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A 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of impregnating woman in a vegetative state who gave birth last month at a Phoenix health care facility, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said Wednesday. Nathan Sutherland, a licensed practical nurse who was caring for the woman at the Hacienda HealthCare facility, has been arrested and is being booked on preliminary charges of sexual assault and vulnerable-adult abuse, Williams said. https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/23/health/arizona-woman-birth-vegetative-state/index.html

It surprised me that she gave the Tylenol too, but I think she was getting very worried. She then called me when that didn't work for the fever as well as she expected it to. I spoke to a veteran nurse that I know in real life about this, and she agreed with most of you. That I have an obligation to report, and if she doesn't want to risk me reporting anything, she should not ask my advice about medical care anymore. When I hung up with her that night after telling her to take the child to ER or at least page the family doctor (he answers his own pages at all hours), I guess I was assuming she would do that, and she chose not to. Same with the asthma-- I was assuming she would take her in after I explained that her child was showing serious signs of distress. And then she called me a few days later saying she was now admitted.

New grad here-- many tries, only one that I started that went great. It was an IV drug user and he actually coached me through it!! ha ha! He was a great patient and a really nice person. I often send out a prayer to him wherever he is, to take better care of himself.

Talking about rooming in vs. nursery-- at the hospital where I did my clinicals, and another hospital where I had my own babies, they always encouraged rooming in or "couplet care" unless baby was sick. However they did have a "babysitter" nursery where parents could send their babies in order to shower or sleep. The nursery workers would bottle feed or bring baby for breastfeeding as requested. Although I support rooming in for most moms/babies, I did see some situations where I was glad they had a nursery-- we had a few suspected druggie moms, a couple of psych moms, a couple of them who were not bonding well and not wanting to see the baby. Forcing these people to room in with no options for supervision or a break was not a good thing.

As a student nurse I had a pt show me some inappropriate photos on his phone after telling me he wanted to show me photos of his daughter or something. They were xrated to put it mildly. He laughed because he had tricked me into looking. He also made some lewd comments at me and some of the nurses. After that he was only assigned male nurses, and the nurse manager spoke to him about his inappropriate behavior. He was not confused or anything like that. I have had a couple of mentally ill pts who I do not blame for their actions--nor would I allow them to get between me and the door. A family member of mine who is a long term nurse had her hand pulled so hard by a mental pt and then was threatened with a pocket knife by the same pt. The nurse's wrist and hand had some torn ligaments that took a long time to heal and she still has some weakness in that hand. She told me to always protect my hands, never offer them for a pt to pull on for lifting or walking, offer your arm instead or better yet ask for the CNA or someone else to help.

I just have to say that I give you all a lot of credit for your strength, esp the child deaths or the ones who are young and you don't expect it. My friend was doing her nurse preceptorship on OB and had to witness the passing of a mother and her unborn baby from Pre-E and DIC during an urgent (but at that time not an emergency because they thought she was stable) c-section surgery. I can't imagine. She had helped prep the mom beforehand and mom was excited to meet the baby. I can't imagine being the one to have to tell the father that he lost both his wife and his baby. No one goes into a c-section these days, esp a scheduled one, fearing death.

I'm not an expert on this, but I do know that her child was hospitalized with asthma for several days and that was not made up. The father is also an asthmatic . . as far as the other things I'm not sure. It seems more like she's hesitant to trust doctors and does not believe dx rather than seeking attention. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are saying. She had some bad personal experiences in the past, which is one reason she chose to homebirth. She avoids doctors and medical intervention but in her mind she is not unreasonable to seek it if needed-- for example when her child cut her finger and needed stitches, she took her right away. That being said I am going to have a talk with her about my license and my duty to report, and it how it would be best for everyone's sake to stop asking me my opinion or telling me about her kids' medical stuff. This has been a really good discussion and I thank you all for your great input and advice. I'm so glad I asked about it!

I'm wondering if you can apply for a phlebotomy job or a vaccination clinic? Or answer those craigslist ads for people looking for adult day care or respite care for aged loved ones.

Thanks for voicing some of my own thoughts-- it's a fine line to walk isn't it? She is a dear friend and we have a lot in common. Most of the time we meet for lunch without kids. I think I'll just tell her I can't listen to or answer advice about the kids medical issues anymore, because as an RN I am obligated to report things that she may not want me to report. If she tells me her child is not breathing well or could have meningitis or something I may have to call 911 if she won't take the child in if I feel its in danger at that moment. Hopefully that will keep her from consulting with me about medical issues anymore. The father of the children lives in the household and I feel he is a lot more responsible that I would ever be in this type of situation. I wonder what he's doing half the time.

I have a dear friend who I have known for 10 years. I attended and supported her through her two natural childbirths including one at home (just as the friend, not the midwife!- she had one of those). I have answered her called in the the middle of the night when she was a new mom and baby was crying or she was having trouble nursing. I was not a nurse then-- I am just now a new RN. We differ on a lot of things including the fact that I have put my trust in conventional medicine, esp after one of my children was born with a complex medical issue and needed lots of medical intervention that homeopathy would not have touched and may have even caused more harm. So last year she called me saying her child was having some breathing trouble, fast respirations, retractions. I told her to immediately take her to the ER. She didn't listen. Finally a couple of days later she took her to the naturalpathic doctor, who called an ambulance from the office and the girl was admitted for several days with asthma. She was given instructions to give the child medicine and breathing tx, but has not done either. And yet she calls me all the time asking what she should do, and I always tell her to take the child in and she doesn't. Last week she called again in the middle of the night. Her child had a high (103) fever for a few days which did not respond to Tylenol. She called only when the child was complaining of a stiff neck and was not lucid, seemed to be having hallucinations and was sleeping a lot in between these fitful waking periods. Once again I told her take the child to ER but she didn't. Instead she gave the child phosphorus which was something she had read about in a book. She also started to wake the child more often to offer fluids. The next AM she called to say the fever was gone and the child was better and she was glad she didn't bring the child in, they would have just done the spinal tap and put the child through needless suffering. I say she had a very close call with this child! It could have been serious. And to add insult, she changed to the subject of asthma since I have a cough right now, and suggested that the chiropractor could cure my asthma with a few adjustments! I have been suffering my whole life and know how to manage it with meds and doctor visits. She's planning to go to a third world country with the children in a few months. I educated her once again about vaccines and encouraged at least the Dtap and polio. She did finally relent on those after me telling her horror stories of children I had seen in this same country when I traveled there several years ago. Polio is alive and well. ow I don't know why this friend keeps calling me. I don't know if I'm obligated, now that I'm an RN, to report her lack of action with a child who's ill, esp. the last time when it could have been very serious. I love her and I know she loves her children but it's just hard to watch. I know I have to report abuse but does this count as abuse? Thanks for listening.

I'm a new grad and just got a call for a new grad interview in oncology! :-) Although I have felt drawn to the cancer pts that I have worked with and been able to offer them good nursing and emotional care, I have very little experience with oncology nursing. What are some ways I can prepare for the interview? What are some areas I should be most familiar with? I heard they ask you some specific questions about the dept you are interviewing for. Thanks!

The WOWs must be brought up to the pt's doorway to verify meds and such, but I've only seen it brought into the room on a limited basis. It is policy to bring it in the room but very few do that for the reasons you mentioned. Of course a pt on precautions does not have the WOW brought in at all, just up to the doorway.

Thank you! That was my first instinct. I will stick to providing meals and doing laundry for them. If they were to ask my opinion about if something looks infected (which someone once did also- don't you love it-- people start asking you stuff they should be asking the doctor) I just say to be safe and ask the doctor! :-) On the other hand I did strongly encourage a friend, who had a HA for 4 days and was getting a strange rash, to see the doctor right away. She wanted to wait and see. Turns out she was getting shingles. She now thinks I'm a genius because I told them the rash needed to be looked at and a HA that long is not normal! ha ha!

I am not an expert, but I just finished my preceptorship and got my RN! :-) I gave lots of Lovenox under the guidance of my preceptor. I never was told to hold it. I just pinched the skin, gave the injection pretty quickly, removed it, and checked the site for bleeding. Never had any bleeding either, but was told if there was bleeding to *then* apply pressure for 5 minutes since the person was presumably on bleeding precautions. Same with removal of an IV-- if person was on a blood thinner I held the IV site for 5 minutes instead of the usual 2 before lifting to check for any further bleeding.

I am a brand new RN and not sure where the line is here--- if you have a neighbor who had just had surgery and can't reach the wound to do bid bandage changes, and his squeamish wife asks you if you wouldn't mind doing the bandage changes for her, would you be able to say yes? Or would that violate some nursing act? Same with this same neighbor asking you to hand him prescribed meds so he doesn't have to get out the chair to reach them? I know that a non RN could legally do this as a favor to the person, but as an RN would I have some kind of liability risk or be practicing in the wrong way? Another one I get a lot is friends asking me what I think of such and such med that they have been prescribed. I try to keep it general such as "this med belongs to this certain class, and I have learned that it's used for this or that purpose" but I tell them that I can't give personal advice about how they should take the med and their doctor needs to be the one to ask about that. If you could clear this up for me I would really appreciate it!