nurses get blamed because the public don't understand medical

[sleeptime]

When I saw those articles, I knew they were written by news reporters who has no clue about nursing who just want to make eye catching propagandas. For example, a patient died when the nurse was not in the room. The nurse supposed to check on the patient every 30min. The patient was not checked every 30min. So the article implied that the nurse's negligence caused the patient's death, she should not be a nurse ever again, and she should be sued for malpractice.

Although a lot of members of the public might think, wow, what a bad nurse, how can she kill people like that? But I find this kind of accusation bone chilling and irresponsible.

First of all, a lot of facilities assign 30min check duties to CNAs, not nurses. The 30min check sheets are only on CNA's clip boards, not nurse's clip boards. Nurses should check all the sheets and make sure they are completed at the end of the shift. But it is impossible for a nurse to be checking for CNA's whereabouts all the time, or the nurse won't have time to complete other work. The whole point of having CNAs is to take off some burden from nurses.

Second of all, a 30min check is just a one second pop the head into the room check, not a full assessment. Unless during that 1 second observation by the CNA, the patient is exhibiting apparent symptoms, the 30min check would not have saved the patient's life. The article sounded like, if a CNA pop her head into the room to glance at the patient for 1 second every 30min, the patient would not have died.

Last, it is common sense that malpractice lawsuit is only possible if a nurse/doctor's practice resulted in harm/death, and it can be proved that the practice caused the death. In the above case, no one can prove the patient's death was caused by not having 30min checks done on time.

This public attitude is disgusting. They say nurses are respected, but in reality nurses are blamed for any adverse out come whether it has anything to do with the nurse or not.

[Susie2310]

I don't know the articles you're referring to, but if an RN is required to check on a patient i.e. assess a patient every thirty minutes, this is a nursing function that requires the knowledge of a licensed nurse and should be performed by a licensed nurse and documented accordingly. The nurse is the trained observer/examiner who is responsible for recognizing patient conditions that require medical/nursing interventions and for carrying out any necessary nursing interventions in response to their assessment findings, not the CNA. In my state the Board of Registered Nursing does not permit an RN to delegate assessment of patients to unlicensed personnel.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

I don't know the articles you're referring to, but if an RN is required to check on a patient i.e. assess a patient every thirty minutes, this is a nursing function that requires the knowledge of a licensed nurse and should be performed by a licensed nurse and documented accordingly. The nurse is the trained observer/examiner who is responsible for recognizing patient conditions that require medical/nursing interventions and for carrying out any necessary nursing interventions in response to their assessment findings, not the CNA. In my state the Board of Registered Nursing does not permit an RN to delegate assessment of patients to unlicensed personnel.[/quoteI

I dont see the word assessment, i see "check".

[Susie2310]

I dont see the word assessment, i see "check".

Examples of some nursing "checks" aka nursing assessments: post-operative "checks"; neuro "checks"; pupil "checks"; post-procedure "checks"; any other "check" aka assessment required to be performed by a licensed nurse.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

I don't think we have enough information about "those articles" for a productive discussion.

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

This public attitude is disgusting. They say nurses are respected, but in reality nurses are blamed for any adverse out come whether it has anything to do with the nurse or not.

Amen!!

[SnowShoeRN]

When I saw those articles...

Can you provide links to the articles? I'd love to read them.

[rnccf2007, BSN, RN]

Would like to read these articles. Please post.