So as many of you know, my hubby and I work in the same facility. He is a CNA/CMT going to nursing school. He works full time nights and through the grapevine, I am hearing so many good things about him. The residents adore him, the nurses love him because he never calls in, is always on time, does his job, and coaches other CNA's to be the best they can possibly be. He will be a really good nurse and I'm soooo proud of him!
He came home this morning from work obviously upset about something. I was sleepy but got up so I could listen and help him. He said 2 really good nurses were suspended and he thought it was really unfair. I asked him who and when he told me, I did a double take. One of the nurses used to be our DON and was the one who hired me. She is more than an excellent nurse, so of course I wanted to hear the story. Allegedly, a resident went bad on night shift and was assessed by the night shift nurse, an LPN. Her main symptom was coffee ground emesis, but she had been seen by a couple different aides eating a candy bar right before she vomited, so the LPN called the on call doc. She was basically told to monitor the resident and report any further symptoms. So the RN comes in for day shift and she vomits again, again coffee grounds. The RN does a full assessment and again notifies the on call doc and gets an order to send her to the hospital. They send her out. Hospital sends her back on same shift, saying she is bleeding internally and is to be kept on comfort measures only. She dies a few hours later. The day and night nurse are both placed on suspension pending investigation by our head DON, for allegedly, lack of proper nursing intervention and questionable assessments.
Does this sound justified to you all? After my own write up for the resp. distress thingie, I am beside myself now to make sure I am adequetely assessing and documenting...and I plan to notify our head DON if I have any questions. I sure don't want this happening to me!
