Nurse responsibility out of working hours

[tatyana1973]

Nurse finished her work at Adult Care Center at 5:00 pm, but later she realized that she forgot her key rom the car. She came back to her nursing office. At that time it was 5:20 and working staff told her that one of patients fell and she need to check on him. Nurse told that she already finished her work and just came back to pick up her key. Nurse told the staff worker to call 911 for the patient and she left home, because her husband and her small doughter waited her outside. Was the nurse right or not? Nursing office works for the facility untill 5 o'clock. Will this accident considered as nurse negligence?

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Lots of missings here. Is the nurse salaried? Are the other staff members not nurses? What is the procedure if the nurse is not available? In other words, what would the staff be expected to do if the nurse wasn't there?

I don't know if what the nurse did was negligent (someone else can give that opinion), but I would have done things a bit differently. Probably clocked back in and taken care of business. I'll explain the overtime later as a patient safety measure. Admin could bite me if they said I shouldn't have responded because it cost them money.

in the end, what would be more ethical and explainable?

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Is this homework?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Looks like homework to me. Tatyana1973, what do you think, and what are your reasons for that?

[Raviepoo]

Was there a nurse on the clock still on the premises? That would be the person responsible to check on the patient. If there was no nurse on duty there, why was there a patient there? If staff was gone, patients should have also been gone.

[tatyana1973]

No guys, this is not a homework. This is a really occurred situation at one mannor, where patients live, and nursing office provides service for them only from 7:00 am to 5:00pm. Nurse was on duty till 5:00. Front desk staff told her to check on pt at 5:20, while she came back just for a few minutes to pick up her keys. There is no overtime hours ever paid. If they have an emergency and nurses not available, they usually call the ambulance or 911, this is exactly what a nurse told them to do. But mannor workers complained on this nurse to the facility administration, and facility administration complained to the home care company. And we have an argument whether this nurse did negligence or not, and what consequences cold be for her.

[caliotter3]

The nurse only told them to do what they would have done if they had not seen her again after 5 pm, but that won't stop the facility administration from making life difficult for the nurse.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

We can not give legal advice per AN TOS, however, if said nurse has malpractice insurance she should call them for advice.

Said nurse could also argue that in fact the time spent tracking her down and discussing situation with her is time wasted that an ambulance could have been called and on their way already....

And a reminder to staff that if someone falls after hours what the correct protocol is.