I have this dilemma... I know what I am going to do about it, but was wondering what you guys would do in this situation. It's kind of a long story.... I'll try and keep it to the point.
Most of you know I used to work on the pediatric and obstetrics floor and transferred into the NICU over a year ago. I'm still on the same floor as peds and OB just down the hallway about 50 feet.
So, I still see all my co workers I used to work with on peds and OB all the time. Especially if I'm working newborn and running babies out to their mommas and having to walk up the halls.
We have a lot of great nurses that I work with. But for all the great ones you wind up having a not so great one. There is this one nurse who on a personal level I can tolerate her to some degree. She's very scattered and you can't follow any of her conversations because they bounce all over the place.. but she's been pretty harmless.
I just always knew that if there was a crisis and someone was coding on the floor she'd run and hide. I've worked with her for almost 6 years now. I've noticed over the past few years her behavior has been changing.. and not for the good.
She constantly brings her personal problems to work with her. She spends hours during the shift on personal calls with her husband and kids. Her husband is a drug addict and cheating on her. She is aware of it and spends much of her time chasing after him and finding out who he's sleeping with and doing drugs with.
I've heard her arguing with her family time and time again right there on the phone at the nurses station. She'll start cussing at them and raising her voice and being really hateful. She NEVER looks up the hallways to see if anyone is coming. And two of the hallways that intersect with the nurses station are out of view, so you wouldn't know anyone was walking up them until they got to the nurses station. And in a few of the rooms closest to the nurses station you can hear when people are laughing and talking loudly without even having the door open.
We've all turned our heads and looked the other way hoping it was just a few isolated events and gave her the benefit of the doubt that she was having a bad night or few nights.
Around 3am she'd always go into what we called her "sleepy phase" and she'd fall asleep charting. She had charted some off the wall stuff before that had nothing to do with the patient she was charting about. These are legal document.... she is liable for what she charts... not to mention it could effect the outcome of that patients care.
Well, lately she's gotten so bad that when she's not fighting with her family on the phone or talking in circles... she will fall asleep AT WORK for hours at a time. She was literally snoring at the nurses station last night. Then she finally got up and the girls thought she was going to check on her patients but she went into the lounge and turned the heat up, turned out the lights and curled up on the couch and went to sleep :yikes:
Her patients deserve to get good nursing care. She could have had a patient bleeding out and she'd never know it. She's a danger to have working on the floor. She is so off the wall latel that you'd swear she was on drugs. And it's not fair for her co workers to have to always have to pick up her slack.
I had no idea it was this bad until this morning when I questioned one of the OB nurses. I knew she cat napped and the other stuff..... but she's done that for as long as I've ever known her and got away with it.
I urged the girls to report this because covering up for her is not helping the patients or her. Everyone seems to be apprehensive to report this and they're dragging their heels about it hoping she'll snap out of this behavior. But it's progressively gotten worse.. she's not going to snap out of it. Someone needs to stop this before someone gets hurt or worse.
So, I've decided to stay up this morning and wait for our boss to arrive at work and let her know what's going on. I can certainly tell her what I have witnessed myself. And I can tell her what I've heard from others but that she will have to ask them personally to verify.
This just makes me sooooo mad. I can't believe everyone has been covering this up for so long. I'm not someone that runs to management and tattle on my fellow co workers.... but when patients are being neglected or their lives being put in danger... something needs to be done about it.. it's not right.
So, I was just wondering if you guys would do the same thing or if you think I'm butting my nose in where it doesn't belong since I don't technically work that floor anymore. I just can't turn my head the other way on this. It's wrong... so wrong.
Most of you know I used to work on the pediatric and obstetrics floor and transferred into the NICU over a year ago. I'm still on the same floor as peds and OB just down the hallway about 50 feet.
So, I still see all my co workers I used to work with on peds and OB all the time. Especially if I'm working newborn and running babies out to their mommas and having to walk up the halls.
We have a lot of great nurses that I work with. But for all the great ones you wind up having a not so great one. There is this one nurse who on a personal level I can tolerate her to some degree. She's very scattered and you can't follow any of her conversations because they bounce all over the place.. but she's been pretty harmless.
I just always knew that if there was a crisis and someone was coding on the floor she'd run and hide. I've worked with her for almost 6 years now. I've noticed over the past few years her behavior has been changing.. and not for the good.
She constantly brings her personal problems to work with her. She spends hours during the shift on personal calls with her husband and kids. Her husband is a drug addict and cheating on her. She is aware of it and spends much of her time chasing after him and finding out who he's sleeping with and doing drugs with.
I've heard her arguing with her family time and time again right there on the phone at the nurses station. She'll start cussing at them and raising her voice and being really hateful. She NEVER looks up the hallways to see if anyone is coming. And two of the hallways that intersect with the nurses station are out of view, so you wouldn't know anyone was walking up them until they got to the nurses station. And in a few of the rooms closest to the nurses station you can hear when people are laughing and talking loudly without even having the door open.
We've all turned our heads and looked the other way hoping it was just a few isolated events and gave her the benefit of the doubt that she was having a bad night or few nights.
Around 3am she'd always go into what we called her "sleepy phase" and she'd fall asleep charting. She had charted some off the wall stuff before that had nothing to do with the patient she was charting about. These are legal document.... she is liable for what she charts... not to mention it could effect the outcome of that patients care.
Well, lately she's gotten so bad that when she's not fighting with her family on the phone or talking in circles... she will fall asleep AT WORK for hours at a time. She was literally snoring at the nurses station last night. Then she finally got up and the girls thought she was going to check on her patients but she went into the lounge and turned the heat up, turned out the lights and curled up on the couch and went to sleep :yikes:
Her patients deserve to get good nursing care. She could have had a patient bleeding out and she'd never know it. She's a danger to have working on the floor. She is so off the wall latel that you'd swear she was on drugs. And it's not fair for her co workers to have to always have to pick up her slack.
I had no idea it was this bad until this morning when I questioned one of the OB nurses. I knew she cat napped and the other stuff..... but she's done that for as long as I've ever known her and got away with it.
I urged the girls to report this because covering up for her is not helping the patients or her. Everyone seems to be apprehensive to report this and they're dragging their heels about it hoping she'll snap out of this behavior. But it's progressively gotten worse.. she's not going to snap out of it. Someone needs to stop this before someone gets hurt or worse.
So, I've decided to stay up this morning and wait for our boss to arrive at work and let her know what's going on. I can certainly tell her what I have witnessed myself. And I can tell her what I've heard from others but that she will have to ask them personally to verify.
This just makes me sooooo mad. I can't believe everyone has been covering this up for so long. I'm not someone that runs to management and tattle on my fellow co workers.... but when patients are being neglected or their lives being put in danger... something needs to be done about it.. it's not right.
So, I was just wondering if you guys would do the same thing or if you think I'm butting my nose in where it doesn't belong since I don't technically work that floor anymore. I just can't turn my head the other way on this. It's wrong... so wrong.
