psmith118

What worries me is that the RN will be legally responsible for any law suit that may come of a fall, heaven forbid the die from it. We presently use bed alarms, hourly rounding etc, this just seems a little fishy to me. And can someone with dementia even sign a contract???I feel like this is bad news and leading to the hospital pushing any legal ramifications off solely on the nurse.

My acute care facility is requiring nurses to sign a no fall policy with each patient. The patient is stating they will not fall and the nurse is stating she/he will do everything they can to help their patient not to fall. Is this legal and if a patient does fall and gets hurt or even dies, would the responsibility fall on solely on the nurse? I don't like this one bit. Esp on a fast paced med/surg unit where you are always busy. Any thought???