big02

just wanted to air my dirty laundry,i am a registered nurse with 19 years experience, i am presently in some hot water about a patient care issue. working in the er on a extremly busy evening shift we had 30 patients jammed in 21 beds and were utilizing every available hallway space for 9 more.the wait time was in exsess of 2-3 hours with 16-18 patients in the waiting room waiting to come back.............you all know what it's like!!!!! a 2 year old was wheeled in mom's arms straight back from triage, you could hear wheezing and he was tugging to breathe, i was asked by the charge nurse if i could get him started,i agreed and she asked if i thought he needed a treatment, my reply was "listen to him,what do you think" she had the clerk call respiratory, i wrote for albuterol/atrovent treatment on the chart and began taking care of a patient in my assigned area that had a hemaglobin of 3 the doctors were busy and nowhere to be found........after passing the family in the hallway about 10 times on my way to the med room for lasix and tridil for my patient with the hem of 3(he went in to flash pulmonary edema after he got his 2nd unit of blood with me pretty much standing at the bedside the entire time).i ordered a cxr for my 2 year old just to be doing something while waiting for a doc to see him. 1/2 hour later i spoke with a doc who agreed and gave me verbal order for the neb and cxr. 40 min later he had still not seen the doc. the family went to the desk and complaint that they had not been seen yet and why they were waiting so long. 21/2 hours later they were seen by another doc. a passing charge nurse wrote me up for practicing outside of my scope of practice and i was suspended and probably being terminated and reported to the state board of nursing. please offer any advice you can and help me defend myself, i did what was reasonable and prudent under adverse conditions.i talked with a doc but only after the treatment and cxr were done. what would have happened if i did nothing but put the kid in a bed??????the child did well and was disch as soon as a doc saw him....thus expediting care and movin them thru the maze faster.....and now i'm paying the price by lossing my job.........thanks in advance for you responses....i need you guys help by mon at 3 pm when i sit down with the hosp to grieve my termination :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

the treatment was initiated 10 min after we found a strecher in a 15 bed er with 60 in the waiting room.........i took care of the patient as i saw fit in the manner that i was trained,it was prudent for me to do what i did, and as a nurse i feel good, as a professional i feel sad that this the result...........

thanks for your support

a 2 year old arrived in resp distress, i took the liberty of ordering a respiratory treatment and am now being told that i am practicing outside my practice guideline's......the e r doc's were very busy and i was tranfusing a pt with a hg of 3...the asthmatic was placed in a hall bed outside the room i was assigned, 2 hours had passed and the doctor had still not seen the child so to keep the family happy i also ordered a cxr and disscussed my treatment and the cxr order with a doctor......the hosp where i work has suspended me and is in the process of terminating me for "practicing outside of the scope of practice" is there a time line established for what is considered reasonable amount of time for a doctor to cover what any nurse would do in a situation where a patient is in resp distress, and is there any guidelines as far as how long i'm suppose to run around looking for a doctor to cover me........any help at this point would be appreciated.............the child did well and was able to be discharged....i on the other hand have not?????????? :rotfl: