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Nurse Pays For Her Good Deed
Donn Esmonde / The Buffalo News
October 31, 2008
They ought to give her a medal. Instead, she got misused. If this is how they run the show at the Erie County Home in Alden, somebody ought to be shown the door.
Joyce Diasparra was driving home two weeks ago after a tough shift. Diasparra is head nurse of Unit S, a wing with about 50 patients. She had worked until 8 p.m. — five hours after her regular shift ended. She had just left when, through the darkness, she saw him, walking on Walden Avenue: a patient who was brought to the County Home after trying to kill his wife. He had sneaked out and climbed a fence.
Diasparra did not have a cell phone to call for help. She did not want to deal alone with a potentially violent man. Concerned about the safety of the patient and for anyone he encountered, she drove back to the nursing home to get help. She found a security guard, who jumped in her vehicle. They drove back, got the man into her SUV and brought him back safely.
Diasparra is 56, with a full, friendly face and a nurse’s bedside manner. She got pats on the back from co-workers the next day for handling a tough situation.
The glow lasted until she was called in Oct. 22 by the County Home’s director of nursing. Diasparra was reprimanded and suspended for a day without pay. According to the Disciplinary Action Report, she made a mistake by leaving the man on the road to go back for help. She should have, according to the nursing director, put him in the vehicle and brought him back on her own.
Diasparra was dumbfounded. “With [the patient] being possibly unstable, I didn’t trust that I would be able to get him in my truck and back safely,” she said this week in the dining room of her tidy home in Lancaster. “I didn’t want to endanger his life, or mine.”
It is more than a week since the suspension. Diasparra still is upset.
“I feel like I was treated unfairly,” she said. “I don’t know how else I could have handled it.”
It sounds to me as if she did the right thing. Backing her up is the security guard, Dave Bubar. “It would not have been wise for her to deal with [the patient] on her own,” he said. “I had trouble getting the guy into the car, and I’m a big boy.”
Diasparra has worked at the County Home for 15 years. She is a former Employee of the Year. The incident, in fact, underlines her dedication. She was off duty. She could have seen the patient on the road and ignored him. She could have gone back to the County Home and sounded the alarm, but stayed behind and let security deal with him. Instead, she went back with the guard and helped secure a potentially dangerous patient. For that, she was punished.
County Home spokesman Tom Quatroche said that there is more to the story but that he “could not provide further details” on a personnel matter. The suspension report notes that the patient was “upset” during the day and blames Diasparra for not dealing with him in a better way. Yet she alerted the nurses on the incoming shift and noted his agitation in the log book.
There are by-the-book regulations that might not have been followed to the letter. But in the big picture, Diasparra went above and beyond. For her trouble, she lost a day’s pay and got chewed out by her boss. She will likely retire rather than go back to work for the same supervisor who suspended her.
Diasparra learned a lesson: No good deed goes unpunished.
I hope it is a lesson that, the next time something like this comes up, she remembers to forget.
© YellowBrix 2008
CanuckRN
about 1 year ago
2 comments
The problem with good nurses in this current era is Bad Managers. When did management stop thinking like nurses and focus on the company and bottom line. It is so easy for peabrained managers to reprimand quality professionals without any thought toward the impact of their actions on the future of that nurse. Really, do you think she is going to stay another 15 yrs or 5 hours after a shift to please her manager? Management thinks that the problem is always the nurse. Kudos for seeing the big picture to her upper management. They should be reprimanded for not being concerned with her safety. Had something happened to her they certainly would not have assisted with medical expenses or helped her family grieve if she had been killed because she was "off the clock". When did this cascade of useless nursing administration begin? If you take care of the quality nurses at the bedside, all aspects of quality patient care will naturally fall into place. I am so sorry to her. By the way, did they ever find out how such a potentially unstable patient somehow got out of someones observation? What happened to that employee. I think this should be a wake up call to all the other employees who work there. They certainly should check into all policies and procedures related to violence in the work place and see just how protected and supported they are by management before it happens to them. Wake up Managers!! And they wonder why their is a nursing shortage?????????
korba
about 1 year ago
56 comments
This client was no longer her responsability; she had turned that over with the end of her shift. The client WAS NOT HERS! She was litle more than a good samaritan; would her nursing board have censured her for leaving to get help, had he been injured? Could she have been held liable for any injuries he sustained because she went to get help? I think not... her being held to some martinet's intrepretation of facility Pand P, WHEN SHE WAS ON HER OWN TIME, IS OUTRAGEOUS! Were I she, I would be filing with the labor board STAT! I would also be looking at the possiblity of filing suit against this fool for both slander and libel!
drtomconrad
about 1 year ago
4 comments
In a world where we try to have people do the right thing and help those in need, this is a black eye to managers and common sense. Management is not just about following the "rules", but also knowing what to do in situations, not anticipated for, when rule-making. Looks like another example on how not-to manage. (RN-C, MPH, PhD - Health Care Management)
eennjjeell
about 1 year ago
8 comments
its such a shame! thumbs up 4 u nurse diaspara for going far and beyond the call of duty. i can immagine how depressed and sad u r now. As for me , this is an eye opener .
And what would u have done mr. tom quatroche?
misschin
about 1 year ago
2 comments
The nurse should have called for help without have to leave the patient, but never the less she did not mean any harm to the patient in doing what she did. The Supervisior should not have to take such drastic measure against the nurse because we are all humans and we make mistakes. God bless.
angelaandjakers
about 1 year ago
10 comments
This is the exact kind of crap that puts people in major depression. I know I can no longer work in this field but I am going to give it one last try!
magpie1
about 1 year ago
2 comments
why should this nurse be reprimanded for a kind deed? obviously her boss seem as if he couldn't care if and when the nurse tried handling the situation on her own and she gets hurt or the news received by her family would be so sad . I think the nursing home should be sued. This is outrageous!
Zbridget
about 1 year ago
2 comments
I could not imagine what other circumstances Mr Quatroche alluded to when he said that there is "more to the story that he 'could not provide further details' on a personal matter." I am originally from western NY, went to nursing school there, and stories like this just justify to me that it was good to leave.
AlicenShara
about 1 year ago
2 comments
This is ridiculous that she was punished for this. I worked on an Alzheimer's unit for 2 years and I can say from experience that you must at all times protect yourself. If she had tried to restrain the patient by herself she very well could have been injured. I have been kicked in the stomach while having the assistance of a CNA. Furthermore, if a patient elopes, it is the responsibility of the nurse on duty! This is astounding that she was reprimanded in this way!
rachenos30
about 1 year ago
2 comments
She should hold her head up high and not let their reprimand get the best of her. She knows what she did was right. I would have done the same thing in her shoes. If she was to have gotten that man in her car and have something happen to her, they probably would have faulted her for making a bad decision. Some people just don't have any common sense anymore.
hataway5
about 1 year ago
2 comments
What happened to Joyce is ridiculous! Please tell that this patients current nurse and CNA on duty also got lost wages and a reprimand on their record! After all, it was on their watch that this man left the facility in the first place? Why didn't they know he was gone? Does that mean they were negligent in their rounds? This is a prime example of what is wrong with not only our system in nursing but our country also.
reclements
about 1 year ago
24 comments
Lireland, policy does not apply when you are driving home from work; it applies when you are AT work. Further, haven't you ever heard of people being killed by hitchhikers while in their cars?? "What more could he have done to her" in her car indeed!
ANGELT6
about 1 year ago
552 comments
SHE DID THE RIGHT THING AND BEING A NURSE MY SELF THAT WOUL HAVE BEEN MY ACTIONS SOME ONE GIVE HER A MEDAL
Shelli78
about 1 year ago
16 comments
That's just awful.
Lireland
about 1 year ago
28 comments
I'm sorry, but policy where I work, is you never leave the resident/patient alone, scream for help, do what ever you have to do, but never leave them alone. I can see the point of she did get help, but at the same time what if he got hit by a car, killed someone else. She was in a car, what more could he have done to her? I'm not saying get out and hold hands with the guy, but don't leave him alone either. Damned if you do damned if you don't.