Possible to lose license for this?

[keihatsu]

This post is actually for my mother, she doesn't know I am doing this, but I would like to know the answer.

My mother works at a nursing home and she found some abnormalities in one of the blood samples of the patients. She than informed her supervisor about it and the supervisor informed her to fax the results to the doctor and contact the doctor the following morning without taking a look at it. This was during the evening shift.

Now the patient is in the hospital and is in very bad condition., may even pass away.

I guess you can say the higher staffed people are now blaming my mother for this, even though the supervisor told her to fax the results and contact the doctor the following morning.

Is this grounds for losing a license for negligence?

Thanks for the help everyone.

[LauraF, RN, ASN, CNA, LPN, RN]

I don't know about losing license but severe abnormalities should always be called to the doctor. You did not say what type of nurse she is. RN's know more about which labs should be called but as an LPN I know what labs I need to call on and do not consult supervisors, I just take it upon myself. That way I can document that the abnormal lab was called to the physician, covering my butt. Another concern is a lawsuit. If the patient does die, what would another reasonably prudent nurse have done in the same situation.

[CHATSDALE]

as a nurse your responsibility is to the patient...i have found that many nurses [both rn and lpn] do not respond to abnormal labs...if they are markedly different from previous labs i would have called the md..

hopefully your mother will not lose her license..depends a lot on what action is taken per supervisors, but you can be sure that they will cover their hind ends and leave her out to dry

that is the way that nursing is done . believe not fair..but the supervisor can always say that she instructed the labs to be called in and it becomes a said/said situation

hope everything turns out good

[LoriAlabamaRN]

It depends on the abnormality. If the Potassium was at a panic level, for example, and she just told the supervisor that there were some abnormal values on the lab report without explaining further, she might be in some serious trouble. However, the supervisor should have asked just what those lab values were. If the facility policy is immediately reporting critical or panic levels to the MD (as most are) then your mother is at fault. Let us know how it works out!