Forced Blood draws

[fawnsternurse]

Hello Fellow Nurses!

I am currently working in a Hospital that will commonly order forced labs on new admissions after 1-2 days of them refusing admission labs. My experience in other locations is that this would be a carefully deliberated and talked about procedure during Treatment Teams Mtgs.

However at this Hosp it seems to be commonplace. The patients is screaming, hands on are done, the nurse is holding the butterfly while arms and legs are flailing, creating a highly unsafe and dangerous situation.

Frankly in my opinion this smacks of violation of patient bill of rights and is not an every once in a while occurance but is done frequently. Generally the orders are written by medicine and upheld by psychiatry. Forced Vital sign orders are common as well.

Thoughts? Opinions?