Low tech RN trained by family on high tech care

[MNHanspook]

Hello,

I am an RN with a background in medically stable low tech clients. I recently got a new job doing shift work in home health. I was honest about my background being low acuity low tech, and was promised that all needed training would be provided. The office orientation was great on vents and traches etc..... and I expected to have the same level of in home orientation so that I could safely transition into this type of care.

I have clients with no nurses in the home to orient me as I shift into caring for high tech dependent clients and medically fragile peds clients. For example...the parent is expected to sign off everything on orienting me to caring for a medically fragile child with the equipment and assessment skills needed for that.....gosh, how can I know if a layperson is training me correctly to properly nurse this child? That is a moral question and a legal question. How can I sign that I can work a vent because a Mom says so?

My Case Manager is new to the company also and I don't blame her, and will talk to her. The norm in this company is for parents to do the training lacking another nurse.

That is scary for a nurse who is not experienced with medically fragile clients.

Thanks for any input. It would be helpful to hear as I am new to this company and this area of nursing and it is stressful to feel like the company expects us to wing it alone so to speak without an RN training a new RN. I will talk more with my company but truly need some feedback from other nurses as I figure out how to best go forward.

It is not the high tech that scares me so much....I have a pilots license and know how to research equipment online. It is the other aspects that cant be taught on Youtube... where my license and my client ride on maybe too much nonprofessional orientation.

Thanks! Hanspook

[Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B]

A family member signing orientation forms saying you have been trained on specific equipment is not ok. The whole point of the form is to protect the company from liability if you screw up they put the signer of the form up to say you were correctly trained. How can they do that with a family member?

[MNHanspook]

Thanks Big Al. Your comment makes total sense to me.

I wonder if this is common among home care companies.

Hanspook

[Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B]

I have been in home care for six years with three different company's and it has never happens to me. A family orienting me to case specifics yes... General training no.

[caliotter3]

Family members are not employees of the agency and have no legal responsibility to provide you with formal training or to take responsibility for certifying you "trained". Of course they can show you how they do the tasks in their home for their family member patient, but that is not the same as "training" you to the task. The agency is walking on unsteady terrain by requiring the family to sign off on anything of the such.

[MNHanspook]

Thanks. I would think that if anything happened that my license would be at risk too for having a non nurse sign off on all of the equipment and emergency procedures etc.

Hanspook

[Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B]

No I don't think your liscense is at risk for the training. More so any stupid thing you would do. Any lawyer would get a million dollars of you screwed up and the agency said you were trained by a layperson. You would be a bump in the road to the big money.