[Princess74]

I'm taking ethics next semester. This is a very interesting topic.

[teeituptom]

I see accidents and such, and I never stop to see if help is needed. I just keep going my way.
Now I have a friend who cariies and large medical kit in his trunk and stopps all the time, I dont even carry gloves, except for golf gloves.

[vm56]

If you drive by a crash site (two or more vehicles acting stupid to cause a crash, no accident) and do not bother to stretch your neck and look, just drive on you will have no one to answer to, but your conscience.
On the other hand, if you happen to look and say “wow there is injuries and that one looks unconscious …” Now technically you have started tx, initial assessment has been done.
Now if you keep on driving we could call that abandonment….
What we need is to use common sense and ‘Just Do It!!’
It was just this lack of common sense and worrying about what act, statue, or law we might be treading on that brought the slow to no response to Katrina.
A nyway, next time your first thought should be, - Can I live with the decision I am about to make? If the answer is yes, then you have nothing to worry about.
Just my 2cents

[MadRedneckRN]

Originally Posted by MereSanity

Of course if you are driving by an accident and decide not to stop and help and someone recognizes you and says "oh that lady/man is a nurse and they didn't stop to help"...you can get sued for that also. So, I guess you just can't win.

I don't believe you can be sued if you don't stop. In order to prove gross neg. you must have a duty to act. If you didn't stop, you have no Duty to act

[neneRN]

You cannot be sued if you don't stop, nor can you be sued if you pull over to sit there and watch. And unless you're comfortable/familiar with prehospital care, I don't know why you'd want to. I'm an ER nurse and I don't stop at accident scenes.

[MereSanity]

Originally Posted by neneRN

You cannot be sued if you don't stop, nor can you be sued if you pull over to sit there and watch. And unless you're comfortable/familiar with prehospital care, I don't know why you'd want to. I'm an ER nurse and I don't stop at accident scenes.

This is what we were told during CPR training at the American Heart Association.

[neneRN]

Also, the Good Samaritan Act does not mean that you can't be sued; anybody can sue for just about anything. What it does mean is that if you give care reasonable under the circumstances, ACCORDING TO ACCEPTED STANDARDS, then you'll be protected under state law. Is it worth all the time, money, and heartache of being dragged into court, having some lawyer drill you over these accepted standards? Are you sure you acted within these "accepted standards?"

[Turd.Ferguson]

I think the law is different in each state. We were taught that once you get involved, you can't back out.

[neneRN]

That part is true too; if you stop and actually start caring for the pt., then you cannot leave the scene until you hand off to another professional, i.e. EMS.

[CraigB-RN]

Originally Posted by ragingmomster

On another note, you could be in deep doo-doo if you stop to offer help and then hand off care to an EMT. If you take the patient (stop for a roadside assist), you stay with the patient to the ER, and hand over care to someone with a larger education than you. Please no flames, my hubby is an EMT and a great one, but as an RN with 4 years education and 15 years experience I can be held liable if something happens to the patient that I handed over to an EMT with 1 year of school no matter how much experience s/he has.

Not completly true. In most EMS juristictions, once EMS gets there you have no authority/responsibilities as a bystander. While this may not be true in all juristictions, the best bet is to research the laws and regulations in your location, so you iknow for sure.