Case

An LPN (NYS)was employed by a nurse staffing agency with a contract to provide nursing personnel for a hospital's med/surg unit. On the 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift she was assigned five patients. One had COPD. One was recovering from surgery. Another was a prenatal patient on the med/surg unit with a fetal heart monitor. All the patients were basically stable, except the prenatal patient for whom the LPN was trying to get an obstetrician to come to the unit for an exam and consult. The LPN became ill between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m. She vomited in the bathroom. She went to the nurses station and told the four other nurses on duty that she was leaving. The charge nurse told her to find the house supervisor before exiting the premises. She was to inform the supervisor she was leaving before the end of her shift. The LPN did not communicate with the nursing supervisor. She gave as her reason that she did not want to be sent to the emergency room and billed for an emergency-room visit.

Is this considered nursing abandonment ? Why or why not?