Published Apr 29
Jessica022
3 Posts
I've been a nurse for over 3 years, and this is the first to me. Had a patient code, suddenly. she was stable for the days that I had her. When she was found down, a the moment my thought was to put her in a safe area and had another nurse help because where she landed was in a tight space in her hospital room. Rapid/code team was paged, Doctor was there and I was talking to him about her being dnr/dni while I was doing that the other nurse was already preforming CPR and husband stated he wanted CPR on his wife. CPR was continued and when everything was over the topic with us was she was dnr/dni why was CPR started, it was all a fight or flight situation and I feel like it's my fault for not announcing her code status while placing her body in a safe place. The code team didn't ask who's the nurse instead asked a nurse about her code status, normally when a team is called they say out loud " who's the nurse". There was a lot of people in the room trying to bring her back, but wasn't able to. It was chaotic! Not one in that room asked what happened, who's the next of kin, it was all docs and code team talking to each other and the assigned nurse wasn't asked for. I feel like I failed at my job, and feel so bad for both patient and family member because of my lack of communication.
Been there,done that, ASN, RN
7,241 Posts
She didn't code. She died . She didn't want anything done.
You're right, she didn't. What does the doctor or nurse tell the husband when he's in the room watching her get CPR? And has hope. We knew she wasn't going to make it, but husband was hopeful. It was all a crappy situation and sad to witness, especially her code status not being wished.
FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN
2,262 Posts
Her husband overrode her decision. Was he her healthcare proxy? Who paged the code team? Don't beat yourself up over this, but do think about what you want to do differently if it happens again.
I definitely learned what to do different, I had to take a mental health check and take off a few weeks because I was honestly beating myself up on this, I was disappointed in myself. Code status wasn't in my mind when she was found unresponsive and I told the other nurse to call a code, without thinking at that moment other than saving her. Like mentioned on my post, I was talking to the assigned MD about patient being DNR, patient was already getting CPR and family members wanted her to be full code. It was a mess of a code. I have always been the one in the background helping and knew what to do, but this was me in it and I had no idea what to do my mind wasn't thinking other than bring her back. 🙁
thanks for not tearing me apart on my mistake.