Call it a hunch.

[bigd82]

As I was passing breakfast in my hall, I noticed an unfamiliar patient that seemed to be moving very sporadically, unresponsive and in general not well. Right away I got her charge nurse and told her of my observation. She checked the patient and said this was normal. Despite the fact I felt that it was wrong I went about my day in my section. As I passed her room her charge nurse asked me to get her oxygen and set her up STAT and so I did. To make a long story short this did not help and she totally crashed. The physician on duty or someone else called for a paramedic and intubated her. She didn't recover.

I am going to school for nursing and I am still a novice but was this the right way for the charge nurse to respond?

I wasn't even the PT's CNA but I am always willing to help any PT especially in an emergency situation and the RN thought I was working her hall so she demanded vitals and I had to tell her several time she was not my charge nurse.

How could I have affected the situation to be better for this PT?

[Crush]

What I'm curios of is what can I do to get the nurses attention more. Is there something or some type of sign besides vitals I'm missing? I haven't done all my nursing prerequisites yet.

You did not miss anything. All we can do is the best we can with what we know and have available at that time. You did the best you could so that is good enough.

I had worked with this patient before and I don't believe this was the patients baseline from what I observed.

In your initial post you indicated you were not familiar with this person. In this last quote you say you know person. Which does not matter, just an observation. Nurses do things "behind" the scenes you may not be aware of. Like she could have been calling the doctor who you say came in to look at the patient and assessed them. Nurses sometimes will look at a chart to gather all the information to make the best decision. Nurses may delegate to the LPN, CNA or other staff to obtain vital while RN calls the MD. That is not necessarily a failure. Keep an open mind and yes, continue to report any changes or gut feelings about a patient cause that is a good thing. Yes, if the nurse does nothing tell them a second time but third time you may need to tell someone else ( all depends on the situation ).

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

You have a lot to learn. One thing you need to learn is it is NOT a good idea to make statements like "I believe that this patient died because the nurse and physician failed." It can come back and bite you in the butt.

It's great that you want whats best for your patients but as a CNA (and not even in the nursing program) you are not privy to a lot of information about a patient. Add to that you have changed your story. You told the CNA but you couldn't find the CNA, you took vitals but you couldn't take vitals because you didn't have your equipment, you didn't know the patient but you knew the patient. It does make one question the veracity of your statement.

When you are a nurse, you are going to learn that what one person sees is NOT necessarily the whole story, especially if the person as a UAP and not privy to all info regarding the patient. I know a CNA who complained to the manager, educator and a residents attending physician because her patient was hungry and we were mean for not getting her diet changed. The patient had cholangiocarcinoma with mets, as well as other issues. The CNA ultimately pulled a number much like you did, blaming the lack of action by the nurse and resident on the patients death. She had a hard time finding a job, because she developed a reputation.

As a CNA, you should always tell the patients nurse your concerns, particularly if there is a sudden or significant change. But please do NOT assume that the nurse doesn't care if you don't think she is doing enough. You don't know what was done before, what was done after (you yourself stated you went about your day) and you aren't privy to what is happening to the patient. IF you have a question, ask the nurse, if you don't think the nurse is doing enough, ask her. But don't assume she hasn't done anything.

And for gods sake, unless you see someone actually do something that would lead to the patient death, I would be very very careful tossing around blame. The patient in my scenario did die, but she died from her disease process. No amount of food would have changed that.

[LovingLife123]

Why is this being brought back up over 6 months later?