Well.. I guess I am going to be canned

[Phoenix2541]

Hi all

I am a new nurse 4 mos off orientation working on a med/surge nuero floor 6 patient ratio. Its a brutal floor and yet.. I manage to survive albeit exhausted and oft times just disillusioned with the Candy Land notion of nursing I had in school.

So, what did I do? I let someone work outside of their scope of practice under my watch. Yes and now I have to go to Human Resources to have an interview b/c said patient has a PTSD issue (pysch) and it could potentially turn into a law suit. A housekeeper applied tape to a bandage, that was the practice outside of scope and told me and I didn't report it to my manager, who later found out.

I apologized to the patient, management and see the error in my ways and am now feeling like a dang fool. So, pray that I can salvage my job, but I think I will get the boot.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Its a given that-"No the housekeeping staff doesn't do patient care."

Interestingly, all staff in most facilities are required to be CPR certified. And some at the health care level. So at any given moment, for whatever reason a housekeeper COULD be part of patient care. A code is far different than putting tape on a bandage, however, I can see how in some facilities the lines could be blurred.

[Phoenix2541]

Thanks for ALL the posts guys it really made me feel so good to have fellow nursing support. Now just to clear a few things , this post has raised some questions to which some answers may clarify. The pt did not claim PTSD after the incident, she had it BEFORE the incident so she has a pysch component to her care also anxiety, depression.. et al, that you have to be careful about. There were 2 "education" instances before this one. 1 for parking in a non-employee area B lot vs. C lot.. kinda thing. 2. Customer service for not attending to a patient in a timely fashion which is considered customer service. This one was like 1 week off orientation. When I looked at the Education info that I had to sign it stated basically 3 strikes and your out. My manager did try to throw me under the bus by inferring that my lack of asking questions scared her and made it seem like I was overly confident and a potential unsafe practitioner. To which I replied " u said I was , strong, good, blah blah" I just wasn't gonna let them kick me while down knowing already I was going to be fired. HR is surely not your advocate like they tried to say in that interview. Also at this hospital your supposed to have specific training for customer service in keeping with their philosophy. I never did get that training because when I was hired the class was done. I know how to be courteous to people, some of these patients are master manipulators and even this one tried to cup her pain meds in her hand while throwing the pill cup up to her mouth. I just stopped documenting on my cow and watched her, she then put the pills in her mouth. I am hoping that this does not turn into anything other than me getting canned. The patient never threatened a lawsuit my manager simply said that it COULD happen. She also said on the day of the incident after talking with me for 30 minutes that she would have to file a formal complaint but I was not in trouble.. Lesson learnt totally!

This job was about 9 mos and my first job, HR said they would only give name rank serial # kinda thing. I need another job and was in fact going to use this because it gave me lots of experience.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Totally off topic, but you brought it up. Ever seen the pictures of the lady parts and groin area of the woman who spilled McDonald's coffee on herself? The coffee was Not. Drinkable. Caused third degree burns. Totally negligent to heat coffee to that temperature (to save a buck, mind you) and serve it through a drive thru window. It's not a matter of "coffee's hot." I encourage people who know nothing about that lawsuit to do some research on it if you're going to use it in your daily life as a debate point. Maybe watch the documentary "Hot Coffee" available on Netflix. The pictures are less than 30 minutes into the movie.

Thank you for bringing this up. I was going to but then I just sighed internally and thought "nah, not worth it." Also worth mentioning is that McDonald's had been cited several times by OSHA prior to that lawsuit due to their coffee being about 40 degrees too hot (and being able to cause 3rd degree burns in under 2 seconds or something like that) but instead of changing the temps on their coffee, they just decided to take their punches because they said the extra hot temperatures "made the coffee taste better" and the collateral damages were worth it.

[Phoenix2541]

Yes it did make me smile:)

[raianne]

I'm sorry that happened to you. It makes me wonder if that could have happened to me...the very first job I had was on an understaffed med/surg floor, and one day I was so incredibly busy that one of the housekeepers took pity on me and, along with the transporter, helped one of my patients (who could walk on their own) onto a stretcher to go off the floor for a test. I had no part of it, in fact, I was at the other end of the hall but I remember looking down and seeing them and thinking, "oh, what a nice thing to do, she doesn't have to do that." and I thanked her for it later. It's a shame that you got fired, but now you can find a better job! I suggest a step-down unit. 1:3 nurse to patient ratios are AMAZING when you're used to 1:6, and yes, the patients are sicker, but I still find that most days I feel like a good nurse as opposed to a harried pill dispenser.

[Phoenix2541]

I signed a contract with these people also. Now I have to repay the money back that they put into my training. That really stings too. I am hoping it will be something reasonable. Most of these hospitals here are having NG nurses sign a contract. Sucks tho.

[David Victory]

Hi. Good point. You reference the "hot coffee" case, though, and for what it's worth there was a lot more to that case than most people know. https://www.caoc.org/?pg=facts Certain politicians love to reference that case when pushing "tort reform" which would cap the amount you can win against corporate defendants in court.

[FlorenceNtheMachine]

I signed a contract with these people also. Now I have to repay the money back that they put into my training. That really stings too. I am hoping it will be something reasonable. Most of these hospitals here are having NG nurses sign a contract. Sucks tho.

That stinks! I'm sorry for your recent trouble. I don't think it deserved a firing. I've heard first hand from nurses who have made mistakes that nearly killed a patient and are in management now. I do think it was slightly poor judgment because of the context. But I'm a forgiver and your attitude is so great about this whole thing.

I don't think I could be as gracious and non defensive with my mistakes. Good luck to you!

At Vandy this would be a non issue as all housekeepers hold RN licenses.

[bisson]

jesus, your facility must be really well staffed to be disposing of nurses at the drop of a hat. In any facility I worked in, there is usually an escalation in punishment, such as a write up, a suspension etc. violation of a red rule is an automatic firing, but I don't see why this is not an issue that they could have just counseled you on.

what's done is done, and I can't even imagine what it does to the confidence of a new nurse. We have all made mistakes, I hope you'll be able to move on from this. best wishes.

[Ellen NP, MSN, NP]

Most employers will only confirm that you were an employee and for what period of time. They're too scared of defamation lawsuits to give out any real information. If there's someone with whom you worked that might provide a reference use that individual rather than your unit director.

[Ellen NP, MSN, NP]

I can't believe that you were warned for a parking infraction. We can potentially be ticketed but it goes through the parking dept and doesn't involve HR or nursing dept.

[Ellen NP, MSN, NP]

Wow, a contract to repay training? You are lucky to be out of this place. I wonder if the contract is legally valid.