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.
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.
So, I'll bite.
How is the age of the mother important to the discussion. Does the mother's age change the responsibility of the mother? Does the age of the mother change the duties of the nurse relative to the mother's child? What does it matter if there is a stable home environment?
That the child may be living in a single parent home or in poverty has NOTHING to do with whether or not this RN should get the kid a ride home as directed by the "boss", that I can see.
I appreciate that you believe that I didn't "think" before I posted. You are entitled to your opinions, no matter how misled.
Saying so in print on the thread is rude as it is personal and unrelated to the thread.
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.
But this post is not about a "young teen mother;" It's about a 26yo woman. Furthermore, while it may be reasonable to assume that the patient was a single mom, the original post did not state that she was. It is also possible that the family didn't have a car or the father worked out of town. Personally, I find it off-putting that someone's first thought on the matter is to label this adult's situation as "wrong" based solely on a choice that that she MAY have made 13 years ago.
However, I like to give the benefit of the doubt.... I hope that those of you seemingly trying to label the 26yo mother as in the wrong were in fact meaning to label our society as wrong for neglecting the areas which are statistically known to have high teen pregnancy rates. Some people simply have a tougher go at life.
I have friend that adopted her brother's 5yo daughter when she was only 20. She received her fair share of judging over the years, when in reality she gave up a lot to save her niece from foster care.
As a parent I whole-heartedly agree with other posters who have mentioned it is NOT APPROPRIATE to send a 13 year old off in a cab or on a bus by themselves.
As a nurse who has worked in an inner-city hospital, I know the struggles these types of patients face. It is more than likely there is no one else to care for this child otherwise why would mom have him with her. It is also likely that mom would be extremely hesitant to disclose to anyone a bad situation if one does exist. Maybe they are homeless? Live in substandard housing? Mom has no family or friends willing or able to watch the boy for a few days? You never know what is going on. She is probably hoping she can keep telling hospital staff her child does not have a ride home and get away with that until discharge. Clearly this is a matter for social work.
I am not sure what a clinical coordinator is. It sounds like some type of customer service type of position? Whatever it is she acted wholly inappropriately. If it were me I would use the hospitals internal risk management process to report her actions or at least inform my manager and her manager of her actions. I get so sick of various personnel informing the bed side nurse and trying to make things our problem. I get this all the time from physicians, dietary, pharmacists, x-ray personnel, the core measures people etc. I always inform them that if they have an issue THEY need to inform the proper personnel to deal with that issue, not me. I have enough to do already thank you very much.
In our hospital, it would have been the responsibility of either the mother or the person who was going to be watching the child at home to get the child home. No way would we send a child home by public transport. How do you even know if someone is going to meet him at the other end?
I'm not a nurse yet, but have stayed in the hospital with my husband for a week when he had to be there. Why couldn't they just wheel in a roll away bed for the night and figure out the situation the next morning? Obviously there was no one to pick him up and drop him off, so there would be no one to make sure he went to school, ate meals or not burn down the house either. It's not the nurses responsibility to get him home, but if the state got involved would that mean this mother could potentially lose her child because she was single with no family? I'm really asking these questions, (not being a smarty-pants) as I'm curious as to the social worker, DCF, police and hospital angle, and would love to learn as much as I can should I ever encounter something similar.
I'm not a nurse yet, but have stayed in the hospital with my husband for a week when he had to be there. Why couldn't they just wheel in a roll away bed for the night and figure out the situation the next morning? Obviously there was no one to pick him up and drop him off, so there would be no one to make sure he went to school, ate meals or not burn down the house either. It's not the nurses responsibility to get him home, but if the state got involved would that mean this mother could potentially lose her child because she was single with no family? I'm really asking these questions, (not being a smarty-pants) as I'm curious as to the social worker, DCF, police and hospital angle, and would love to learn as much as I can should I ever encounter something similar.
This situation does differ from you, as an adult, staying with your husband. As an adult you are responsible for yourself -- your meals, your self care, etc. This is not the case with a child.
The assistance of a social worker in this situation would likely have uncovered some relative or neighbor willing to care for the child for the short term. It does not necessarily imply the involvement of local/state child protective services or any attempt to legally remove the child from his mother's care.
Well, I'm a parent too, and when my kids were 13, they used public transportation and were responsible enough to be home alone overnight. This does not an abuse/neglect situation make, and for those that would call DCS, I say that DCS would laugh and then hang up on you. They have bigger fish to fry.
This would be a perfect situation for a social worker to help with, but if you your hospital doesn't have any, keep in mind that social workers don't have magic powers or anything (although I worked with one who I could've sworn did). The social worker would simply speak with the patient and her son to identify any potential resources, such as do they go to church? Does the kid go to school? How about any neighbors that have helped with child care in the past? When a patient says there is "nobody", often that isn't quite the case. Really they just don't want to ask the lady from church, the friend from school, or that nice neighbor for any help. It's embarrassing to ask for help from your community.
I think that the saddest point here is that far too many nurses do not understand that they can and should challenge the decisions made by their superiors. In this case the Charge Nurse was wrong. I have been told on occasions that I was "paranoid and insubordinate" when I have challenged a management decision and I have been threatened with disciplinary action. However, I knew I was doing the right thing. What I can say is this: I have never been disciplined by any board of nursing, but several of my former co-workers and superiors have been named and shamed.
I think that the saddest point here is that far too many nurses do not understand that they can and should challenge the decisions made by their superiors. In this case the Charge Nurse was wrong. I have been told on occasions that I was "paranoid and insubordinate" when I have challenged a management decision and I have been threatened with disciplinary action. However, I knew I was doing the right thing. What I can say is this: I have never been disciplined by any board of nursing, but several of my former co-workers and superiors have been named and shamed.
this...
is sputtering over the inconsequential a girl thing?
the important thing is that there is an incompetent idiot coordinating clinical function of a nursing department and giving professional nurses stupid directions wasting their time and therefore the resources of the facility!!
is sputtering over the inconsequential a girl thing?
Nope...let's not make any other inconsequential assumptions here...
the important thing is that there is an incompetent idiot coordinating clinical function of a nursing department and giving professional nurses stupid directions wasting their time and therefore the resources of the facility!!
^THIS is the real issue...
I agree with the previous poster about how some (I won't say too many because that is a subjective observation) struggle with the advocacy (the REAL power, IMHO) part of nursing...you advocate for the patient and YOUr ability to coordinate, teach and provide clinical care for the patients. This incident should have involved questions in coordinating care upon admission...even speaking to case management...and the clinical "coordinator" could have easily done the same thing, and addressed the issue, hence the title "clinical coordinator" allowing the nurse to focus on assisting the client in preparing for discharge and ensuring minimal post-OP complications.
anothergrumpyoldRN
92 Posts
So, I'll bite.
How is the age of the mother important to the discussion. Does the mother's age change the responsibility of the mother? Does the age of the mother change the duties of the nurse relative to the mother's child? What does it matter if there is a stable home environment?
That the child may be living in a single parent home or in poverty has NOTHING to do with whether or not this RN should get the kid a ride home as directed by the "boss", that I can see.
I appreciate that you believe that I didn't "think" before I posted. You are entitled to your opinions, no matter how misled.
Saying so in print on the thread is rude as it is personal and unrelated to the thread.