Coroners Court

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Specializes in ICU.

Has anyone attended coroners court? I was involved in a case last year and the coroner is going to call me as a witness. Have never had anything like this and feel petrified at the thought. Made a statment last year which went through the RCN, apparently the same statement will go to the court.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

Scarymary I go to coroners to support nurses within my directorate. Can;t post about it now as have my daughters concert to go to but will look and post at the weekend.

If you have specific worries or questions post them and I will do my best to answer

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

Mary, sorry i couldn't write more yesterday.

The coroner will want to question you on your statement and the events that you were invovled with, he is not there to catch you out or give you a hard time although I beleive that sometimes the family are allowed to ask questions which can be quite harrowing. It is an opportunity if there are any deficits that you know led to the event that they are raised as the coroner will make recommendations.

The one that sticks in my mind is when we had a lack of nurse call bells and a patient fell and died as the result of a head injury. (Pt was on clopidogrel) One of the recomendations was that the ward invest in call bells for every bed and the trust then funded them.

We always send a senior nurse with our nurses to support them, do you have anyone to go with you?

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Specializes in ICU.

My manager is going to go with me. He seems to think that it is just a formality but one of the senior sisters has advised me to get in touch with the RCN again 'just in case'.

The other nurse is off sick with stress and one of the doctors as well.

I'm just plodding along trying to do my job as best I can.

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Specializes in med/surg.

All the best Mary. I'm sure it will be fine.

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Specializes in Mental Health.

Yes , I have been to coroners court.

We (there were several of us) had good support from our trust's legal team and they told us the sort of thing we could expect and what the proccedure would be.

We also had good support from our immediate manager and his manager.

Yes we had to write statements ( this is where writing up on patients notes comes in use) and stand in the witness box.

Yes I did find it scarey before hand as it was my first time in court for any reason.

All us nurses and managers had a get together after the hearing for an unoffical 'debriefing' ( OK it was a couple of drinks in the local :D)

Best of luck, feel free to PM if you want any further information.

Thanet.

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Dear All nurses,

I am a law student specifically Coroners Law and used to be a psychiatric nursing assistant. I have chosen as my small research project to combine these two disciplines. I would like to approach the project from the point of view of the nurses experience giving evidence in the Coroners court and what, if any, specific bereavement support they were offered. As from the professionals point of view - it is some several months later when they are called to give evidence and may have "put the experience behind them" only to relieve the details in a court setting.

If you have any suggestions for literature, journal articles etc that I can support an arguement I would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

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Specializes in ICU.

Well the day draws near, am getting very stressed and just want to leave my job. Went out and bought a suit today - nothing too posh, just so that I look professional, have already got nice shoes and bag etc.

I am on annual leave for the week of the inquest and the following week too. However I wish I had booked the week prior to the inquest, am finding everything hard to deal with. Did something totally out of character and really upset my best friend at work and now he isn't talking to me. I have been off long term with depression in the past after my mum died, husband was in the neuro ward very sick at the same time. Am so scared that I will get depressed again, am literally fighting to keep going. Now I sound like a moaner, I'm not usually but this is so hard to deal with.

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Mary,

Although i have never been called to any type of court, Coroners or other, I can appreciate what you must be feeling at the moment. I get butterflies everytime I get a court warning dreading the moment that I'm actually going to get called. But i've been told by my colleagues that it isnt as bad as it seems.

Have you visiting the court informally to have a look around and get familiar with the layout and where you'll be standing, where the family, coroner etc will be positioned? thats the advice been given to me on occassions.

I'd really appreciate your feedback to include your experiences in my report, since I'm writing a small paper on the nurses experience within the coroners court, if thats OK with you - of course it will be all anomyous.

good luck - I'm sure it will be all OK - remember the coroner is only there to determine - "how, when, where (and who the deceased is)" and not to apportion blame.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.
Well the day draws near, am getting very stressed and just want to leave my job. Went out and bought a suit today - nothing too posh, just so that I look professional, have already got nice shoes and bag etc.

I am on annual leave for the week of the inquest and the following week too. However I wish I had booked the week prior to the inquest, am finding everything hard to deal with. Did something totally out of character and really upset my best friend at work and now he isn't talking to me. I have been off long term with depression in the past after my mum died, husband was in the neuro ward very sick at the same time. Am so scared that I will get depressed again, am literally fighting to keep going. Now I sound like a moaner, I'm not usually but this is so hard to deal with.

Mary do you have a staff support service you can go to, ours is called the staff wellbeing service and they are independent and brilliant. Just so you can talk about this face to face with someone in confidence. You sound so worried and stressed by it all. If not go to your senior nurse and ask her what to expect, she will have been to CC lots of times and be able to reassure you.

I don't think you sound like a moaner you sound upset, is it worth going to your GP and let him know how you are feeling.

(((hugs)))

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Specializes in Multiple.

Contacting the RCN if you are a member would be a really good idea - even if only for moral support. They have a lot of experience in this area and can help you through this - they also have a counselling service which comes as part of your membership package - see http://www.rcn.org.uk/support/services/counselling for more details.

I wish you well, but please do PM me if you want more info or support.

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Specializes in ICU.

Thank you for the replies and support from you and Sharrie which have been very kind.

The RCN...I thought that would be a good idea too. They did support me through the Trust investigation.

I got in touch with them the day I was informed there was to be an inquest and they were not very helpful at all. Because this is not a criminal investigation their advice is that any legal support should be provided by the Trust.

I am only to refer to the original statement that I made because that was ratified (? correct term) by the RCN legal team. They said that if this is not settled with the inquest then to contact them again.

Having paid up my dues since 1996 and never having claimed from them before I was very disillusioned.

Once this is all sorted I will be making tracks to Unison or similar.

Allnurses is a great resource and I am so glad that I am a member.

Thank you again.

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