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.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
26 years old and already has a thirteen-year old son??? I can't be the only one who sees something wrong with that.
No, you're no the only one who sees something terribly wrong with a 26 y/o mother who has a 13 y/o teen.
However, the OP did say that the hospital was located in an inner city. One side of my family is from an infamous inner city (South Central Los Angeles) and many of my female relatives were already mothers by the time they were in their early to middle teens.
I'm not saying that teen pregnancy is an inner city problem because many girls in suburbs and rural areas give birth, too. However, if you're a girl in middle school and several of your friends have already had babies, then having kids very early in life starts to become a social normative cue.
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.
As an OLD nurse, I would get myself into trouble because I would have pushed the CCs demonstration of idiocy IMMEDIATELY up the chain. What the CC did is WRONG on so many levels, as has been pointed out very nicely, that to NOT notify senior management of this obvious lack of critical thinking skills is negligent on our part as professionals. It wouldn't be personal, just factual and concerned and immediate.
26 years old and already has a thirteen-year old son??? I can't be the only one who sees something wrong with that.
I agree with everyone else's suggestions to get social work involved or see if you could find a way to discharge the patient as soon as possible.
I would suspect that many of us do not find that part of the story very "right". The age of the mother, however, is irrelevant to the discussion as long as she is legally responsible for the child.
And so the thread has moved along quite nicely discussing the relevant details and issues.
First, there are too many nuances to this specific situation that are missing for me to not be making assumptions, so bear that in mind when you read the following.
Personally, I have a bit of an issue with the "not my job" mentality. If, for example, the patient/mother asked for help, and the nurse basically said "it's not my job" and walked away without addressing it, I'd be on her case, too. Even if it's not your job, that's not the right response.
Additionally, when you walk into a patient's room and see their family members there, you should be having a conversation about that. Did the nurse not notice the 13 year old son in the room and ask questions about that, such as "What is the plan"?
Again, I don't think the nurse has to do the legwork to make the arrangements, but s/he should at least address the issue, even if that means a simple phone call to the social worker.
I see lot of liability involved in here. I would not escort a minor in my own car for insurance reasons. Even if the hospital were to lend me a car, I'd need another person with me. I've worked with adolescents and know how quick they are at making absurd allegations. Besides, if the nurse is off the floor who is going to cover his/her patients? I'd go over clinical nurse's head and get risk-management involved because there is risk involved to myself, the child, and the hospital in this scenario.
By the way, which hospital lets a minor stay overnight in a patient's room? Where did the kid sleep? Who was monitoring him?
I'd look for another hospital that would not go to such preposterous lengths to raise their meaningless patient-satisfaction scores (I wonder if these scores are fabricated like some of the hotels do).
Over the years I've paid for taxi rides home, bought socks and underwear at the gift shop, "borrowed" shoes from lost and found,even sent a box lunch with them. But never for a child ,ever! Page social worker stat!
26 years old and already has a thirteen-year old son??? I can't be the only one who sees something wrong with that.
I agree with everyone else's suggestions to get social work involved or see if you could find a way to discharge the patient as soon as possible.
That was the thing that jumped out at me from the OP. If the family is a 26 year old woman with a 13 year old son, I can easily believe that she had no choice but to bring the child to the hospital with her. This is a Social Work situation, not a Nursing one.
I can see your boss's dilemma, its a legal one. Doesn't want the unit to be responsible for him but at the same time (as others have mentioned) I wouldn't send a 13 year old home alone. I&D of the hand shouldn't have to stay long (typically).
I would suspect that many of us do not find that part of the story very "right". The age of the mother, however, is irrelevant to the discussion as long as she is legally responsible for the child.
And so the thread has moved along quite nicely discussing the relevant details and issues.
Actually, it is very relevant to the conversation. Statistically speaking, children of young teen mothers are more likely to come from single-parent homes and suffer poverty as well as not having a father figure or a stable support system. Very pertinent to this post.
So think before before you post. It is rude not to.
TheCommuter, BSN, RN
102 Articles; 27,612 Posts
However, the OP did say that the hospital was located in an inner city. One side of my family is from an infamous inner city (South Central Los Angeles) and many of my female relatives were already mothers by the time they were in their early to middle teens.
I'm not saying that teen pregnancy is an inner city problem because many girls in suburbs and rural areas give birth, too. However, if you're a girl in middle school and several of your friends have already had babies, then having kids very early in life starts to become a social normative cue.