Question: what would you do?

[Pierre]

I'd like to ask you guys a question: what would you do in my position?

I work fulltime, and have dialysis three times a week, 4 hours per session. This means I arrive at 5 pm at the center, start around 5.15 pm, and end around 9.15 pm, so I can leave around 9.45 pm.  Since a few months I'm the last patient, the others end dialysis before me.  Normally there is a regular nurse, who always have the late shift, but sometimes other nurses have toreplace her (holiday or when she is ill). And one of them doesn't like the late shift...

Last week, he was on duty, and I was the last patient. Without telling me, every hour he took 5 minutes off of the remaining time, so in the end and before I realized what was happening I ended up with having a dialysis for 3.45 hours instead of 4...  To mask his actions he also lowered the speed of my machine, from 390 ml/min tot 300 ml/min, so I had a lower volume, 'due to problems during dialysis'... But  I had no problems...

One detail, this happened on the day they do the bloodwork before and after, so I had a very bad score. I even was afraid my doc would put me on 5 hours dialysis per session.

Anyway, what would you do in my position? I'll tell later you what I did... 



 

[KICKSTART]

Firstly he was wrong ! but i dont think 15 mins would make much difference , also we only ever run at 300 so i cant see that causing any problems but ..go on ..what did you do ?  Just for added info , one of the guys at our unit (we are the last shift 2-7pm) got fed up of having to hang around for ages waiting to be put on , so he came in late and made all the staff have to stay back till after 7 ! They soon had him on in future!

[willowtreewren]

Pierre,
I would simply write exactly what you wrote here and send a copy to the FA and to your neph.

Aleta

[Zach]

Anyway, what would you do in my position? I'll tell later you what I did... 

15 minutes does matter!  And reducing your blood pump speed affects your clearances as well.

Both time on the machine and the pump speed are prescribed by your nephrologist, and no nurse has the right to change them without a good medical reason.

If the nurse doesn't like being on the late shift, too bad.  That's what he's getting paid to do.
Speak to your nephrologist.  Or if your prefer, at least talk to the head nurse.

It's your life.

[twirl]

he is trying to get off work earlier and I would tell whoever is in charge --
over time that will add up and hurt you --
I used to be on the same shift and the techs would always complain about a school bus driver in your situation-
they told her they would cut her off early -- finally, the unit got in trouble and had to run her the full 4 and one half hours -- she hadly ever left before 10:15 pm

[monrein]

Totally unacceptable actions on the part of that nurse, Pierre.  I would follow the advice of those who've suggested that you inform your nephrologist as well as the nurse in charge.  Your health is far more important than the social life of an employee who is paid to do a certain job.  His "creative" sneakiness and dishonest charting of "problems on D" should be grounds for serious reprimand from his boss.

[kitkatz]

     A letter to the FA immediately!

[Rerun]

I would confront him about it and if that didn't work I'd tell his supervisor and my nephrologist.

What did you do?   PM me....   I won't tell.

[Jean]

Just think: If he is sneaky enough to take time off you, so he can get home early, what else is he falsifying?That alone would scare me enough to borrow Kits stick!!!

[calypso]

I'm new to hemo, what's an FA?

[sullidog]

he or she is the head administrator, usually also an rn.

[Jean]

Well, what did you do???

[Ang]

unacce[table,they  tried  that  on me,told  them  5 hrs  is  my  time or  nil  time  your  choice  you  wear  the  consequences

[kristina]

Hello, Pierre,

Please tell us, what did you do?

[Pierre]

Sorry for not being able to reply sooner, I have been on duty the last 7 days, ending yesterday evening, so I didn't have time to reply. I also slept during dialysis yesterday.

First of all, thanks for your replies. It supports my opinion that we, as a patient, always have to be on our toes and we have to watch out that we receive the best treatment!

So, during the next session, and after recovering from the knowledge I had been fooled by a nurse – lets call him H - who was supposed to take care of me, I checked my file to see what he had written: 67 litre, starting time 17:10 and ending time 21:10... So I told the regular nurse about my suspicions, and she confirmed it was a well known secret her colleague didn't like the late shifts...  She also had already noticed, while studying my file, that something had gone wrong and I had had a bad session. She told me she also had feared my doc would give me more time on the machine, which luckily didn't happen.

Anyway, I decided not to accept this kind of behaviour, and the next day I was writing an email to my doc when H called me on my mobile.  He had heard from his colleague that I was ‘unhappy’ and apologised for the fact that he had put the speed on 300 ml/min instead of 390, due to some problems with my access and the machine always giving an alarm. He vowed that he had not limited the time, and that it was all a misunderstanding. He told me he had already spoken to my doc explaining that I had a bad dialysis, so there would be no consequences in treatment.

Somehow I didn’t believe him, so I decided to call my doc myself. I heard that H really did call my doc, and upon hearing what he had told I decided to inform him about what had really happened that day. I also send him the email I was writing. As a result, H has had a very unpleasant meeting with the head nurse, during which he denied everything.

My doc replied that he would take care of it, and assured me that it would not happen again. He said he had also asked H to contact me and to ‘explain’ things…

So I waited patiently, till yesterday evening when H was working till 18:00 and he decided to have a little discussion that very soon turned into an ‘I didn’t do it’ show. He kept saying he was a good nurse, for 25 years, and when I told him I could still read the clock so he was wrong, he started to yell at me, asking me why I wanted to crush his career… After some time I didn't want his nose to be in fromt of me anymore and I decided to tell him to go away, since we did not have a normal discussion. So he backed off and left the place.

So this is where we stand now:  he denies everything, and the doctors still leave him on as a nurse at the centre.

Question is, will I trust him again? Will I trust him to stick a needle in my arm, with the possibility of destroying my fistel?...

[monrein]

Pierre, are you allowed to do your own needles at your centre and do you feel that you could manage that if it's possible? 

[Ken Shelmerdine]

How can you possibly trust him when in his twisted mind he feels so threatened now that he's been found out. The way he ranted at you during this 'discussion' looks to me like an attempt to bully you into backing down from what you know to be his true actions. This man is so obviously not fit for purpose that I wouldn't let him anywhere near your fistula.
Good Luck and don't back down.

[lola]

for safety I would tell them you want H to stay the hell away from you. I'd be FREAKED out to have H any where near me.....

[fc2821]

       Of course you can't trust him. Keep  for your self.  You deserve professional conduct, and let his superiors know you don't trust him to properly treat you.  It is only his job, it is your life!

[KICKSTART]

Doesnt it just make you sick when the very people you rely on are B*******. (apologies if i've offended anyone) I get this time and time again , mistake after mistake and then I get warned not to touch anything !

[YLGuy]

At this point I would speak to him frankly and say the following.  You know and I know what you did.  I understand that you feel you have to deny what happened to save your job.  You know that I can not trust you to care for me anymore so I do not want you EVER to do so.  I would also let the head nurse and doctor know that you had this conversation with him.

[Lillupie]

yeeeah, I'd go and complain about it or find a noctural dialysis center to go to! Those nurses make more then enough money to not cut machine time or better yet to not cut your life. That is what he is doing, is taking a minute off of your life, possibly. GRR.

Lisa

[Pierre]

Next update... 

Last weekend I got a reply from my doc, telling me that he was sorry that the meeting with H didn't go well, but also told me that H was still a very competent nurse, that H got a warning and will never do it again, and that there was no reason to keep him from doing the late shift again... 

So I decided to write him an extended email to tell him in detail I would not like it meeting him again in my centre and having him as a nurse watching over my treatment. We agreed to have a meeting which we held today. I understand that at least they take the problem seriously, and they will try to find a solution that he would not have any responsibility over my heatlh. So we'll see what happens.