Discontinuing medications !

Published

Specializes in Hospice.

I’m a hospice nurse. This week I went out on a patient home visit with a woman from state. The daughter of my patient explained to this woman that my patient was having trouble swallowing so she stopped giving her all her medications except for the ones for comfort. I explained to the woman from state our doctor didn’t like to discontinue these medications in case family started giving them again, which trust me has happened more than once. The lady from state proceeded to tell me I could lose my license for not discontinuing the medications even though there’s a possibility the family would give them to her again. Has anyone heard of such a thing? She was very rude to me and my patients family. I felt she was just throwing her power around and trying to intimidate everyone. 

Up Vote Up Vote ×

It would have been good to ask her, in a professional manner, for her rationale for what she said, I.e. what law, policy or principle she was referring to specifically.  For example (and I'm just making this up), is she referring to the agency somehow defrauding the state by having it appear that patients are receiving X services when they are really receiving Y services? It's hard to say. 

It doesn't seem like best patient care to not keep an accurate record of the medications they are or aren't taking at any given time. Not that they should tell you immediately if they hold a dose of something, but if they simply aren't taking that med any more then it should come off the profile--because that is good patient care and accurate record-keeping.

I seriously doubt that an individual nurse would lose their license for following a company policy that unknowingly happens to not meet some technicality.  If that were common a lot of us would be in some kind of trouble given the variety of interpretations our employers turn into mandates upon the nursing staff for various things. But we do know that we have a duty to provide the best care we can, which definitely involves knowing which medications our patients are taking, and we do have a duty to keep accurate records in order to facilitate the various aspects of the provision of care.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
On 3/31/2021 at 7:21 PM, Monie301 said:

I’m a hospice nurse. This week I went out on a patient home visit with a woman from state. The daughter of my patient explained to this woman that my patient was having trouble swallowing so she stopped giving her all her medications except for the ones for comfort. I explained to the woman from state our doctor didn’t like to discontinue these medications in case family started giving them again, which trust me has happened more than once. The lady from state proceeded to tell me I could lose my license for not discontinuing the medications even though there’s a possibility the family would give them to her again. Has anyone heard of such a thing? She was very rude to me and my patients family. I felt she was just throwing her power around and trying to intimidate everyone. 

If you follow doctors orders I wouldn't worry about it. I would tell the lady she needs to speak with the doctor about the discontinuation of meds. 

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The daughter told the lady from state that she had stopped giving the meds so the lady from state should have involved the doctor to get the meds discontinued, or not.  So she wanted to pass the buck to you and still chide you about the matter? Too bad the daughter couldn't have waited until a better time to discuss this business.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion