When I was working yesterday, we had a pt on our floor who had a sitter. This pt was supposed to stay in bed but was not restrained or sedated and was always getting up and walking around (they finally put a Posey on her about 4 hours later........the doc was there all day and saw everything happen :selfbonk::selfbonk:).
In my understanding, when a sitter (hospital provided) is present, that sitter is to stay in the room at all times except for breaks and lunch, then the sitter is to find someone to cover for him/her. Basically, the pt is to be supervised 24/7. Well, the pt asked the sitter to go get her some crackers so the sitter leaves the room with nobody to watch the pt and when she came back, she says that the pt stole money out of her purse! If the pt wanted some crackers, the sitter is supposed to call us so we can get them for the pt and the sitter can stay and keep watch. The sitter knew this because she did this the first time I worked with her (same pt) earlier this week. They called security up to talk to the sitter but of course security can't just randomly search a pt so basically a report was made and that was it. The room was searched later but nothing was found.
Am I wrong for thinking that she got what she deserved? I mean, she left the pt unattended along with her belongings including her purse that had the somewhat lg amt of cash in it. The sitter knew that even though the pt was not supposed to be oob, that she got out anyway and was walking around. She also knew that this pt has a hx of ETOH, drug abuse, and due to other things was not to be trusted. :smackingf
I mean yeah, it's crappy that it happened but I don't feel any pity for her. The sitter had to point out to me that she was crying. I don't know why she felt like she had to tell me but she did. All I could think was that I had work to do and didn't have time to listen to her tell me why she had to call me into the room (and take me away from work that had to be done on other pts) to point out the fact that she was crying.
