Low staffing = med error-DHS tagged me with abuse and neglect-what can I expect the b

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It was a holiday and the unit had about over 100 visitors come through the unit to see a special holiday display, there were fruit and veggie trays at the nurses station. It was crazy busy with visitors. I came to work the noc shift, the other nurse had called in sick and nobody would come in to help. 34 sub acute patients, 3 CNA's, 3 late admits that were not finished by the day shift because the MARS weren't fully completed. The patient asked for a pain pill and I became distracted by all the visitors and forgot about it. The patient called family and they came to the facility, picked her up and took her away. I turned myself in to DHS the following day, so did the family and her primary MD. DHS have now told me that the facility and I as an individual have been tagged for abuse and neglect. They have contacted the board of nursing. What kind of suspension, revocation, probation can I expect?

Correction-sorry for the miscommunication. I left out a VERY important part. I'm a little freaked out right now. The patient was one of the new, uncompleted admits, the MAR was not available until very late in the shift. The med aid missed her scheduled uncontrolled meds and I missed her HS scheduled pain med, insulin and CBG. I was told that I should have reviewed the admit orders to see if meds were due until the MAR was completed. I agree, it wast just so chaotic. There's more I could say about the bad situation I was put in, but I don't want to reveal too much until this is all over. Sorry for leaving out such important information!

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Specializes in ER, Med/Surg.

What??? This sounds like major over reaction by everyone! "Abuse" for forgetting one pain pill, this was a PRN I assume? Did she ask anyone a second time? Geez!

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What??? This sounds like major over reaction by everyone! "Abuse" for forgetting one pain pill, this was a PRN I assume? Did she ask anyone a second time? Geez!

That's exactly what I thought!! Did We miss something here? It seems a little excessive in terms of reaction...

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Specializes in LTC/SNF, Psychiatric, Pharmaceutical.
It was a holiday and the unit had about over 100 visitors come through the unit to see a special holiday display, there were fruit and veggie trays at the nurses station. It was crazy busy with visitors. I came to work the noc shift, the other nurse had called in sick and nobody would come in to help. 34 sub acute patients, 3 CNA's, 3 late admits that were not finished by the day shift because the MARS weren't fully completed. The patient asked for a pain pill and I became distracted by all the visitors and forgot about it. The patient called family and they came to the facility, picked her up and took her away. I turned myself in to DHS the following day, so did the family and her primary MD. DHS have now told me that the facility and I as an individual have been tagged for abuse and neglect. They have contacted the board of nursing. What kind of suspension, revocation, probation can I expect?

Correction-sorry for the miscommunication. I left out a VERY important part. I'm a little freaked out right now. The patient was one of the new, uncompleted admits, the MAR was not available until very late in the shift. The med aid missed her scheduled uncontrolled meds and I missed her HS scheduled pain med, insulin and CBG. I was told that I should have reviewed the admit orders to see if meds were due until the MAR was completed. I agree, it wast just so chaotic. There's more I could say about the bad situation I was put in, but I don't want to reveal too much until this is all over. Sorry for leaving out such important information!

I feel for you; being tagged as an abuser over one late pain pill with everything else going on. Just about every one of us would be in front of the board if that were truly such horrible abuse; who hasn't missed something from time to time because of an overload of work compounded by understaffing?

This family sounds like they were out for blood any way they could get it.

Unfortunately, only your local BON will know the final outcome of this episode. Best of luck.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, med/surg, LTC surveyor.

I am a former surveryor, and I am confused. OK, the insulin and the CBG are probably the issue here. But just because the state tagged you for abuse and neglect does not mean that it will stick. Would you mind emailing me and telling me exactly what happened? I can help you more if I know everything. The state can be very scary and make you feel really bad. Plus it sounds like your working conditions were nuts. You were the only nurse for how many patients with three admits on top of that? I am sorry. It sounds like an awful situation.

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Specializes in Operating Room Nursing.

It sounds like your being made a scapegoat and they want to shift the blame to you because they probably know that they should have provided more staff.

My advice-I would do an incident report on how the lack of staff on this shift affected patient care. It may be too late but it won't hurt for you to report this now.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

I am really sorry that you are going through this, only your BON will be able to answer the questions that you are asking and it would be inappropriate for any of the members here to guess at what outcome could be expected.

Good Luck

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