[cprud]

Hi! I am a fulll time ER nurse who does part time chart reviews for an attorney. I have been doing this for 3 months and love the work! I will be taking an LNC course some time over the winter. I am working on a wrongful death suit and one of the questions posed by the attorney is is....are nurses required to push for an ER patient to be admitted (by going up the chain of command) if they think they should even after the doc has dc'd them home. I have explained to him the subtleties of how nurses can advocate for the patient, but cannot find in the code of ethics, or standards of care for any substantiation of this. According the the depositions, the nurses did not indicate that they felt the patient should be admitted. For some reason , this has me stumpled! Any advice is welcome!

[sirI]

When the nurse is aware of inappropriate or questionable practice in the provision or denial of care, concern should be expressed to the person carrying out the questionable practice. Attention should be called to the possible detrimental affect upon the patient's well-being or best interests as well as the integrity of nursing practice. When factors in the healthcare delivery system or healthcare organization threaten the welfare of the patient, similar action should be directed to the reponsible administrator. If indicated, the problem should be reported to an appropriate higher authority withn the institution or agency, or to an appropriate external authority.

See remainder of 3.5 - Acting on questionable practice from the ANA: Code of Ethics for Nurses

www.ana.org/ethics/code/protected_nwcoe303.htm#1.2

Hope this helps.

[cprud]

Thank You!
I am still learning to wade through all the "legalese" contained in standards of practice, etc etc. That helps me a lot!

[sirI]

You are welcome. Glad to help you.