Ever been told to "fake" CPR on a patient???

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Last night at work, when 3-11 shift gave me shift report, they told me one of the residents was being put on hospice and in the process of getting a DNR order. Then they told me to do something that did NOT sit right with me. If this resident stops breathing during the night, we were supposed to PRETEND to do CPR and then tell the EMT's that we did CPR. Umm, WHAT?!? We were told not to mention this to a lot of people. (Uh-oh!)

Thank God she did NOT stop breathing during the night. I had prayed for God not to let that happen. I would have done the CPR anyway and let the boss fire me if she had to. Since when is it okay to "fake" CPR and then lie to the EMT's??? :confused:

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

What kind of facility do you work at? Asst living? My father was in asst living when he went on hospice and we hired a CNA who had additional training to help administer meds in order to help with his meds when he could no longer do so himself. My sister and I shared the day duty but at night she came and documented what and when she gave him meds - he was receiving po morphine and ativan. This was in Iowa and was state-approved for this person's scope of practice.

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yes.

i was repeatedly told to 'walk slowly'.

which i did not; it shouldn't have been my or any other staff's call on who should die or not.

but i also made sure to give a detailed but brief hx on the patient to the paras.

some understood, others did not.

leslie

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Specializes in Renal, Haemo and Peritoneal.

On a slightly different slant, I have attended codes working in Indigenous communities where even if the person is long dead you must be seen to be doing SOMETHING. It can get pretty volatile if you don't do something to "assist" the patient.

In my experience it seems that (unfortunately) people with less education want the most dramatic interventions. Whether this is because as health professionals what we do has a "mystical and miraculous" quality to it I don't know. We weren't designed to live forever but modern techologies have upped the ante for not dying when we should!

Overall this is a very emotive subject that has too many "greys" for any one person to be totally correct.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I think my reply to someone asking me to fake it would be "how do you sleep at night knowing you're lying?"

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Specializes in Home care, assisted living.

Hi everyone, it's been a couple of days since I visited the boards. The resident I have been referring to finally got a written DNR. It came just hours before she passed away.

Saturday night, I came in and got report from 3-11 shift. They told me a hospice nurse was staying with this resident and her family was present as well. Her body was shutting down and they didn't expect her to live through the night. Thank God the nurse was there. I felt good knowing that she would be in charge, and she was very nice. The 3-11 shift supervisor also stayed over. I've never had a patient die on my shift, so it was good to have them there. The family clearly wanted their mother to die peacefully, so she was made as comfortable as possible with meds and everything. I remember coming in the room to turn her at 1 AM and the family said, "No, not now." The nurse told me she was in the final stages, so I let the family have time alone with her. 15 minutes later she was gone. Her husband lives in the same room and was awake through everything...they've been together nearly 70 years...and was devastated, but he is holding up okay. She must have some woman...the family kept telling us what a great mom she was.

I'm just glad this situation resolved itself and my resident is in no more pain, but next time something like this happens, I'll know what to do. All I can ask you guys at this point is to lift her husband and family in your prayers. They have clearly suffered a great loss. Also, thanks for all your advice. It cleared up a lot of confusion for me.

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Last night at work, when 3-11 shift gave me shift report, they told me one of the residents was being put on hospice and in the process of getting a DNR order. Then they told me to do something that did NOT sit right with me. If this resident stops breathing during the night, we were supposed to PRETEND to do CPR and then tell the EMT's that we did CPR. Umm, WHAT?!? We were told not to mention this to a lot of people. (Uh-oh!)

Thank God she did NOT stop breathing during the night. I had prayed for God not to let that happen. I would have done the CPR anyway and let the boss fire me if she had to. Since when is it okay to "fake" CPR and then lie to the EMT's??? :confused:

I did homecare for a gentleman on a vent with Lou Garrecks (spelling) disease. Anyway one of the night nurses called 911 because she couldn't get his sats up and the daughter of the patient who was a full code (she was power of attorney and an MD!!!) yelled at the nurse for doing this. The daughter wanted her father to be a DNR however she didn't want to do the paperwork because it would upset her mother. I never worked there again.

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