UT-Harris County Psychiatric Center
Nursing Procedures

Staffing Concerns

Nursing

Harris County Psychiatric Center: Office Administration

UTHCPC encourages fair, efficient, and equitable solutions for problems or disputes arising out of the employee relationship

staffing concerns, issues, occurrence

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Introduction	Date of Last Review: 5/19/08 SME: Associate Director of Nursing UTHCPC encourages fair, efficient, and equitable solutions for problems or disputes arising out of the employee relationship.
Reporting sequence	Staffing concerns or issues are addressed in the following sequence: Nurse who made the assignment or gave the directive in question Nurse Manager/Nursing Supervisor (must not be the same person as above) Director of Nursing or designee
Documentation	If staff believes that their concerns were not appropriately addressed, they complete an Occurrence Report outlining the issues involved and forward as indicated on the form. Note : If staff is reporting issues of risk to patients, see procedure Patient Care Variance Reporting Process on the UTHCPC procedures website.
Response	The nurse designated to respond to the Occurrence Report must respond in writing to staff within 5 working days.
Related Standard	JCAHO PI 4.4/ Texas Occupation Code Chapter 303 + Section 301.352
Related Procedures	For RNs and LVNs, The Texas Occupation Code provides protection for nurses who have been asked to engage in conduct which the nurse in good faith believes would violate the nurses duty to a patient. Please see related nursing procedure “Safe Harbor” and BNE website for Safe Harbor Form”. ( http://www.bne.state.tx.us)