Physical Therapy drops pt and doesn't tell RN??

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm a new nurse, just graduated in May. I had a pt who was very big 400lbs. The only people who get her out of bed is PT. They were moved her from her Big Boy Bed which has an air mattress to the chair to eat lunch, around 1230 (ALL went ok). They come to move her back to the bed a few hrs later.

Now, around 1600 my pt tells me PT let her knee hit the ground when moving her back from the chair to the bed. She says that she slid off the chair and fell on her knee. Now her knee and ankle hurt. For some reason I didnt think this was HUGE deal at the time, the pt is in minor pain...theres no bruise or swelling. I give her a PRN Vicodin. I didn't mention it to the charge nurse...still not thinking its a huge deal. I'm kinda ****** PT didn't come tell me what happened though..

Now I am giving report to night shift. I tell them the story...and the night nurse was OMG did you tell the charge nurse? Then I had to fill out an incident report, call her Dr.....ugh.

Physical therapy should have told me what happened ASAP, right? They know what they did was wrong. I think people see me as a new nurse and try to "get one over" on me. I wasn't there when she fell. It wasn't my fault.

This sounds like you're blaming the patient for your mistake of not filling out an incident report until you were told to do so during report.

How exactly am I blaming the patient? I am blaming physical therapy. They should have told me when it happened. I made the mistake of not saying anything until later. BUT the incident report was filed, it was documented in the nurses notes. Get off your high horse.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Lesson learned huh... If a pt falls, has a near fall or a fall and was placed on the ground; we assess for any injuries and notify the MD.. Brain bleeds are a biggy with older pts or pts on blood thinners etc... A person may look "good" on the outside but we can not say for sure...

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
How exactly am I blaming the patient? I am blaming physical therapy. They should have told me when it happened. I made the mistake of not saying anything until later. BUT the incident report was filed, it was documented in the nurses notes. Get off your high horse.

By calling the pt "whiny and sue happy."

Stop being so easily offended and learn how to take some criticism. You were lucky this time (hopefully). Forget about what PT should have done and focus on what you should have done better in this situation.

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Specializes in Hospital, med-surg, hospice.

You never know..the pt could have a fracture, torn ligament etc...the charge nurse and the pt Dr needed to be notified and an x-ray and incident report completed..sometimes a small thing like this can blow up in your face..

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By calling the pt "whiny and sue happy."

Stop being so easily offended and learn how to take some criticism. You were lucky this time (hopefully). Forget about what PT should have done and focus on what you should have done better in this situation.

Nothing else could have been done other than reporting it earlier. The Dr. was still notified. The incident report was still filed. Your criticism makes no sense.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Nothing else could have been done other than reporting it earlier. The Dr. was still notified. The incident report was still filed. Your criticism makes no sense.

Well, OK then...

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I admit, calling the pt "whiny and sue-happy" didn't really sit well with me. But I'm a bit of a killjoy, so...

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Well, thanks for the info guys. Next time I'll report anything to the charge nurse that i think is out of line.

You live and learn...and I wont make that mistake again.

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Specializes in acute care med/surg, LTC, orthopedics.

If a patient falls on the unit.... does anybody hear?

So...

I'm questioning why Vicodin was given for "minor pain, no bruise or swelling."

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

"Physical therapy should have told me what happened ASAP, right? They know what they did was wrong. I think people see me as a new nurse and try to "get one over" on me. I wasn't there when she fell. It wasn't my fault."

I'm not sure why you sounded so defensive right off the bat, but I hope that you can get over your "everyone's out to get one over on me" attitude. It's unhelpful in any situation, and as has been pointed out in this case, is very likely untrue.

Of course PT should have informed you IF it actually happened. But the most important detail is that the patient is stating pain from a situation that requires an incident report. Simply filling out the report does not cast blame on you as her nurse.

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Nothing else could have been done other than reporting it earlier. The Dr. was still notified. The incident report was still filed. Your criticism makes no sense.

Because nothing happened to the patient.

Now, if you had waited several hr's to tell anyone and the patient was indeed seriously injured then it would be your butt after the PT's person for not reporting it earlier.

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I'm obviously not in your shoes and don't know this patient, but I have DEFINITELY had patients, for whatever reason, decide that telling half truths or outright lies is an awesome thing to do just because they didn't particularly care for said person.

Is it possible that said patient has a history of mental illness? In some mental illnesses, people get their jollies over seeing other people hurt and/or lose their jobs just because they told a lie. Also, if this person is exhibiting medication seeking behaviors, this could possibly be a ploy for said person to get something a little more "appropriate for their level of pain ..." Finally, from an outward source viewing this, a patient that is a 400# person may possibly be in the mindset of "If I tell a 'white lie', I won't have to work as much with PT/OT!" instead of what their mindset SHOULD be of "if I work hard enough with PT/OT I may get better faster".

I'm totally not saying this is definitely the conditions that happened. The third, and quite honestly possibly MOST logical is, "PT/OT got so busy with everything they forgot to write it up or mention it." This can be especially true if you have a big unit and/or a lot of patients as on med surg and/or LTC and PT/OT has difficult finding anybody to tell.

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