I'm a pretty new nurse. I work in a telemetry floor at a community hospital. We are also a stroke center. Called a code stroke on a patient (one I had had three days in a row) the other night for 178/101 BP, sudden onset speech difficulties, headache and right hand numbness. I didn't get in trouble, per say, but the charge nurse (who has been a nurse for decades) was trying to convince me not to call it. She said we should wait for the doctor (we have one doctor in house after 7pm), who had already been paged and not called back after 7-10 minutes. The nursing supervisor and some other nurses on the floor were in agreement that the code should have been called. And turns out the patient got transferred to a higher level of care at another hospital for neuro issues, though his CT was negative that night. Anyone else have similar problems? I don't regret my decision, and would do it again, but i'm just curious how many people have been in this situation, she almost made me second guess myself. Or, if you are a charge who hesitates to call codes, why? Thanks!
