I am currently working in a huge call center. My department includes myself and 3 other RN's along with non-clinical personnel. Other than my department, there are no other nurses currently employed at this company. We are not working in the capacity of industrial nurses, our position is to provide telephonic support and education primarily to caregivers of those with Alzheimer's disease, and to collect Adverse Event information that we forward to our client.
When ever there is any type of health/physical crisis with one of the company's employees, management will come to us and expect us to make an assessment of the situation and then to provide guidance. We have had some difficult situations at the work place, which has posed for us a concern for our licenses.
For Example: One female employee alerts her manager that she is having some type of problem. That manager requested one of the nurses from our department to assess the situation. Nurse finds patient with accelerated HR, and no cardiac HX. Recommends 911. Patient refused 911. Company policy dictates that employee must go home. She did go home, and luckily all was OK, as far as we know.
Another Example: Female employee with known HX of seizure disorder begins having petit-mal seizures one after the other. I was called upon to assess. Employee confides that she had taken her AM meds late this morning and in addition she is presently experiencing severe stress related to her personal life. Due to the petit-mal seizures continuing to occur and seemingly longer each event, I recommended 911. Employee agreed to permit 911 to assess, but refused to go to ED. Employee was told she would have to go home. She had no one that could help her. I took her home in my car. Employers told me that it would be on my own time as they will not be responsible if anything happens to me or the employee I am giving a lift to. In the car, the employee shared with me that her B/P taken by 911 was 190/100+. Needless to say, I was concerned. I felt very uncomfortable leaving her at home alone with what was going on.
We nurses are all uncertain as to how to approach these type situations. Are we covered under the Good Sam Act? Are there any other nurses out there that are in a similar situation? Any Legal Nurse Consultants out there with any input, we would certainly appreciate it. Is there anything else we should be looking at in addition that we are missing that could be posing a threat to our licenses?
