I work in a hospital and my best friend who works as a home visiting nurse was recently telling me about something he had heard about in his workplace.
A nurse went to visit a patient at home and they did not answer their door, the door was unlocked so the nurse went in to check on them. The nurse found the patient lying there who was not able to respond in words.
The nurse left the home because they did not feel comfortable in the situation and contacted their manager for advice. The manager told them to call the patient on their phone, but there was no answer.
The manager told the nurse that they would organize for another nurse to go along with them at a later time.
The 2 nurses went together to see the patient and called an ambulance.
From what my friend told me, the manager giving advice as well as the nurse who visited were quite junior, and inexperience may have largely contributed to this situation, it has made me question - where do we as nurses stand in respect to duty of care? Does being a junior nurse or manager with limited experience excuse them from their duty of care?
Experience level has no relation to one's explicit duty to act.
To OP - we freq get snookered here, esp from first time posters who try to 'sneak something past', esp homework. And it seems to be happening more & more with attempts to be 'slicker & slicker'. I've become increasingly skeptical as the years go on. So nothing meant personal if this was a 'for real' post for you.
And just for the record, ASSUMING I did know the pt, I would prob have entered the home and then called 911. If no known DNR, then CPR - when in doubt, err on the safe side.
In good conscience, you can't just walk out leaving the pt on the floor. What if the pt were lying on the back porch floor? IMHO, there's no rationale to absolve anyone for being 'junior' as you call it.
As soon as pt care was being managed, I'd be calling my office and any family.
So, if you came across someone lying unconscious on the sidewalk and clearly NOT okay, would you just leave them there? Make a casual phone call that isn't 911?! I can't really grasp why that wasn't the first thing this person did...this person is a nurse right? Even someone with no health care background would have more common sense than this.
bgxyrnf, MSN, RN
1,208 Posts
Experience level has no relation to one's explicit duty to act.