Helping accident victoms

Nurses Safety

Published

  1. Should you still help

    • 17
      Yes
    • 5
      No

22 members have participated

Some times you hear about law suits or nurses getting their license taken from them due to something that might have gone wrong while helping a someone in an accident outside of their actual job. Should a nurse still risk their license if people aren't going to be appreciative for the help?

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I personally think that as nurses we put others before ourselves everyday. It's a part of our make up!

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I have never heard of someone losing their license because they tried to help.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Good samaritan acts protect Nurses from civil suits and legal indemnity including any action against your license. The only exception is for gross negligence (intentionally causing harm). Even so, these threads come up every now and then and I'm always amazed how many Nurses swear up and down they would never stop and help, to each his own I guess.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I would, and have, stopped to provide help. I have never had a problem with being sued for what I've done. Why? I simply provide care at essentially advanced first aid and/or CPR and there's never going to be an issue with exceeding what you're allowed to do when you're off the clock. That's the rub though... you must not be on-duty in any way shape or form and you mustn't even have one iota of being compensated for stopping and rendering aid.

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Specializes in Home Health (PDN), Camp Nursing.

Ok. My first question when someone brings this up is just what interventions are you planning on doing at your accident scene? So long as you arn't needlessly moving people, advising against medical evaliation, or doing a trach with a pocket knife and a straw you not going to run into a legal issue. Really what your going to do is limited to first aid. Accidents come in four flavors. Minor with victims walking around, major with gross injury or entrapment, ejection, and patent fled from scene. Render first aid to the minor accidents. For gross injury or entrapment, do bleeding control or basic airway management (ie not letting them slump over the steering wheel if they are not breathing well) and spinal precautions. Only if you can safely access the patent, which is not always possible in entrapment. With ejections keep them from moving, control bleeding. If they fled from the scene on foot give a discription of their clothes and direction of travel to the police. Other than that there is not a whole lot you are going to do.

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.
Ok. My first question when someone brings this up is just what interventions are you planning on doing at your accident scene? So long as you arn't needlessly moving people, advising against medical evaliation, or doing a trach with a pocket knife and a straw you not going to run into a legal issue. Really what your going to do is limited to first aid. Accidents come in four flavors. Minor with victims walking around, major with gross injury or entrapment, ejection, and patent fled from scene. Render first aid to the minor accidents. For gross injury or entrapment, do bleeding control or basic airway management (ie not letting them slump over the steering wheel if they are not breathing well) and spinal precautions. Only if you can safely access the patent, which is not always possible in entrapment. With ejections keep them from moving, control bleeding. If they fled from the scene on foot give a discription of their clothes and direction of travel to the police. Other than that there is not a whole lot you are going to do.

For a nurse who comes across an accident, what you describe above is a lot and is distressing...since most of us do not work in emergency medicine.

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It would depend on the situation if I would stop and help. If my 2 year old is in the car I am not stopping because I am not leaving him alone in the car in a possibly dangerous situation while I am on the scene. I would first assess the situation, and if it was in what I would feel to be an unsafe area where oncoming traffic is unable to see the accident, or where gas seems to be leaking, etc. then I would not stop. Bottom line is I will certainly put my own health first.

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Specializes in Med Surg.

Does anyone have a link to any actual case where a nurse or other medical professional has lost his/her license for rendering aid? Or is this something that happened to someone's friend's cousin's girlfriend's aunt (who is supposedly a nurse)?

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

I have heard nurses talk about being sued for bad outcomes after providing first aid on the roadside, but I've never known of a real case, I too would like to see a link,...I'll do some research.

I have stopped at a few accidents and big al is right,..it was very frustrating, I needed my stuff!! All I could do was offer support, hold pressure on bleeding and remind others not to move the victims. One occasion a very minor accident was caused by an MI, so I was able to do CPR until EMS arrived, but for the most part I felt helpless.

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My understanding is that the Good Samaritan Act protects you from civil lawsuits as long as you are not grossly negligent in your actions. I have read gross negligence defined as lack of due diligence or serious carelessness. There are also legal definitions of due diligence.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
Some times you hear about law suits or nurses getting their license taken from them due to something that might have gone wrong while helping a someone in an accident outside of their actual job.

"Hearing about" and having objective evidence that this is occurring are 2 different things.

And, as others have posted, your interventions are going to be very limited and mostly supportive care.

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