Hi,I am a CNA in a LTC facility I have a patient who had congested heart failure..

Nurses General Nursing

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The nurse did not inform me the patient had congested heart failure so I started my daily routine of care for her. I rolled her head all the way down as usual then she started to turn blue. I rolled her head back up and ran to get the nurse. She said, "Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you she can not have her head flat!" I was so so scared. I felt like I was a bad CNA. Was it my fault?

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No, it was not your fault. If you had known, would you have done it? No I am sure that you would have not done it. You did the best you could with in information that you had and when you realized something was wrong, you did exactly what you should have done. You put her up et got the nurse.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

you did the right thing, nautica, by rolling your patient back up and calling for the nurse. i'd be proud to have you on my team.

p.s. for future reference, it's chf, or congestive heart failure. but you don't have to be in nursing school to learn more about it. the american heart association has information:

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=337#quickly

...lood coming into the left chamber from the lungs may "back up," causing fluid to leak into the lungs. (the technical term for this is pulmonary edema.) also, as the heart's ability to pump decreases, blood flow slows down, causing fluid to build up in tissues throughout the body (edema). this excess fluid or congestion explains the term congestive heart failure, which you've probably heard before.

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No, it was not your fault. If you had known, would you have done it? No I am sure that you would have not done it. You did the best you could with in information that you had and when you realized something was wrong, you did exactly what you should have done. You put her up et got the nurse.

I agree that it's not your fault, but doesn't your faility have a kardex available for the CNA's to see about each pt? At my facility, the CNA's have to sign off every shift that they've read the kardex on every pt assigned to them, so they know what assistive devices the pt needs as well as assist of ? people, diet, weight-bearing status, brp, etc, etc, along with the pt's major dx and even the allergies are on there. It's good practice to check on these kardex's, and only takes a few minutes.

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If you had known the pt had CHF and still rolled her down, then it would have been your fault, but only if it was proven that you know what CHF is and what can happen. CNAs are not expected to know how to handle a CHF pt, although most learn just from experience.

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this is why i always try to give report to the techs/assts at the start of my shift.

and no, it wasn't your fault at all.

leslie

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I agree that it's not your fault, but doesn't your faility have a kardex available for the CNA's to see about each pt? At my facility, the CNA's have to sign off every shift that they've read the kardex on every pt assigned to them, so they know what assistive devices the pt needs as well as assist of ? people, diet, weight-bearing status, brp, etc, etc, along with the pt's major dx and even the allergies are on there. It's good practice to check on these kardex's, and only takes a few minutes.

No, we do not have a kardex available. Usually the nurse tells us at the beginning of the shift if there is anything we should be aware of. Thnaks.

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