Did i do the right thing?

[CNA Dinky]

Hi everybody im gonna start off by saying iv been a cna for 3 months now and i ran into my first situation where i have no idea if i did the right thing or not. here is the situation my supervisor asked me to get one of my residents vitals so i grabbed the machine and went to it his bp came out to be 201/103 or something close to that. my supervisor and the house supervisor was standing right there recorded his vitals and told me to come back and check it again after a few hours. well second time coming around to check it my supervisor and the house supervisor were both present before i started and while i was getting his bp again my floor supervisor left leaving just the house supervisor and myself there. i get his bp it was higher than the check from earlier the house supervisor recorded it and started talking to the nurse on the hall about his prn meds or something like that(im not sure what that is but i know for sure she said "prn" and the resident being looked at) well at the end of my shift my unit manager pulled me aside and asked me who i reported it to i told her the house supervisor. then my unit manager asked me if i reported it to any of the nurses on my floor i said no because i reported it to the house supervisor. now that my long story is over i ask you nurses with your knowledge and experience did i do the right thing or did i make a mistake in thinking that reporting it to the house supervisor was enough?

[shoegalRN, RN]

You should have reported the BP to the nurse who was actually taking care of the patient.

The house supervisor wouldn't know too much about the patient, this is why she asked about the pt's PRN meds.

I understand the nurse manager and the house supervisor was there when you did the vital signs. If the nurse was not notified of the BP and something happened to that pt, you would have been thrown under the bus.

[alphabetsoup]

Yes, always report a problem to the resident's nurse. Do you know for sure that the house supervisor was relaying information to the resident's nurse or to another nurse who just happened to be standing in the hallway? And if that nurse in the hallway was supposed to tell the resident's nurse and forgot, BUT you had knowledge of the situation....well, that might not lead to a great outcome. It becomes a game of "psssst, pass it on". And trust me, that is never a good game to play because rarely does the message come through.

[Batman25]

ALWAYS report to the patient's nurse. NEVER rely on someone else to do it. Consider it a good lesson learned and move on.

[CNA Dinky]

thanks for the replies everyone. the nurse on the hall was his nurse and as i said the house supervisor did talk to his nurse about his bp meds right after she got the numbers. and believe me after this incident every time i have an abnormal vital sign im telling my halls nurse and my supervisor XD

[KarmaWiseRaven]

I think you know the answer by now. But yes always tell your floor nurse even if you tell your supervisors first always tell your nurse so she or he is not left out in the dark.

Another reason what if you didn't tell her something and she went to give a med that might need to be held and she had no clue . Remember you are the nurses eyes and ears out on the floor. Think of it as a big circle. You, Floor Nurse, Charge Nurse, Nurse Manager, ADON, DON, Admin,... Good Luck... Anthony

[areyousleepy]

I'm assuming that you took it with an automatic machine (you said "the machine"). So I'm surprised that they didn't have you retake it manually. Or even that the floor nurse didn't retake it manually, herself.

[CNA Dinky]

thanks man i never thought of it that way. and i will remember that circle. i feel like shat about the situation but i guess i should look at the end result which was the resident was okay. and i learned a very important lesson

[CNA Dinky]

and about the machine........i cant take it manually i know that if a residents bp is high like that on the machine we take it manually but he just had surgery on one arm and for some reason there is a restriction on taking his bp with the other so we cant use either arm we have to do it with his leg which i have not been trained to do

[jesskidding, LPN]

I agree with one of the above posters when they mentioned taking it manually after getting a reading that high. In my personal experience, the electronic bp machine wouldn't even register a bp that high. I would have to take a reading manually to get a correct bp.

Anyways, I would have reported this, personally, to the residents nurse right after I got the reading.

If there is a skill you are not sure about, like taking a bp on the leg, just ask. I am sure someone would be glad to show you.

[CNA Dinky]

yeah that would be a nice skill to learn. cause the machine we got is kinda crappy the cuff never stays on. and the machine even read that one of the other residents had a pulse of 192 today lol

[canchaser, BSN, RN]

The supervisor and the nurse are talking about the pt. I wouldn't have told the nurse, wasn't the supervisor and the nurse discussing the prns in front of you?( or did I miss read) Why was there any questions about who you told? Another way to cya is write those numbers on a sheet of paper and hand it to the nurse. " telling" them also can easily be forgotten and your word against the nurse. If it's really busy, I as the nurse still might forget you gave me the sheet but as we talk, the paper might be a memory jogger.