Nursing

Case Study:
As the evening charge nurse in a skilled nursing facility and are the only RN on this shift. The other staff consists of nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses. The director of nursing recently conducted a supply audit and found numerous supplies are unaccounted for. The director of nursing asks for the help of all the charge nurses on all three shifts to help find out if someone is pilfering supplies and if so to take steps to correct this problem.

You are aware that the staff occasionally leaves at the end of the shift with forgotten supplies in their pockets. You realize that it could be easy to unintentionally take home rolls of adhesive tape, syringes, and lotion. However, your supervisor maintains that there has been an unprecedented increase in the amount of supplies that have not been charged to patients. You know that the skilled nursing facility operates on a very small margin of profit and cannot afford to absorb these costs.

When you asked some of the staff on the evening shift for an explanation, they reveal that a few employees have openly expressed that taking a few small supplies is, in effect, an expected and a minor fringe benefit of employment. They do not believe that the problem is widespread, and they cannot objectively document which employees are involved in pilfering supplies.

Assignment:

You must determine what action you should take as the nurse manager on the unit. Analyze your actions in terms of the desirable and undesirable effects on the employees involved in taking the supplies and those who are not.

Use the article “Don’t Waste Green! Launching a Budget Awareness Campaign” (please see attached file) as well as power point presentation, also in attached files, to assist you in answering the questions in the case study.