Been asked to help in an emergency because you are a nursing student?

[all4ofus]

I just had an experience that shook me up a little. A neighbor's kids were playing on the ice in the street this afternoon. One of them, a 17-year-old boy, fell and got hurt. Another neighbor, knowing that I am in nursing school, came to my door and asked me for help. It's freezing out, I had to change from shorts to jeans and get on some shoes (there were other people out with him). When I got to my door again, the boy was still lying in the street, and his mother was bringing him a sleeping bag. They said he was talking, but he still wasn't trying to get up. By this time it had been at least three to five minutes, so I just called 911. While I was on the phone with 911, the boy's parents got him up and walked him into their house. The ambulance came anyway, and they did end up taking the boy to the hospital with at least a broken nose. The reason I am feeling a little bad is because even after two semesters of school, didn't really know what to do. All that assessment info went out the window, and all I could think of was to call 911. I didn't even actually go up to the boy and look at him before I called. I mean, my neighbor came to my door just because she knew I was in nursing school, yet I did absolutely nothing useful except call 911, and whether that was useful or not is debatable. His parents could have saved the ambulance bill and just driven him to the hospital themselves. I guess I wonder whether I should have let them handle it however they were going to handle it instead of calling 911? Should I have tried harder to do an assessment and THEN called 911? Has anyone else been asked to help in an emergency just because someone knew you were in nursing school?

[ComeClarity]

You did fine. Honestly, what else could you have done for him? Being a recent LPN graduate I worry about the same thing too. I still work at a retail store (haven't taken my NCLEX yet) and about 6 months ago one of our new hires came in one morning absolutely stoned/drunk as hell and was telling people she had been hit in the head, was slurring her speech and ended up falling asleep in the break room and we couldn't wake her up (oh, the classy folks they hire sometimes..). The manager on duty was like "Kittah, you're in nursing school, can't you do something?" Uh, excuse me? What do you want me to do? Is she not breathing? She's snoring, so she must be breathing. If she stops breathing, I'll pull her onto the floor and start CPR. Then she was like "Well I'll just wait until one of the salaried managers comes in and let her call 911." Nice. Way to step up to your managerial duties, lady. Lol. Really, what do you expect me to do? Gah, I hope I never go into respiratory or cardiac arrest while on the clock there - I'd have to wait until a salaried member of management comes in before they'd call 911 (and I know no one in that store knows CPR).

[Mike A. Fungin RN]

The reason I am feeling a little bad is because even after two semesters of school, didn't really know what to do.

Don't beat yourself up so much. Initiating 911 is the right thing to do when presented with an "emergency" situation that you don't feel prepared to assess.

Give yourself a break, you're still learning. Anyways, even most "experienced" practicing nurses are more-or-less useless in an off-duty prehospital situation. To be fair, so are off-duty EMTs and Paramedics, but the difference is that they at least know it. I mean, what do you feel like you should have done? Started an IV? Given fluids? Call for orders? I'm being facetious of course, but my point is that you've got no resources out there. All anyone can really do in that situation is initiate EMS response and if needed hold c-spine and provide basic support for ABCs.