Is this legal?

Published

I had to precept a nurse tonight. Parents want to replace a nurse that is "bat" crazy. This nurse I just sent home because she fell asleep. That was my breaking point. She told me that she would take the client(s) home with her after parents go to work. She told me she has a sister who lives with her whose a LVN and looks after the client if the hired nurse needs to run an errand. Is that legal to take a client (pediatric) to your personal home? I've heard of a lot of nurses doing this. I know it's illegal for another nurse whose not hired with the company to look after them. But taking a kid home with you? And she admitted that she sleeps with the children at night. She gets in their bed with them. Seriously???

Specializes in Pedi.

Call your clinical manager in the office. It's up to him/her to deal with the situation. Such a nurse would be promptly terminated if such a situation was reported to me. A nurse taking a child from his home to her home is called kidnapping so, no, that's not legal. We did have a situation with a nurse who we terminated for sleeping in the child's bed with her.

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I am a new grad RN and I currently work in home health. I've seen this in practice and I was shocked. What shocked me more so was that the parents of the PDN patient were aware and allowed such things to happen. The relationship the families have with their nurses definitely cross professional lines. Families have lied to me to protect their nurse.

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........The relationship the families have with their nurses definitely cross professional lines. Families have lied to me to protect their nurse.

Usually it is: Families have lied to me to protect their favorite​ nurse(s).

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Specializes in retired from healthcare.

Any professional that takes care of a child needs to at least get permission from the parents to take a child anywhere and this needs to be documented.

They could get in a crash and that's only one of the things I can think of.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

If you are driving your personal vehicle (most personal auto policies will not cover business use without a specific rider) with a medically complex child, many have seizure disorders, and there is an emergency exactly how are you going to explain an adverse event to authorities and the BoN? I'm sorry the child had a seizure as I was driving 55mph down the highway and couldn't pull over to administer the Diastat...and now has permanent brain damage.

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If you are driving your personal vehicle (most personal auto policies will not cover business use without a specific rider) with a medically complex child, many have seizure disorders, and there is an emergency exactly how are you going to explain an adverse event to authorities and the BoN? I'm sorry the child had a seizure as I was driving 55mph down the highway and couldn't pull over to administer the Diastat...and now has permanent brain damage.

This is why in almost all cases, the agency specifically forbids this practice, unless special arrangements are in place. No agency is going to routinely accept liability when they can avoid it.

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My favorite story is the home health nurse who transported a trach kid in her personal care, to her home, to play with her grandchildren. And, she took this trach kid swimming in her pool at her house! Um, yeah, you bet I reported that. Sometimes I wonder what nurses are thinking?!

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Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.

Wow!! I have come up with some "not so bright" ideas, but ...not in a million years!

Wow!

Anne, RNC

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Some of these examples lend credibility to the negative comments about the type of nurse that ends up working in extended care home health.

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Some of these examples lend credibility to the negative comments about the type of nurse that ends up working in extended care home health.

I've been in PDN for three, almost, four years now. I have often wondered this. I have met some wonderful PDN nurses. And I have met some that have totally shocked me. I wonder that some go into PDN since we have more autonomy. The nurse feels like they can break the rules.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
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Getting into the bed with pt?

Wth? how does that even work?

That is gross.

Sometimes,nurses do not know what is wrong when first starting out.

I had nobody to guide me,and my supervisor was new to Pdn too,so she could not help me either.

One of the big mistakes i made was watching the kid in the parent's home while off duty.

I would come and sit with her while the parents went out on Saturday nights.

My work hrs were 3pm to 11pm Mon-Fri.

I did not get paid for the Saturdays.

It only happened twice though.

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