CrispRN

Check with you HR Department or if your facility is large enough, your compliance department. At our facility it is an 800 number. Just as the previous writer wrote, remain anonymous because alot of these folks talk regularly. You can choose to remain anonymous with the compliance line and they will give you a case number and PIN to call back and follow-up on your case. SB

Does your facility have a compliance line? That is always a good place to start when you want to remain anonymous, but want to insure that the complaint is dealth with and gets into the hands of the right people.

I work in a CCL and we typically pull sheaths on our patients prior to them going to the telemetry floor or back to an outpatient area. Thankfully, the majority of our cardiologists use closure devices such as PerClose, Angioseal or StarClose. Just as a previous responder wrote about your hands being sore from applying pressure for 15 minutes and topics of conversation, I've not seen many patients suffer complications. Occasionally patients will be coagulated prior-to and intra-procedure and we are not able to pull the sheath before they are sent to the ICU or telemetry unit. In these circumstances, the sheath is sutured in or secured with a Tegaderm until the patients' ACT is below 170 seconds. Typically we do not see problems with their puncture site. Occasionally, additional pressure and/or a FemStop is needed. Overall, the procedure is simple and uneventful.

I think this is an excellent blog. Too many of our peers are caught up in "just doing their job" that they forget the legal ramifications of "just doing their job." I work in a cardiac cath lab and currently am dealing with having our nursing assignments made by a non-nurse who is a RCIS and called a "Team Leader". It bothers me that she is making a nursing judgement in making our assignments because she makes the decision of who works where within the department e.g., circulating cases, pre-case assessment, post-case recovery, angiography, et cetera. There are 9 nurses in our department and I question her ability to know what nurses are capable of and our responsibilities. She makes the decision of who is doing the patient assessments, giving conscious sedation, and watching the monitors. My question is...how will a judge, jury and plantiff's attorney react to the nurse if something happens because this "Team Leader" assigned someone to an area which he or she is incompetent? Is this "Team Leader" practicing nursing without a license?? I'm very upset and outdone because I have worked very hard to get a college education, pass boards, obtain certifications and further my education when I'm taking directives from a person that was on the job trained and doesn't even have college degree!!