watch what you say

[greenwing]

:(A patient 's family member thought she heard me say something bad about patients and reported it to the manager. What she thought she heard was not what I said. I wasn't asked about it and I didn't find out about what happened until 2 days later. A friend, who knew I would not have said what the family member thought she heard, told me it was me they were talking about during the safety briefings we have before shift change every day and she had heard it from another staff member.

Our manager hasn't said anything to me, it has only been during these briefings we've been told to watch what we say on the floor.

However, outside of the briefings the manager did tell several staff members that I was the one the family member heard.

I'm upset the manager didn't ask me about it and that she told others. I do intend to keep my mouth shut from now on, but I wonder if I should confront her or just chalk it up to a lesson learned.

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

this has happened to me too. i was running to get to outside to a trauma, tripped, fell and sprained my ankle really, really bad. well as any person does i yelled out in pain and then said a bad word. patient in the room i landed in front of reported me for saying the curse word to her. when i came back in to work on crutches on LD, my boss had a write up waiting for me. yes i shouldnt have cursed, but i fell, and it hurt. i was in no way talking to the patient in that room.. she wasnt my patient and i didnt know her from adam. but you know its all about customer service....

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

You should confront you manager. Don't try to read into anything the manager is thinking but just ask professionally. Let your manager guide you as to what to do next.

[psalm, RN]

I learned the hard way that the patient may hear things differently than intended. I gave report about said pt, "Pt has been complaining of..." Pt. was very upset with the term "complaining of", as if he were whining or faking and that I was branding him a complainer. I had to explain that medical speak was short hand for us. Whew...

[Gr8Dane]

Thats why I hate giving report outside the pts rooms. A lot of personal information is exchanged, summarized, very quickly.