I work on a 39 med/surg unit in the inter-city. I recently had a 26 year old patient who needed an I/D of her hand. Her 13 year old son was at her bedside and had been since the previous night when she was admitted. During my clinical coordinator making rounds, she came out of my patients room and told me that I had to find this patients child a ride home. I responded that I had asked the patient if someone could come pick him up and she said no. Due to budget cuts our hospital has stopped giving cab vouchers so what was I to to? The clinical coordinator continued to tell me that it was my job to find the patients child a ride home I had explained to her that I just did not have a way of doing that and she said we are trying to make our hospital more family oriented and we need to raise our scores so I needed to figure something out.
The clinical coordinator should have taken on the task herself and made some phone calls. If that role is similar to what we have in our facility, they do not have a patient assignment and are essentially a charge nurse or floor supervisor.
If no one can take him home, I'm sure no one would supervise him either. Unfortunately, we cannot solve all issues.
You cant just send the kid home, who will watch the kid while he is at home? Maybe the kid is worse off at home for whatever reason. We cant just assume everyone has a hunky dory home life. This lady brought her kid with her for a reason.
I work on a 39 med/surg unit in the inter-city. I recently had a 26 year old patient who needed an I/D of her hand. Her 13 year old son was at her bedside and had been since the previous night when she was admitted. During my clinical coordinator making rounds, she came out of my patients room and told me that I had to find this patients child a ride home. I responded that I had asked the patient if someone could come pick him up and she said no. Due to budget cuts our hospital has stopped giving cab vouchers so what was I to to? The clinical coordinator continued to tell me that it was my job to find the patients child a ride home I had explained to her that I just did not have a way of doing that and she said we are trying to make our hospital more family oriented and we need to raise our scores so I needed to figure something out.
What was I to do in this situation?
Try calling the social worker for your hospital. Finding the child a ride home is not your job.
Specializes in Medical Oncology, Alzheimer/dementia.
A safe ride home to a safe environment for a 13 yo boy is not a nursing issue. We do so much already. I agree with the others, that's a job for the social worker.
As someone else said, if there was no responsible adult to give him a ride, what was he going to go home to? An empty home. Definitely a social work problem. Furthermore, it was not your responsibility. That is to the patients you have under your care at that time. I would bring this up with someone in management as you were not put in a fair situation and if your hospital no longer gives vouchers, they need to figure something else out.
Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.
As someone else said, if there was no responsible adult to give him a ride, what was he going to go home to? An empty home. Definitely a social work problem. Furthermore, it was not your responsibility. That is to the patients you have under your care at that time. I would bring this up with someone in management as you were not put in a fair situation and if your hospital no longer gives vouchers, they need to figure something else out.
It is a lose, lose for you no matter what so i would talk to the risk manager, DON, or whoever you need to get this properly handled by someone else.
This is one of the many reasons that nursing as a profession struggles with its own identity.
I am a nurse. If people expect me to pass regular meds, do assessments, turn patients, assist them to walk, start IVs, push pain meds, and essentially keep their bodies functioning in a way compatible with life, then it is NOT my job to manage the patient's son's trip home.
Nurses have enough to keep track of with one patient alone sometimes. It's not a matter of being "nice", it's a matter of principle, though with the focus on customer service, I know management doesn't see it that way anymore.
But let's do a what-if for a second. Your friendly neighborhood DON comes through and says, "All right, nurses, because we're such a super-awesome hospital and we care for our patients more than any other floor in any other hospital ever, I want you to make sure that WHATEVER the patient needs, you assist them in getting."
I wish I could say I've never heard that before, partly because it's so nauseatingly idealistic and secondly because it's so demeaning to what my job really entails. But the reality of it is, this is happening more and more in hospitals.
If I'm coordinating social issues for one patient, then suddenly I'm the social worker for ALL of my patients (make one exception and the whole place goes down). My assessments and medication passes and scheduled checks will go by the wayside because (as we all know), dare to leave the phone for two seconds and someone will call, demanding to talk to you. Conversely, tie me to the desk with a frivolous phone call and it's guaranteed that one patient will poop the bed, another one will fall in the bathroom and yet one more will either RRT or code for good measure... and that's just with an unimportant phone call!
And then, the scenario will get passed up through management, and the DON and all the other upper-level folks will ask that stupid question: "Where was the nurse?"
"Coordinating bus fare."
And all of a sudden, they don't understand how a nurse could be so negligent as to be piddling around with bus fare while the whole floor is going to hell without her knowledge. Nurse gets fired, complains to the media, the story gets published, and here we all are right back on AN, commenting up a storm about Press-Ganey and capitalist-run medicine.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
As a manager, administrative supervisor, clinical coordinator, clinical supervisor...... what ever other names the facility places on it it is the supervisor (usually).
It is not the floor nurses responsibility to find the child away home. An effort can be made to try to find a place for the child to go....you cannot do so without the mothers permission (the child is a minor) AND ensure that the child has proper supervision. Social services should be notified to assist with this situation and administration need to get involved.....if a secure environment cannot be found move Mom and son to a semi-private and order him breakfast.
It is not your responsibility...you can ask but you cannot force the issue. You need to be respectful to your supervisor/coordinator and state the mother has not wished her son to leave...or has indicated has no where to go...that you will accept all help in this direction and plan of notifying your manager/PCP/social services for assistance. Also look up if there is any policies that address this...but it is not your responsibility...if she wants him gone she can belly up and get him a ride or a voucher WITH THE MOTHERS PERMISSION.
It is the supervisors job to notify administration of the situation and have a pow wow in the AM as to the next plan of care.
Very simple. " I've called the social worker. Have a nice day"
seriously, let's just add more crap to nurses jobs??
Social work should have the correct connections.
What is wrong with this mother that she has no- one to watch her son while she's admitted? She knows nobody???? I find that hard to believe. Patients want everyone else to do their dirty work :-(
I agree with the pp--this is a social work situation. You can not be held responsible for sending a 13 year old home unsupervised. This could come back on the nurse, the mother for "neglect" (for allowing her child to stay home alone for who-knows-how-many days).
Caffeine_IV
1,198 Posts
The clinical coordinator should have taken on the task herself and made some phone calls. If that role is similar to what we have in our facility, they do not have a patient assignment and are essentially a charge nurse or floor supervisor.
If no one can take him home, I'm sure no one would supervise him either. Unfortunately, we cannot solve all issues.
We have to draw the line somewhere.