5 West Nursing

Have you ever talked to your director many times about an ongoing issue in your unit and feel like your words are falling on deaf ears? I’m sure you’ve been in that situation many times before… I know I have.

An article posted by ABC news a year ago mentioned that power causes people to take others less seriously, which explains why your boss doesn’t listen. A recent study shows that your boss doesn’t listen because “there are no consequences”. Fortunately I discovered the secret for making my boss listen to me while I was in a “counseling” session with her one day.

I’m not perfect, and it’s not an excuse, however, some wise *ss day shift nurse thought that writing me up for giving blood “without consent” was a good idea. The fact of the matter is, the patient did give and sign a consent to receive blood… he just had major surgery and was bleeding, Hgb 7.5. Well… my “incident” reached the corporate office risk management department who forwarded the writeup to my director, who called me for “counseling”. At the end of the session she told me to “be careful because these write ups go straight to the corporate office and I have to show them that I took action.” I thanked her and left.

One night, I had to take my patient to CT scan STAT, however, I was having some equipment problems. For some reason, the battery packs on these essential ICU equipment would not charge and therefore, the machine died every time you tried to use it. I’ve told my charge nurse, and my director a few times before, I even wrote her a letter about the situation regarding the poor maintenance of these equipment, but to no avail… this problem had been ongoing for months. How do you get your boss to fix ongoing problems in your unit? Simple… you do it the MIDAS way!

You see, where I work, we have an incident reporting system called “MIDAS+“. It’s a nifty little system that enables you to send an incident report straight to corporate’s risk management office. All I did was to write a report about equipment malfunction in the ICU under “patient safety risk”, hit the SEND button, and wait. Because of the sheer volume of reports they have to deal with, it usually takes about 3 months before they get to read what you send them.

A few months later I was approached by my director in the hallway at the nurses station. She tells me to step aside and starts of with “I’m really bothered about what you sent risk management regarding malfunctioning equipment in the unit. Do you know that when you use the MIDAS system it goes straight to corporate?” “Yes I know”, I replied, “that’s why I used the MIDAS system… so that corporate will know that there is a potential patient safety risk in the ICU”. She tells me to stop using the MIDAS system and let her handle situation because it is her responsibility to do so. I politely reminded her that I did tell her about it many times before, however, the problem still exists.

I may have added to her gray hair, but one thing’s for sure… enough is enough. I’m sure she’ll be more attentive next time. For now, I’m just a thorn in her flesh. I figured, if no one stands up for the patient’s sake, who will?

Well, I don’t recommend using an incident reporting system to write up your boss, however, maybe sometimes you might just get the results you’re looking for. A word of caution though… use at your own risk! Regardless, I know I got her attention. Maybe this time, like she said in her own words, she’ll “be careful because these write ups go straight to the corporate office and I have to show them that I took action.” I thanked her and left.