As charge nurse one day a mother of a patient comes out to see me, visibly upset. I ask what is wrong and what I can do to help. She informs me that her daughter is very upset as to who her nurse will be (just changed shift) for the rest of the day and wanted somebody else to have her. I immediately said I would be happy to have her as my patient and we talked further about the situation and why they didn't want the nurse originally assigned.

Not a huge deal, sometimes there are just personality conflicts or it is not a good fit. I am reminded of my days waiting tables when sometimes no matter what you did the table would not like you and you weren't going to be making any money. As waitstaff if you were in one of those situations it was always wisest to let your manager know and potentially switch waiters. But what do you do with nurses and suddenly you are the "manager"?

How do you tell another nurse that their compassionate care they gave a patient the day before was viewed as inadequate by the patient? How do you tell them that the patient wants somebody else?