need your opinion

[nursy_ann]

Last week one of my patient a 83 lady. who was in the unit for abdominal pain had a blood pressure:234/67

She's well known to have high BP and medication help just a little

I was use to give her catapres po when her BP was higher than 220.

first her Bp was 232/68 with headache I gave her catapres

1hour later I took her BP: 234/64

I went to see the doc and explained him the problem. He answered " just stop to take the BP you wont see the problem!" then he took the file and wrote " stop to take BP and stop to give catapres and Lasix"

Is it my lack of experience or this doc as a problem???????

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

Sure, lots of problems go away if you ignore them, that is why denial is so effective in alcoholism, diabetes and other conditions. NOT!!!!! You do what you are trained to do and notify chain of command if MD fails to do his part. You are the patient's advocate. What will you tell the court when someone asks "Well, if you knew she was having BP problems why did you stop monitoring her?" "Because the MD told me too" would not work in our courts. You are supposed to be a professional in your own field. If the MD contracts to support you for the rest of your life should you lose your license, well, that might be a different story (again, I am being facetious)