Any legal issue there?

Nurses General Nursing

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I am a nurse with several years experience. Yesterday, a person in my church asked me to take off his suture on his toe after a naevi resection for $50. I don't care about the money and agree to help him.

As a lisencured nurse, could I have any letigation issue for helping this person? How could I avoid having the legal issue?

Thanks!

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

You could avoid it by appropriately referring people to their own health care providers. ;)

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Agree with first poster.. I avoid all "medical" issues outside of work and I would never accept money to provide medical assistance. That puts you in a bad spot "if" something where to go wrong or something negative comes from your actions.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

You would be working under your own liability in that situation. If something crazy happened they could sue you. To avoid that he should get them out where he got them in. I know some insurance plans include the cost of removal in the charge for placing them, which does not incur a second charge.

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The simple answer here is 'no, I'm sorry, you need to go back to your doctor.'

Don't let yourself get mired into something like this.

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I think the answer is if you would need a doctors order to do it a work, you shouldn't do it outside of work. Maybe what happens in your own home with your own family is a bit different but beyond that I would never extend my scope of practice to anyone. What if he gets an infection or just what if, what if? It would be super easy to blame you and you have nothing to back you up. I hope you didn't do it, this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

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Specializes in MED/SURG STROKE UNIT, LTC SUPER., IMU.

Agree with the rest of the posters. Why doesn't he just go back to who ever put them in? You are placing yourself in a very bad position. What if the incision site opens up while you are taking out the stitches. Can you place more in? What if there was an infection and the person comes back to you and says it is your fault. Do you have any legal leg to stand on? NOPE! Is $50 worth your licence and your ability to work as a nurse for the rest of your life?

I was just asked to work last night and offered $65/ hour to do it since they were so short. I told them NO. I work days and I had been up since 5am that morning. $65/hr is nothing to sneeze at, but it is not worth someone's life or my ability to work for the rest of mine.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

The correct answer has already been given by above posters. Perhaps you could help this person by finding out why he doesn't want to complete his care by properly following up.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

what if he had parasthesia or infection or any other complication afterwards? Guess who would get blamed?!?

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I hope you have your own .

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Thank you guys. I talked to the guy about my attitude and he agreed to do it by himself.

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Specializes in MED/SURG STROKE UNIT, LTC SUPER., IMU.

I still don't get why he would not go back to the MD who placed it. Doesn't he want to make sure there were no complications?

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