LPN Supervisor Would Not Let Me Call Doctor

[Googlenurse]

At the LTC in Ohio I work at, we had a patient that was very lethargic. His vitals were stable but his bp was 88/50. This was around 0200. Patient was trach, vent, GJT, and had a PICC line. The supervisor (who is an LPN) stated to not bother the doctor and to just pass it on next shift. The patient did eventually get sent to an acute hospital two days later.

I am an RN  with 15+ experience and she is an LPN with 8 years experience. But she has been working at this facility for 7 years, and I just got here 1 month ago.

My question is this: If something happened to the patient, would  I be on the hook because I have the higher license, or would we both had taken the fall?

Also, I thought an LPN could not supervise an RN clinically?

Like, an LPN cannot tell an RN what to do clinically even if supervising?

[Guest1198722]

ADMINS,

Time to shut this one down!

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

16 hours ago, Davey Do said:

..

If we can find someone to blame for our mistakes, then we don't have to do any sort of self-evaluation....

 

I always make a point of telling my students "self evaluation is essential to being a good and safe nurse"

There are often situations where it doesnt matter what you do, nothing is going to improve the outcome. There are times if we are honest we should be going "oh crap, I done stuffed up and this is what I am going to do about it"

Made a med error when I returned to work after burying mum. Gave digoxin and metoprolol to a patient who had no need of cardiac rythym control. Patient was fine, but in the reflection process I realised I had come back to work too early. Ended up taking a few more days off.