[jahra]

Here is a recent news article---
Rhode Island Hospital Fined For Third Wrong-Site Surgery

http://www.turnto10.com/northeast/ja...1-26-0014.html

There is a very big problem here, but if you read the article
carefully the nursing staff will be given the power to
make sure the new procedures/policies are carried out.

Quote=="The hospital said it was re-evaluating its training and policies, providing more oversight, giving nursing staff the power to ensure procedures are followed, and other steps"

My view--
Lesson-Never take the value of nurses for granted

[SharonH, RN]

Rhode Island Hospital was fined $50,000 and reprimanded by the state Department of Health Monday after its third instance this year of a doctor performing brain surgery in the wrong side of a patient's head.

Third instance this year??????? Oh heck yeah, there's a problem. Thank goodness none of my loved ones will be within 100 miles of that place. Obviously there's a serious problem with the system: there should have been an intense review after the first wrong side surgery.

[oramar]

I wonder if they have under staffing and high turnover there? You can institute proceedures like time outs but if there is a lot of confusion and chaos on a unit mistakes will continue to happen.

[ukstudent]

"Giving nursing staff the power to ensure procedures are followed" does not mean much. All that seems to mean to me is that it is going to be the nurses responsibility to call "time outs". Nurses have the power to call time out, surgeons have the power to ignore them and if something then goes wrong, that empowered nurse is going to be found responsible. Maybe I'm just pessimistic about anything coming out of administration while they are trying to cover their a@@. It all has a tendency to turn into another bit of paper a nurse has to fill out.

[banditrn]

While we didn't do neurosurgery at our hospital, we did lots of other surgeries. Long before it became a JCAHO standard, we were doing several checks and rechecks, and site markings and I don't believe we ever had a problem.

[caldje]

In my experience in surgeries it is ALWAYS the nurse that calls the time out and makes sure the correct patient and surgery are being done. Sometimes it is unescessary and the docs get a little annoyed. As a patient, I appreciate that the nurses are there to take the heat for me. :-D

[SharonH, RN]

Originally Posted by ukstudent

"Giving nursing staff the power to ensure procedures are followed" does not mean much. All that seems to mean to me is that it is going to be the nurses responsibility to call "time outs".

Now wait a minute....... I see a lot of people signed onto this but isn't this the way it should be? As licensed professionals, we have a responsibility in making sure that procedures are done correctly and we should absolutely be actively involved in making sure that a surgery is being done on the right side of the body. That would be as simple as checking the consent form and glancing through the progress notes prior to the procedure.

Originally Posted by ukstudent

Nurses have the power to call time out, surgeons have the power to ignore them and if something then goes wrong, that empowered nurse is going to be found responsible. Maybe I'm just pessimistic about anything coming out of administration while they are trying to cover their a@@. It all has a tendency to turn into another bit of paper a nurse has to fill out.

It doesn't have to be this way. If all indications are that XYZ surgery is to be done on XYZ side of the body, the nurse has a responsibility to say "hey wait a minute" and if the surgeon decides to ignore him or her then that nurse is empowered to say "well you're not going to do it with my help". Just like we have a right/responsibility to refuse to give a med we believe to be harmful to the patient, so goes the same in this case. We are not as powerless as some of us like to believe and we don't need for the hospitals to empower us as the article indicates.