Name a situation that is not your responsibilty...

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Was talking about this with some other nurses. I am not sure if it is like this everywhere, but where i work, the nurse is responsible for everything. Any situation that occurs in the hospital can be manipulated to put responsibility on the nurse. Doctor's orders don't matter. Pharmacist verification does not matter. It is the almighty nurse that is responsible for all.

How did it become this way? Has it always been this way?

Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I agree that nurses have too many ancillary duties. However, know your scope of practice and your nurse practice act (law). If you are LEGALLY responsible for something then that is your priority. So not following a bad MD order is your responsibility. You might lose your job but not your license.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
Informed consent and discharge instructions. Both are the physicians responsibility. Where I work nurses can't even enter discharge instuctions in the computer and docs know we can't.

Nurses can't give D/C instructions? They did all the time at my last job in L&D for the mother and baby. But they also expected us to get informed consent and tell the patient the anesthesiologist would go over it when he got there that they could remove their consent at that time or anytime if they changed their mind.

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Specializes in Oncology.

It's not my responsibility to know what channel the football game is on or what the current score is.

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To clean a bathroom that has been dirty for days, to reset the boiler when the lights to off, to restock the bathrooms with TP, to make snacks at hs, to shovel the sidewalk/ front entrance....I can go on and on, but I work in LTC on the off *****. It is all my responsibility.....

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Nurses can't give D/C instructions? They did all the time at my last job in L&D for the mother and baby. But they also expected us to get informed consent and tell the patient the anesthesiologist would go over it when he got there that they could remove their consent at that time or anytime if they changed their mind.

It is mandated where I work and I think by law(joint commission requirment) that MD's enter or write the instructions and they must include 1) diet 2) activity 3) medications 4) signs and symptoms to report and I can't remember the 5th. We can go over these with the patient but the doctors is required to order, write or enter them. You may have a pre-printed form that contains the 5 requirements especially in an area like L&D and all the doctor may have to write is discharge with pre-printed vag delivery instructions. But in other areas like med-surg which is less likely to be one size fits all the doctor must tailor the instructions to that patient an their diagnosis.

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Oh the 5th area is What the discharge diagnosis is.

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Specializes in acute rehab, med surg, LTC, peds, home c.
Informed consent and discharge instructions. Both are the physicians responsibility. Where I work nurses can't even enter discharge instuctions in the computer and docs know we can't.

:mad: Informed consent is my pet peeve. I hate having a pt consent to something that no one explained to them. I can explain some things but it is the MDs job. I dont know all the risks to every procedure and I can't answer every question yet it continues to fall to us. :mad:

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Nurses shouldn't be getting informed consent. We aren't doing the surgery. This goes beyond our scope. You are all making yourself liable down the line should something go wrong. Get Risk Management involved if need be but pls stop doing it. You know it is wrong. You are all putting your licenses at risk time and again. It's also grossly unfair to the patients.

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Informed consent is a big no, no...I would refuse, lose my job...and enjoy going to the papers, board of nursing, medical board, and everyone in between to let people know. Nurses should not be getting informed consent on a patient, witnessing is one thing, but it is the physicians responsibility to ensure that a patient has no questions before signing on the dotted line. I worked for a malpractice lawyer in college, and saw 2 nurses lose their license for obtaining consent, and the MD left them out on the line to dry. At least in my state, it is not within our scope of practice, and that is one thing that I would not be willing to bend on, no matter how much you leaned on me. I don't care how far your OR gets backed up--get your butt up here and get your own signature, I seem to do everything else for you:yawn:

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
It is mandated where I work and I think by law(joint commission requirment) that MD's enter or write the instructions and they must include 1) diet 2) activity 3) medications 4) signs and symptoms to report and I can't remember the 5th. We can go over these with the patient but the doctors is required to order, write or enter them. You may have a pre-printed form that contains the 5 requirements especially in an area like L&D and all the doctor may have to write is discharge with pre-printed vag delivery instructions. But in other areas like med-surg which is less likely to be one size fits all the doctor must tailor the instructions to that patient an their diagnosis.

Yes, we had a pre-ordered form that we went over with the patient but we transcribed it.

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You want to know how to make a person crazy? Not annoyed, not angry, but actually mentally insane? Make him/her totally responsible for situations that he/she has absolutely no control over.

My current PRN job has a recent requirement that charges fill out a four page checklist with questions like "are the ceiling tiles intact" "is their mold in the icemaker" and many other questions more suitable to maintanence rather than nursing. I refuse to fill it out. For some reason, I think my days there are numbered.

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This is funny because where I work it is always the CMA's fault. We get blamed for some of the most rediculous things.A patient show up late it is the MA's fault for rooming them late. If I can't find a doctor right away it is my fault for not " watching" his every move. If the lab is taking a while on a result it is the MA's fault for not getting the blood in faster.......

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