Patient fall In subacute unit

[Anon143]

I work in a subacute unit in a long term facility and we're suppose to only have 2 beds per room. 3 days ago, the DON & the administrator thought it'll be a good idea to not only add a 3rd patient to a room in the subacute unit but also have a patient that's does not & has not even had a tracheostomy who is berg confused & disoriented & ambulates. Everyone has told the managers if he could move to the SNF side. Sadly, the SNF side is full which is why he was sqeezed into the subacute room. Well during not my shift I check on him @ 11:30. I asked if he needed anything & if he was able to sleep. While laying in bed, the patient states that he's fine and sleepy & that he was going to bed. I left to deal with another patient in another room. 7 minutes later my CNA runs to me and grabs me to a room across from his room. He's here on the floor face down & not responsive. (He has COPD btw) I asked her to call for the supervisor as I yelled for the RT to get his pulse ox. His bp, pulse, temp & blood sugar was normal but his pulse ox was 87. RT bags him and he wakes up. By then 911 was called & he was taken out of the faculty. I do the Sbar coc & write an incident report. I give report & I leave home. 2 hours later the DON, Administrator calls me wanting me to explain what happened in detail.. which is strange since I obviously wrote it down in my notes. My question here is, could the faculty blame me and fire me because of this?? I mean he is my patient & they can say I'm negligent but again, he's non subacute Medicare patient who is in a room that is not suppose to have 3 patients in a subacute unit that's only met for 2.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

You've given far too much information on a public forum. You may want the moderators to help you fix that.

Patient falls happen, and as long as you did everything you could to prevent it, I cannot see them firing you. Unless you have disciplinary problems we're not aware of or unless you have a pattern of making mistakes. The DON called you because that's what DONs do when something like that happens. They want to make sure they have all the facts -- even some that didn't make it into your note -- before they contact the physician, risk management or the family. You should be very happy to have a DON who is willing to talk to you and get your side of the story before making up her mind.

I know it's not easy, but try not to worry until you hear more from your DON. We have all made mistakes, we've all had patients fall or become unresponsive or pull their breathing tubes out. It happens. Take some deep breaths and treat yourself kindly. We've all been there.