Who is an advocate for nurses?

[BrittRN21]

Who can a nurse go to in a hospital if they need advice and have talked to their manager but disagree with the advice? Who is an advocate for the nurse? Risk and Legal? Corporate Compliance? HR? Or someone else?

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

Oh my, what an interesting question. It would be helpful to know in a general sense what the problem is, since the answer could vary a lot, depending on the nature of the problem. I'm a union steward at my hospital (and a 29 year RN) and end up dispensing advice to nurses and advocating for them on a wide variety of issues. I'm assuming you aren't in a union environment though. So it's pretty hard to answer without knowing more. Patient care issue? Doctor relationship? Co-worker relationship? Sexual harassment? Give us a little more of a hint - without breaking confidentiality of course - and I might have something useful to say.

[scoochy]

Tread lightly with Human Resources if this an issue with a nurse manager..just my opinion from my own experience..........

[Guest296136]

if you have a union, start there. Other wise it depends on the issue, if it is something about policy go to the managers boss or who ever is in charge of the policies and procedures. Hard to say without whole story

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

from my experience "no one"

unless you are part of an union, then you might have some help

[Argo]

Depends on the issue.

[Triage24]

There is no advocate for nurses unless you are in a union. The only advocate you have is you. Human Resources is like going to the fox in charge of the chicken house.

[BrittRN21]

To make a long story short: The physician allegedly made an inappropiate comment to a patient. I did not witness this and the patient did not report it to me. The patient reported it to the MA that I was working with. I informed my manager, who will inform the medical director. However, my manager told me not to fill out an incident report until after she talked with the medical director. I just don't know if I should fill out an incident report or even if I am required to since I never actually witnessed anything. I'm also concerned that my manager is protecting the physician and not me by telling me not to fill out an incident report. My main concern is: Is reporting this to my manager enough or do I need to take any other steps? Thanks!

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

That helps a lot.

Short answer: you have done your job and are not at any risk yourself, as far as I can see. If you are worried that your manager is duplicitous - hopefully not! - and might say the conversation never happened, you could send her an email just saying in a very non-confrontational way that you wanted to have a record of the discussion in case it ever came up in the future, summarize what you told her and what she told you. That creates a permanent record in an easy way. If you trust your manager pretty well, I would just make your own private note to remind you of the date and what happened and save it away, just in case someone asks you about it somewhere down the line when your memory is dimmed.

If it were me in the future, I think I might have gone to the patient and say: "This was reported to me, can you tell me more about it?". That way, it reduces chance of misunderstanding and if you need to report it on you are reporting what was said directly to you, not something you heard second hand.

[BrittRN21]

Thanks! That helps a lot!

[whipping girl in 07, RN]

from my experience "no one"

unless you are part of an union, then you might have some help

Sadly, I agree. I could use an advocate right now myself and there's no one to turn to since we're not a union facility.