I have wondered for many years about who is ultimatly responsible when a nurse who works in LTC has something tragic happen to her patient. Most nurses who have worked in LTC understand that they are "set up" to fail. Not because mangement nessesarily wants them to fail, but because of corporate greed,mangement caving in to demands of administration, for whatever reasons, work conditions prevent the nurse from doing her job "by the book".Im talking Policy and Procedure book here, the holy of holys.Mangement if the truth were to be told KNOW the nurse cannot HUMANLY do her job by the book.
So now the "worst" has happened,the family is suing, the nurse finds herself trying to explain what happened on that fatefull night when she was working short,was in the middle of the 2 hour med pass, all the call lights were ringing off the hook, Mrs so and so had just fallen and broke her hip, Mr so and so was tearing his room apart, two CNAs were yelling at each other at the nurses station, and Mr. So and so had just eloped, wander guard malfunction. The supervisor was also swamped because she had to take the other floor because of a call in.The meeting with the HR person,the DON, the ADON , the Admininstrator and of course the nurse is over, the nurse is escorted to the door and wonders what just happened?
WHO is to blame here? Who will take the fall? Who should take the fall? Does management ever take the fall along with or even instead of the nurse? What would be an ethical resolution to this scenario? And by the way, this DID not happen to me personally, but it could happen to you or maybe has.
I might be the first to answer this by saying, RUN, RUN for the hills! But what IF there is nowhere to run, what if this happens in all LTCs?
