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Why nurses are anxious all the time

Published on December 8, 2011 in Medical

 

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Just saw this series of tweets from @ernursek. This is why nurses are anxious all the time. It’s why med errors go underreported (WAY underreported). They can find a way to keep you; they can find a way to fire you. If ANYONE has taken the slightest dislike to you (and if you’re a nurse, someone dislikes you—guaranteed). I figure this is what’ll happen to me. I’ll make some mistake that everyone else also makes a dozen times a week, only because they want me gone I’m the one who’ll get written up and fired. This occupation is a knife’s edge. The same error can be instantly fireable or can result in a verbal “you forgot to give this med; please give it.” I’m shocked at some of the stuff nurses have been fired for. I’m shocked at more of the stuff nurses do and are NOT fired. It’s really random. Scary.

 
12 Comments  comments 
  • Susan V

    I start nursing school in January. YIKES

  • http://crasspollination.blogspot.com Nurse K

    Seriously, when I was a manager, there were a couple of med-related errors that were written up, and the nurse and I just discussed it. One was rather serious, but none harmed the patient. Usually the nurses bent themselves out of shape so much feeling bad/guilty/worried about the patient and that was punishment enough.

    The meds were controlled and no one accused her of diversion or anything and she’d had no previous discipline related to charting. It sounded totally random. Now the poor dear had to leave her family to be a travel nurse because no one will even look at her application with a termination on there.

  • http://rnraquel.blogspot.com rnraquel

    That is absolutely true. Some hospitals are worse than others, but on the whole it is frustratingly true.

  • RawRN

    If the error is serious enough to warrant termination, shouldn’t it be serious enough to have action taken against your license?

    When I was in nursing school, we all attended a session of the Board of Nursing. It was at this that I got a sense of the shit you had to do wrong in order to lose your license.

    Somebody had an elaborate scheme at a nursing home to steal used fentanyl patches. Really? That’s just gross. Apparently, the guy was eating the used ones. EWWWWWWWWW

    The one that did hit home was a nurse who took a telephone order for dig, and gave the wrong amount. Like she moved the decimal point. So instead of giving .125mcg or whatever the small dose, she gave 10X the amount!!!! Had to override the pyxis’s warning and everything. She ended up keeping her license based upon her actions following the event – taking action and responsibility for her own mistake. I don’t even remember what the outcome for the patient was.

    So really – you forgot to chart a med gets you fired but you keep your license?????

  • http://crasspollination.blogspot.com Nurse K

    In my state, all terminations go to the Board of Nursing, and you have to defend your license as well. So, you have to usually (1) defend yourself against your hospital for unemployment benefits (2) defend yourself against the termination with or without the union and (3) defend yourself against the board of nursing. If you lose your job, you have at least three separate battles.

  • RawRN

    Wow. That’s unbelievable. Are you guys union out there? Can she get a union representative or a nurse advocate/lawyer type person? I hope she can eventually sue the hospital for all of her time and lost wages and shit. Forgetting to chart a med???? Obviously you want to protect this nurse’s privacy, but is there more to this story? Previous disciplinary action, bad blood, etc?

  • http://www.atyourcervix.blogspot.com atyourcervix

    We recently had a lovely little change to our policies at work. One to point out (this is a gem!): blatant rudeness — 1st offense, written up. 2nd offense, TERMINATION. No quantification or qualifications of what “blatant rudeness” is, nor WHO is doing the complaint re: “blatant rudeness”. Another employee? A manager? A patient? A family member of a patient? Just, two strikes, and you’re OUT. Nice way to keep your nurses Magnet Hospital.

  • http://crasspollination.blogspot.com Nurse K

    Funny…Blatant rudeness.

    In your trip to HR, someone busts out a Miss Manners book. “Cervix put up a sign for a co-worker’s baby shower when Miss Manners recommends a one-month notice with RSVP and invitations made of linen-back paper with gold lettering addressing everyone by their title (eg. Miss) as well as their first and last names.” BLATANT RUDENESS! MISS MANNERS SAID SO.

  • http://notamalenurse.blogspot.com Spook, RN

    Meh – I’ve (for obvious reasons “heard”) stories of blatant negligence which ended up with patient death.
    And not just run of the mill negligence but stupid negligence!! (Yes, I know there ain’t no such thing as smart negligence).

    I don’t want to elaborate for obvious reasons. Suffice just to say that: Said nurse was a POG/REMF (in a civilian setting – this isn’t a military hospital) and still holds said position. No disciplinary action. No threat to license.

    Gives you the ‘warm and fuzzies’ don’t it?

  • NurseG

    The thing that shocks me is how incredibly inept close to half of the nurses I work with are. It didn’t used to be that way, but schools are now accepting and graduating some mental trolls. I’m not anxious because I’m afraid of being fired, but because I’m constantly working too hard to do my work as well as the stuff that gets dumped on me by the aforementioned slackers. My company has fired several nurses over the last month, and every one of them should have been fired within their first week on orientation. Scary!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Greg-Mercer/100001786695804 Greg Mercer

    It has long (many decades) been overwhelmingly shown that positive feedback is a far more powerful and efficient way to change behavior than is negative feedback.  Few in health care seem to have gotten the memo: truly evidence-based practice would embrace it.  Instead of frightening Nurses into hiding mistakes and distracting themselves into more mistakes with all that useless anxiety, we could then actually improve performance and morale, reduce mistakes, and improve efficiency.  Think of that!
    We also need somehow to convince managers to stop this lazy and unproductive blaming of individuals, and actually act on all the boilerplate we see about systems approaches to quality, which clearly work far better than does picking on scapegoats, clearly require more work of managers, and clearly happen exactly as rarely as is humanly possible, and even then mostly in fictional initiatives in meetings and memos.

  • Annoyed

    Some nurses at my facility just got canned for not completing their quarterly mandatory ed in a timely manner.  It was probably the tip of the ice burg, but getting fired for not watching a video during your scheduled shift when you are supposed to be taking PERFECT care of your patients…….jeez!!!

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