Any legal issue there?

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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!

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

I was under the impression that the deed was already done. You made the right choice.

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Oh, yay. So glad you said no. Always, always protect thy license. You worked too hard to get it.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

As you can see we are a cautious bunch because many of us have been at the wrong end of trying to do good. This is not to scare and dissuade you from helping your church folks, but unfortunately many people these days are just jacked up and wrong.

We live in a litigation society and have been scared away from the common sense of helping others. It makes sense, we have to protect our ability to provide for our family and keep our license, but I remain dismayed at the result of that.

Instincts are a great factor in deciding when to help, but even family now sues each other these crazy days. Unfortunately it really is best to refuse because you never know.... It's a terrible shame we are at this point. But to suggest you don't cross this decision carefully would be negligent on my part of trying to help.

In reality any ambulance chaser can bring a suit upon the best nurse, with the best of interventions and care as well as the best of intentions. The experience to back up and exonerate oneself, is one best never experienced. I sincerely wish I could guide you to offer to help. Those days are long over and it's very sad.

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Oh for Petes sake! Just pull the stitches.

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Specializes in ICU/CCU, PICU.
Oh for Petes sake! Just pull the stitches.

I'm glad we're on the same page. My husband had sutures and the doctor just told me to take them out instead of having him come back. I think as a nurse you should be able to determine whether or not a wound is closed. In this case, we're not talking about a major midline abd incision, but one from a mole that was removed. I can see other posters objections to the matter, but as a nurse, I would rather do it myself instead of having him- who has no experience.

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Specializes in Medical.

I'm glad I didn't check with you guys when my neighbour asked if I could give her monthly B12 injection because her GP was away and the locum charged $80. She provided the ampoule, needle and syringe, and said my technique was significantly better - no surprise, I give IM's more often than most medicos!

And in exchange, when I got pneumonia a week later she brought by flowers, a paper, a lovely note and some groceries :)

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I'm glad we're on the same page. My husband had sutures and the doctor just told me to take them out instead of having him come back. I think as a nurse you should be able to determine whether or not a wound is closed. In this case, we're not talking about a major midline abd incision, but one from a mole that was removed. I can see other posters objections to the matter, but as a nurse, I would rather do it myself instead of having him- who has no experience.

Very different in pulling the stitches of your husband than a neighbor. I took out my son's stitches but would not do it for anyone other than family.

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I'm glad I didn't check with you guys when my neighbour asked if I could give her monthly B12 injection because her GP was away and the locum charged $80. She provided the ampoule, needle and syringe, and said my technique was significantly better - no surprise, I give IM's more often than most medicos!

And in exchange, when I got pneumonia a week later she brought by flowers, a paper, a lovely note and some groceries :)

Anyone who asks for another's opinion is still free to follow it or not.

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I would have politely refused. He could not sue me for that.

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Very different in pulling the stitches of your husband than a neighbor. I took out my son's stitches but would not do it for anyone other than family.

I agree. I took out some stitches my father in law had just because he was visiting the country from Morocco and we didn't want to incur another huge bill for their removal (the first bill being when they were placed) . Personally, I wouldn't do it for anyone other than family.

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