so I have been working full time in a small community hospital and per diem in a hospice. Today I was on call in the hospice, got called to check a patient that was lethargic and was advised beforehand to check patient’s blood sugar. Went to see patient, patient not responsive to verbal stimuli but responds to painful stimuli. I asked the primary caregiver where patient’s glucometer is, then I asked for a sharps container, pcg didn’t know where it was because patient checks her own sugar. Sugar was good, vital signs within normal limits, I just gave patient medication then when I was packing up, I got poked by the lancet. I immediately washed my finger and reported the incident. It seems that this hospice has no protocol in place. Got back in forth in calls with supervisors, DON, owner, nothing. Went to urgent care but they didn’t want to entertain me coz it’s workers comp. after 8 hours, I finally got a go signal to go to another urgent care. While there, I received a call from the owner who handed the phone to the medical director who explained to me that I should just go back to the urgent care tomorrow because my case is not an emergency because: lancets are not deep enough to poke you that would allow a virus to spread; patient is not getting hiv meds so pt does not have hiv; and patient is about 80+ years old and if pt has hiv, pt should’ve died already. I feel so frustrated because I feel something is wrong here. Any advice?
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Hello fellow nurses. Advice please
so I have been working full time in a small community hospital and per diem in a hospice. Today I was on call in the hospice, got called to check a patient that was lethargic and was advised beforehand to check patient’s blood sugar. Went to see patient, patient not responsive to verbal stimuli but responds to painful stimuli. I asked the primary caregiver where patient’s glucometer is, then I asked for a sharps container, pcg didn’t know where it was because patient checks her own sugar. Sugar was good, vital signs within normal limits, I just gave patient medication then when I was packing up, I got poked by the lancet. I immediately washed my finger and reported the incident. It seems that this hospice has no protocol in place. Got back in forth in calls with supervisors, DON, owner, nothing. Went to urgent care but they didn’t want to entertain me coz it’s workers comp. after 8 hours, I finally got a go signal to go to another urgent care. While there, I received a call from the owner who handed the phone to the medical director who explained to me that I should just go back to the urgent care tomorrow because my case is not an emergency because: lancets are not deep enough to poke you that would allow a virus to spread; patient is not getting hiv meds so pt does not have hiv; and patient is about 80+ years old and if pt has hiv, pt should’ve died already. I feel so frustrated because I feel something is wrong here. Any advice?