Could this be my fault?

[HillNPStudent]

I had a situation happen I wasn't even aware of till tonight. Had a patient one week ago, confused, bed alarms, fall risk, the whole nine yards. I worked a 6 hour shift one night, made my final rounds prior to giving report. Had to clean up patient who was also incontinent, gave a sleeping pill, left the tech with her and instructed her to turn the bed alarms back on. Well, I reported off to the next nurse, stayed over a little while afterward to help another nurse who was drowning, left at 3am. Well, this nurse I gave report to did not go in to check this patient for 2 hours, till right after I left that night. When she went in, the tech apparently hadn't set bed alarms, and patient had tried to get up to go to the bathroom, fell in the floor and was incontinent on herself with a small cut on her forehead. I KNOW this did not happen till after I checked her, as I made my final rounds prior to reporting off. Well, this nurse informed me of the incident tonight, but I felt as though it was more of her doing because she didn't check on her new patients until 2 hours after she'd gotten report. She was very nice about the situation, acknowledged her fault in it. I should've confirmed the tech set the alarms, but she had been a good tech, I trusted her. Do you think I could be in any trouble for this? Patient had a CT head done, was fine, went home. But still.....

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Do you think I could be in any trouble for this? Patient had a CT head done, was fine, went home. But still.....

No. The oncoming nurse, however, should have checked that patient as one of her first tasks after report. It was good she told you of this because you need to address this with the tech. To some extent the tech dropped her part of the proverbial ball on this.

[hrtprncss]

I believe once you give report to the oncoming nurse, then your responsibilty ends. It doesn't matter if you're still on the floor doing other things. In this case helping another nurse take care of her own patients from your shift. So you bear no responsibility whatsoever. You delegated and you finished your shift.