Inaccurate story on CNN?

[amyphee]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/05/florida.teen.burned.apology/

Did anyone else see this article on CNN.com? Very sad. Of course, as a former burn nurse, I was a bit irritated when they wrote that teams of doctors do the 4-hour dressing changes on this patient. No matter how severe the burn was, unless it was in the OR, nurses did the dressing changes. Now, I could be wrong, considering I only put in 1 year on a burn unit before leaving for psych nursing, but I thought nurses or wound care specialists did the dressing changes.

[tewdles, RN]

My DH worked in a regional burn center for quite some time. The docs were not present for the entire dressing change. They often did an assessment of the undressed burns but the nursing staff completed the long and difficult dressing changes.

[UMichSCN07]

Just celebrated my 2nd year in a major regional burn center. The ONLY time I've ever seen docs do a dressing is in the OR, after having done a debridement/graft. Otherwise, it's all nurses and techs, with the docs popping in to see the wounds after they've been undressed and scrubbed.

Mike in Michigan

[Lacie, BSN, RN]

I worked in level 1 burn ICU and never seen an MD do a dressing change not even a resident or med student. In fact many of our burn techs did them or the RN did. The docs would try to make thier rounds on them when it was dressing change time other than that I would be surprised to see one of the Plastics getting their hands dirty lol.

[Miriam57RN]

I guess CNN didn't want to shatter the (holy) image of House and other "doctor shows" where the (TV) docs give the meds, do all the testing, hold cups of juice for the pt's to sip..... so ridiculously unreal.

[PACURN1818]

Agree with everyone. Never saw a doc do our burn dressings, nurses and burn techs. They show up to look at the wounds every day or every other day, but that was about it!

[LiveZen]

I'd also like to know what kind of dressing change takes "a team four hours"....even a large percent head-to-toe total care dressing seems to take about 90min or less if you've got 2-3 people working together (nurses/techs)

[asopko]

You should reply to CNN with your comments! Nurses need to get their credit as well. As a major news sourse, I think they would be happy to know how to be more accurate.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Elizabeth Cohen did a piece called "The Empowered Patient" on CNN. She told the public to demand, essentially, that any doctor who didn't wash his hands and don gloves in HER presence before caring for her family member was TOLD by her to do it in her presence. And she said that patients or their advocates should check to see that the patient's name was on the IV bag.

While not necessarily wrong, I thought she was naive.

In other words, the news people are not generally experts in whatever they are reporting on. Everyone errs, we need to take everything with a grain of salt.

[GreyGull]

This article may not be that inaccurate. Jackson Memorial is a large teaching hospital and this is a pediatric patient. I do know in other teaching facilities the residents may be required to have more hands on experience especially in pediatrics. As a learning experience the attending may have the residents do the dressing changes and discuss each area for treatment differences. I have seen them save a complicated patient for last on rounds and will then spend hours on that one patient. Even if the residents themselves may not do the actual dressing changes some may spend the entire time at bedside with the RNs so they will be prepared for rounds the next day with their attending. They can pick up a lot of information from the experienced RNs.

This patient may also have been unstable where there may have been a resident and a fellow present. On a few occasions we have also asked for assistance in the Peds ICU from the Burn Unit for a debridement case and got at least 2 physicians (resident/fellow) to assist and they also helped to do most of the dressing changes. Also, when we had a pedi burn patient that had more complex medical issues in the peds ICU rather than the Burn Unit, the Burn Residents came in to do the dresssing changes with the peds RNs.

[FSU_NOLEGIRL_RN]

It is true that Jackson Memorial is a teaching hospital but so is the hospital that I work at, in the Regional Burn Unit, and I don't care if it is a 75 percenter.... NURSES do the wound care. I highly doubt that there is one doctor let alone a "team" of doctors doing his wound care. I pray for this boy and his family. The one thing he has going for him is that he is yound and without preexisting conditions.

[FSU_NOLEGIRL_RN]

Oh and I forgot.. it is the NURSES who do the debridements as well. The docs go look at them in ER, write debridement orders and floor or ICU order and don't even come to see them after the debridement, just the enxt day.