Are You Working for a Paranoid Nursing Employer?

I spoke with a nurse this week who indicated that his employer immediately reports anything and everything to external regulatory and law enforcement agenices. The reporting takes place before an internal investigation or before a common sense approach speaking with the nurse initially.

This employer routinely files complaints against licensed healthcare professionals (LPNs, RNs, RTs, Pharms, etc.) with state licensing boards and contacts law enforcement at the slightest hint of an issue.

There has to be a balance. Employees will not come forward and report incidents if there is feeling that everything will be externally reported and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (like stealing a candy bar from Walmart).

If you are working at this type of facility or on a unit like this, run as fast you can. Run Forest Run....

I don't know maybe your nursing supervisor or someone in nursing management and HR has watched too many Law & Order episodes or wants to be Deputy Brenda Lee Johnson from the Closer. Deputy Brenda Lee Johnson closes 97% of her cases with confession. Damn she is good!!! When I grow up I want to be Deputy Brenda Lee Johnson and you can always find me at home by 9pm on a Monday watching the Closer.

Don't despair if you work in a facility where HR and nursing management mention "you are employed at-will" in every other sentence and external reporting to "everyone and their mother" is the new norm.

Drop back to per diem and seek full-time employment in a healthier environment. What is a healthy work environment for nurses? You tell me.

A perfect nursing working environment doesn't exist however you should not have to worry about a Nursing Board, law enforcement, Office of Inspector General or Attorney General, and Pharmacy Board investigation just because you failed to document a controlled substance on just 1 of the 10 places where it is required to be documented.

Comments

[latonia]

Suzy,

Thank you for your comments. You should contact a licensure defense attorney in your state immediately to discuss your case.

Do not rely on the "water cooler" advice of other nurses on how to proceed when your nursing license is being investigated. Talk to an attorney about your case.

If you don't have a chemical dependency then you should not "admit" to having a chemical dependency. I hear this alot from nurses who accept and receive "water cooler" advice from peers related to controlled substance discrepancies.This is an example how unfair things are in the workplace for nurses when you are willing to admit and confess to things that are clearly untrue.

Why would you admit to having a dependency issue if you don't have a dependency issue?

Some nursing employers take at will employment to an extreme and its unfortunate. I am seeing nurses who have worked at a facility for 15, 20, and 25 years term'd by HR without hesitation and consideration of mitigating factors.

[suzy]

I spoke with a nurse who works at the same large,powerful,hospital I was recently wrongfully terminated from for allegedly not charting two Ambien tablets.

She informed me, "You should have done what all the others did", she said that if I checked myself into the psychiatric hospital or claimed to have a chemical dependence I would at least be able to save my job and/or rehiring status.

It upsets me that this is what is happening to nursing, at this point I think I will be changing careers. My passion for nursing is gone.

[suzy]

I appreciate your comments. I have been a nurse for over twenty years with a spotless record and all of a sudden was terminated (after being offered the opportunity to resign-"so my record would remain clean") for being accused of not documenting two sleeping pills. I know that I documented them (electronic charting)--they would not let me see any evidence.

The only thing I can think of is that I forgot to hit the "save" button-----this hospital uses two separate electronic records programs and I floated to this floor and hadn't used their charting system for quite a while. I was wrong if I didn't save the information.

I do have some simple suggestions that other hospitals have applied to their electronic documentation that would decrease that extra step of saving the information and would enable the nurse to visually check the charting easily.

They reported me to the board of nursing for being unsafe....My colleagues cannot believe that I was terminated, they know how passionate I am re. patient care and safety.

The nurses at this large powerful organization are afraid to speak up about anything now......I was on the practice committee for years, currently was the chairperson.....I spoke up with my concerns and included possible solutions....my coworkers think this may be why I was targeted....they told me that is why they are not involved in committees and just "lay low" at work. Isn't that sad!!!!