Inpatient nurses used for outpatient procedures??

[SassyRedhead]

A nurse friend of mine told me recently about how she is expected to carry a full patient load and also be physically taken off her unit (from 5th floor to 2nd floor) for anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours to "help with outpatient procedures." She works in a large, well known/regarded hospital system.

Personally, I can't imagine doing that. She says the charge nurse helps to look after her patients while she is gone, but isn't she still the one ultimately responsible for the well-being of the patients in her care on the inpatient unit??? I mean, what if someone has a problem while she is gone and her backup is busy with other things, isn't she the one charged with neglect??

What do you think and what should she do?

[grandee3]

A nurse friend of mine told me recently about how she is expected to carry a full patient load and also be physically taken off her unit (from 5th floor to 2nd floor) for anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours to "help with outpatient procedures." She works in a large, well known/regarded hospital system.

Personally, I can't imagine doing that. She says the charge nurse helps to look after her patients while she is gone, but isn't she still the one ultimately responsible for the well-being of the patients in her care on the inpatient unit??? I mean, what if someone has a problem while she is gone and her backup is busy with other things, isn't she the one charged with neglect??

What do you think and what should she do?

That's an accident waiting to happen. She better up her MP insurance. She does not really think that charge nurse is going to cover for her if something goes wrong? I would get something in writing or refuse to go. Dangerous!

[SICU Queen]

I'm thinking she needs to tell them to hire a nurse for procedures, and next time they tell her to go, she either says "NO" or gives report to someone who is taking over her patients, and then she should chart such on each chart - "Report given to ________, RN/LPN"

That way if something does happen she wasn't the nurse responsible for the patient at the time.

I personally would tell them to take a flying leap.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

She needs to document on each chart "report given to xxx, charge nurse" and then go and have fun in the outpatient clinic. If they don't like her documanting the change in nurses in black and white then they can find someone more compliant (read stupid).

[SassyRedhead]

Thanks everyone who responded. I have a bad feeling about this, and I know if something goes wrong, they will hang her out to dry.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I like canoehead's solution. If the facility is insisting that the floor nurses help out for an extended period of time elsewhere in the hospital, they had best be documenting something like "Complete care of patient turned over to Jane Smith, charge nurse due to supervisor requiring this nurse's immediate reassignment elsewhere". And when she gets back, charting "Report received for last two hours' care from Jane Smith, charge nurse. This nurse resuming care from this time until shift end".

I'd cover my bases, baby.