HELP! Home health care for a friend of the family legal??

[Sassychassy]

My mom's best friend just had surgery. She has a PICC and is getting Rocephin

(sp?) once daily and needs a dressing change once daily. Since she has a PICC her MD reccomended that she go to a rehab facility. She refused and my mom told her that since i am a nurse, that I would come by and do her ATB and dressing change once a day. Which honestly I dont mind doing.

She does have home health come once a week to change her PICC dressing and do an assessment of her wounds. Home health taught her husband to do the atb/flushes and the dressing changes but he is too squeamish to do it so they have "hired" me to come in once a day to do this on the days home health isnt there.

My question is, what kind of legal issues could I run into with this? Is it even legal for me to do this? I am a fairly new nurse, I've only had my license for 2 years. I really dont want to do anything to risk it. Is there any type of paperwork I should have them sign like a hold harmless clause or anything like that in case anything should happen to go wrong?

I did do the dressing change with the home health care nurse to make sure I had the orders correct and I did go through how to administer the antibiotic and when, and she said I should be fine. But again I'm worried about legal issues? Should I just tell her to have the home health come out once a day or find someone else to do it?

I dont mind helping but am feeling a little uncomfortable due t not knowing the full scope of the law as it pertains to these situations I've never been asked to do anything ike this out side of the facility where I work, so this is a new one for me.

Any help would be appreciated.. thanks!

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

It's legal for you to be hired to any acts permitted under your states NPA, And any tasks you are qualified to perform.

In terms of liability, there is a risk. Yes, they can sue you if the patient suffers any misadventures while under your care.

People don't get admitted to rehab simply for a PICC line. we inserted PICC lines and sent people home all the time so they could receive up to 6 weeks of IVAB. If rehab was recommended, something else is going on. If you are only going to be doing what the husband is refusing to do, and your not getting paid, you're probably fine, but I'm not a lawyer.

..And neither is anyone else here. You may want to contact the Bar Association & get a low cost consultation.