Is this Patient Abandonment?

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I work in a LTC and came to work tonight at 7pm. There were two nurses on, one scheduled to leave at 7pm when I got there and the other at 11pm after all the meds were passed for the evening. The second nurse just decided she no longer wanted to finish her shift, made me count meds and then left. I had no prior notice and was forced into covering her patients for the remainder of her shift as well as mine. Would this be considered patient abandonment?

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

She gave report to a nurse who then assumed care.

Was it a crappy thing to do, that should be reported to administration....yes.

Would it count as abandonment in the BON eyes? I don't think so as you then assumed care

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Since you are a licensed nurse and accepted report and counted narcotics, I would imagine the BON (or whoever) would regard this as a scenario where one nurse handed off a patient assingment to another.

So, no, I don't believe this would constitute 'patient abandonment' in the sense of her having any official BON-ish action taken against her license. But she may or may not be going against facility policy, which could cost her her job.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
The second nurse just decided she no longer wanted to finish her shift, made me count meds and then left.
She "made you" count the meds? You did not have to accept the key, which would have "forced her" into sticking around to continue rendering care.

But since you accepted her keys, you also assumed care for her assignment. Therefore, this is not abandonment. Next time, enforce stricter personal boundaries so that no one "makes you" do something you do not want to do. The other nurse could have thrown a conniption fit for all I cared, but I would not have accepted her keys. This would have forced her into calling the DON/DNS at night to come relieve her of her duties.

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There are 2 different things happening--was she scheduled until 11pm, or was she scheduled to work until all the evening meds were passed (but no later than 11?).

It may have been a matter of as a medication nurse, her obligation was only to stay until her meds were done. This can happen when someone is part time, per diem, or came in to fill in to get the eve meds out so you would not have to.

As per her further obligation as the medication nurse, she then reports off to you and you count meds, and she hands you the keys and off she goes. It is not abandonment, in my opinion.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Nope...you took report and accepted the keys. Should she have left? depends on what she was scheduled. I wold talk to your administration about her leaving but abandonment? No it is not.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

Given that it sounds like there was a hand-off of patients from her to you and you accepted her keys, there is no patient abandonment. That nurse may have effectively abandoned her job when she decided to just simply leave work early, possibly without authorization. That part is between her and her employer. You can choose to report her or not. That's up to you.

To me, it sounds like after all the meds are done, you would normally assume her patient load as well as yours. This indicates to me that taking the full/entire load is a normal and expected part of your job, and presumably safe.

Now if she had simply put her keys down in front of you and left without you accepting report from her, that would likely be patient abandonment.

She may have done what she did to you just to see how far she can push you before you push back. This is definitely going to be a boundary issue. As I see it, if she doesn't get any serious push back, she'll probably do it again to you when she feels she needs to go home early instead of staying her whole assigned shift. If that works, she'll probably start seeing just how much of her work she can pawn off onto you while still claiming to do her own work.

Be very careful about this kind of person... boundary setting is very, very necessary.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

It ceased to be abandonment the moment you told her "yes," no matter how unwillingly.

If you want to pursue it further, I would let her supervisor know about this...but it's up to you to decide if doing that is worth it. Whatever you decide, remember that the next time she tries to pull this, you have the right to say "no."

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Thanks everyone for your responses and she didn't finish her meds for the night. She left at 7 pm when she still had 9pm med pass. Sadly I passed meds for 3 hrs and was still taking vitals at 11pm at night. And even worse administration won't do anything about it. I think it's time for a new job, one where people are actually held accountable for their job. It's really a sad and frustrating thing for me. I work with people who do the bare minimum if that, consistently bad mouth and throw each other under the bus. And what no one seems to get is that the only ones who really suffer are our residents :(

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Specializes in retired LTC.

You did get taken advantage of - BIG TIME. I would have been on the phone up the chain just as soon as I realized that the other nurse was leaving. By the way, where was the supervisor? (Or was she it?)

Also just be aware that management really may be addressing the situation with that nurse. You just don't know about it because mgt does not owe you an explanation of any disciplinary process. I know that you'd like satisfaction but that's not how things always work out.

If your facility is really that bad, then it may be time to start looking elsewhere. But I do have some words of wisdom - "no matter where you go, SAME problems, DIFFERENT faces".

As others have said, that nurse could be considered for JOB abandonment, but not necessarily PATIENT abandonment, regardless how short-staffed & perceived unsafe she left the place. My understanding of 'pt abandonment' has always been that the place would be left TOTALLY ALONE with no one with the education, experience and authority to provide care to the pts.

Like if she left first = JOB abandonment, but if you left right after her = PATIENT abandonment as well as job abandonment.

Good luck!

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I was on the phone immediately to someone higher up and there are no supervisors there at night or on the weekends. And sadly mgt just sucks that bad that nothing will be done.

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Eventually this nurse will pull her shenanigans on the wrong person and find herself out of a job.

In other words, the day she skips out like that on one of management's "pets" (or a pet with more brownie points than her), something will finally be done about it.

Or, this nurse will burn too many nurses too many times, so that her former apologists in management will decide its not worth protecting her butt anymore, even if she once lead a charmed life.

Basically, all you can do sometimes is let karma take its course. She'll get what's coming to her sooner or later.

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