Hospital Gossip:
Nurses dating doctors! A doctor is having a scandalous affair! Which nurse flubbed up her charting? Who’s tiptoeing out of their shift a little too early each day? You don’t have to overhear water cooler chatter to know you’re the source of hospital gossip.
When faced with the nagging feeling that other nurses are getting a little too talkative, nip it in the bud – fast!
You need to find the source of the gossip, then address the gossip. A good way of doing this is to speak to a time you overheard an untrue statement said about a fellow colleague.
For instance you could say, “Lately, I’ve been frustrated with the ways you’ve been talking about other people. I know these statements are false and I don’t believe these sorts of conversations promote a friendly hospital environment, especially with patients around.” By confronting the source, you resolve two things: you take the attention off yourself and you also make other nurses aware that, if this behavior should continue, everyone is at risk of being a the subject of gossip.
I had a strong feeling one night approx 7 years ago in a small rural hospital on the med-surg unit . This patient was in for azotemia. He was hemodynamically stable and the only thing that was “out of sorts” was his cognition which goes with the territory.
I went out on a limb and called his doc about 1am on this gut feeling that this patient was circling the drain. I anticipated a butt chewing because I had nothing on paper to go by.
He was obviously very skeptical and just said if I started to see any clinical signs of deterioration to call back.
So after that phone conversation, I continued to do 15 min checks because of this gut feeling. My co-worker was understanding how I was feeling and was hoping I was wrong but was starting to feel the same way. On my 45 min. check post phone call , I walked into the patients room to recheck v/s and see if I was missing something and I witnessed his “arrest”.
Because I was in the room when it happened and proper ACLS algorihthyms, we saved this patient’s life that night. He went on to live a few more months and succumbed to liver failure. but not before he had the opportunity to say good bye to his family.
And after that incident, I bonded very much with that doctor, and he believed and took serious every phone call I ever made to him in those dreaded early hours. This was one of those “remember when” ‘s !