I am an RN working in a call center but I am not working as a clinician I am working administratively r/t HIPAA and Adverse Event training and reporting. My job description does not include that I am to be utilized as an occupational nurse. This call center which employs >250 employees, including management believes that I should be called to attend/assess/take care of any employees from C.P. to a cut on the knee. Like any other nurse, if I witness an incident responding is never in question. At the call center, if someone approaches me to inform me that an employee is down in the break room I believe that I am responsible/required to respond because I am a nurse. Does anyone know if responding is in any way jeopardizes my Nursing license? If I am approached and informed that someone is down in the breakroom and I do not respond because policy for the company is for any injury call 911, am I in anyway jeopardizing my license? I do not know what to do. Management indicated that they would love it if I would respond, I just want to make sure that I cover all my bases. I live and work in Florida, and unfortunately people are sue crazy especially here in the southern region.
What if I respond to an employee who has fallen and hit their head. Not consious, but ABC's intact. 911 is on the way, and I am attending to the forehead bleeder. Something ends up going wrong. A lawsuit ensues. First of all, since I touched the patient it is likely that I will be named in the suit. What's worse yet, could I be found liable because I attended to someone without it being part of my job description? Because I have a license, am I not covered by the Good Samaritan Act? I am also fairly certain that my employer would not back me up to protect themselves from sharing any .
Karen, I am an employee health nurse. I work in an office building and we are responsible to cover the entire building and the grounds for emergencies. However, occasionally somebody will go down on the street right next to the building and some employee will call us to respond because they call us for every friggin thing. Now as the nurse for the building, if I am treating somebody on the grounds and something goes wrong, I can be sued for malpractice, or whatever because at the time I was performing my duties I was working within my job duties and as an employee of the company. But if I step off that curb and help the person down on the street (which I am not obligated to do by the way), I am acting on my own and I am covered by the Good Samaritan Act because my company has made it clear that I (and they) am only responsible for what goes on on company grounds. I can probably be sued but if it was found that I was acting in good faith, I will probably not be held liable. Your best bet is to put your foot down at your job and tell them you will not be responding to any more incidents as I wrote in my post immediately prior to this one. You can even make something up and tell them that the board of nursing will not allow you to respond to these types of situations anymore due to liability issues, etc. Make it sound official and get them off your back.
Contact your state BON for the legalities, print out their answer and keep it at work with you. If they say that its a threat to your license, then show your boss. If they say its okay, demand compensation for your added duties.
Great idea. Cut through the chase. With any questions concerning license, I believe the best solution is to contact the nursing board for a clear cut answer.
Another factor is that if they expect you to respond then you should have the expertise in emergency care to do so, and the equipment. Are they going to shell out for an AED, bandages, slings, education? Are they going to pay you to make up protocols for things like blood and body fluid exposures> Are you going to ba able to sit in on whatever safety committee meets for the company? Ar you incontact with, and working in concert with your Worker's Comp people? Are you privy to which employee is a diabetic, taking what meds?
If responding to emergencies is part of your job then part of your time should be set aside for being ready for the emergencies. You need the information and equipment to do your job appropriately.
Thanks to all for your support conveyed in your responses.
I have gained insight through each of your responses. My employer truly is taking advantage of me by allowing employees to utilize me as the company nurse. Well, actually, I contributed by allowing it to continue to happen because I never refused to respond, in part, for fear that if I didn't I could be potentially liable because as a licensed professional nurse I was made aware so therefore I am required. I also continued as I was waiting for HR to follow through and nip this concern. I wasn't strong enough to say no and to explain that my position is not the company nurse. I tried once and the person looked at me in such a way that I ended up feeling so awful inside thinking to myself, what kind of nurse am I?? I ended up responding.
At the onset of working there I was approached by an employee to respond to something, I can't remember what the issue was, and so I did. It didn't occur to me that I would be called upon every time there was an incident, which was often. I went to HR Manager, who is no longer an employee, and she seemed to support me. She sent out a memo to Managers on the floor, but did not copy me. The information the memo contained: ...for any accident/health incident on the floor 911 is to be called. Further, the nurses on floor are not to be used ......, was unfortunately never communicated to the few hundred agents on the floor.
Despite the memo supervisors would be among those continuing to call on me to respond, I knew I had a problem. Went back to HR. She, the one that's gone now, said she would speak to that supervisor. I expressed to her that I believed the problem was more wide spread and that a memo needed to go out to every employee, via paycheck or whatever mode they might choose. She said she didn't think it was necessary.
Well she's gone and they promoted internally the payroll asst. to the position of HR Manager. She is a very young 22 yo. She thinks it would be great if I respond. Our Corporate lawyer also believes that there is no problem with me responding. They both seem puzzled that I would voice my concerns to them. Kind of felt like they were thinking, what kind of nurse is she, she doesn't want to help people?
It's not that I didn't/don't want to help people in need, I've been just so worried about the legal obligation, if any, being in this type scenario.
It is up to me to fix my problem. I have zero support from corporate. I am looking at another job opportunity. That is one sure fire way to fix it. In the meantime I will call the BON tomorrow.
If you were hired because you have a nursing license you may be expected to respond as a nurse. However, it should be in your job description. I doubt you will stand over a co-worker and say, "Ain't my job". Anyway, if you know BLS and how to call 911 that is about all you can expect in your work environment (assuming you have an AED). In fact, others can learn Heartsaver AED and be able to do CPR before the EMT's get there.
SharonH, RN
2,144 Posts
Karen, I am an employee health nurse. I work in an office building and we are responsible to cover the entire building and the grounds for emergencies. However, occasionally somebody will go down on the street right next to the building and some employee will call us to respond because they call us for every friggin thing. Now as the nurse for the building, if I am treating somebody on the grounds and something goes wrong, I can be sued for malpractice, or whatever because at the time I was performing my duties I was working within my job duties and as an employee of the company. But if I step off that curb and help the person down on the street (which I am not obligated to do by the way), I am acting on my own and I am covered by the Good Samaritan Act because my company has made it clear that I (and they) am only responsible for what goes on on company grounds. I can probably be sued but if it was found that I was acting in good faith, I will probably not be held liable. Your best bet is to put your foot down at your job and tell them you will not be responding to any more incidents as I wrote in my post immediately prior to this one. You can even make something up and tell them that the board of nursing will not allow you to respond to these types of situations anymore due to liability issues, etc. Make it sound official and get them off your back.