Tuesday 22 January 2008

A Messy Matter of Bad Practice

As a student nurse, I've spent the best part of two and a half years being beaten with the NMC Code of Professional Conduct. I like to think I've learnt a thing or two from it, and that my practice is in accordance with what it states. So what do you do when you meet a qualified nurse whose practice is questionable?

Always a tricky one - to say something could seriously jeapordise your placement final report and make the rest of the placement a nightmare. But then surely we have a responsibility to pick nurses up on bad practice?

This week I have been working alongside such a nurse. I'm sure she's a lovely person; perhaps she's just become somewhat disillusioned with the job. The other staff have also found her extremely difficult to work with, to the extent that we all looked like we'd worked a 14 hour shift after about 20 mins! The Sister asked myself and the other student there on placement to write a short report about this nurse's conduct/practice, which we did. We then discovered the nurse in question was writing a report about us...

So I'm dreading going in to work tomorrow. We were very careful as to what we did and didn't write in our report, trying to avoid accusations and generalisations. I've just read the report again and feel confident in what was written. I'm still rather nervous though... Let's hope something positive comes of it all.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I´m curious... how did it turn out in the end..????

Anonymous said...

From my experience in medical records, there seems to be a blame culture among some nurses. I watch my back and try not to get involved. People will watch you like a hawk, and spot any slight mistake. Nurses must get tired after long shifts.