Right when she has her coat on and is about to leave the unit, one of the NA comes up to me and states that "the family of the patient in room such and such is extremely upset and says they want to talk with you about their mother saying she was touched inappropriatelly by a black man today". I was speechless as I have NEVER had to deal with such a situation before and I really wasn't quite sure how to approach it. Luckily, my manager hadn't left the unit yet and I pulled her into the conference room and proceeded to tell her what the NA had told me. I also informed her that I felt VERY uncomfortable talking to this paitents family about such a subject and that I didn't even know how to begin. Instead of taking her coat off and telling me that this was something she needed to handle as the nurse manager and that she would speak with them (especially since I was in the middle of doing an admit), she tells me to tell them that if they feel uncomfortable leaving their mother in our facility that for me to give them permission to stay overnight with her. NOW WHAT KIND OF SOLUTION IS THAT???!!!:angryfire

And that is all she said and nothing else. I strongly feel that it is her job as the nurse manager to handle those types of complaints. Now for those of you who arae going to say "What would you have done if she wasn't even there?" Well then that's what we have house supervisors for!! But, just by chance , the supervisor happpened to walk in just as my boss was telling me that B.S. to say to the family. I explained to her what was going on and she said "Well, I'll come with you while you talk so I can be a witness" I was so mad at both of them i could've spit fire. I mean really... they're the ones who get paid the big bucks to deal with complaints susch as that!!! This patients family said that they wanted to call 911 even. At that time I was just wishing I would wake up from the nightmare I was having. It was one of the most awful nights of my nursing career!!

So please let me know how you guys would have handled the above and if I was justified in being extremely ticked off.