Real world nursing isn’t just what you were taught in nursing school. As you learn to work with patients in your clinicals, your instructors teach you the “ideal” method for every procedure and every situation. Once you get into the real world, with license in hand, you begin to see that “ideal” doesn’t exist in healthcare.
As you go through your day, learning the skills and procedures you need to use in your practice, you will probably see things that make you think “that’s not right.” You may see colleagues taking chances that could endanger their patients. You might see an overstated bill that will end up costing the insurance company or patient more than necessary. Most of the time these mistakes are just random “oops” moments, with no real pattern or ill intent. But what if you see a dangerous practice again and again, or if a fraudulent billing method is standard operating procedure? What do you do? (more…)