Need help with incident reports...Who fills it out???

Nurses Safety

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Specializes in med surg, tele, ortho, preop, recovery.

A coworker of mine has an issue and I wanted to put it out there to get your opinions.

One of her patients was found on the floor by another nurse and cardiac rehab. I don't think they witnessed the fall but they found the patient on the floor. My coworker was the patients nurse.

Who would fill out the incident report? The assigned nurse or the staff that actually found the patient on the floor?

Please respond!!

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Where I am, it's usually the one who found the person on the floor, since they have more first-hand knowledge.

The best thing would be to have your friend check the hospital policy on this.

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Specializes in Hem/Onc, LTC, AL, Homecare, Mgmt, Psych.

Yeah, see for instance, where I work the assigned nurse fills out the form with her initial observations after being called to the scene, and assigned nurse would then add the witness statements to the report. The witness names are included but they don't fill out anything.

Where I am, it's usually the one who found the person on the floor, since they have more first-hand knowledge.

The best thing would be to have your friend check the hospital policy on this.

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Specializes in onc, M/S, hospice, nursing informatics.

At my hospital, it is supposed to be the one who finds the person on the floor, or the first responder to the incident. However, I often fill them out if it is my patient or if the other person does not have access to the incident program (as in the case of a travel nurse or a new employee).

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Specializes in LTC/SNF, Psychiatric, Pharmaceutical.

In LTC, it is the first NURSE that responds... CNAs do not fill out incident reports.

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