Question on Nursing home ethics

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I'm a CMA in an assisted living facility. A while back we had a resident die :scrying: and when the DON was notified, she was shocked, but didn't want to come in and help w/ EMS & police questioning (which happens everytime a CPR patient expires, they don't come for DNR's), or help clean up the body for the coroner afterwards. :angryfire This was a great shock/disappointment to all the nurses, who are mostly CMA's, afterall shouldn't she be there?! It was a weekday morning, so it wasn't all that unrealistic. Not to mention we hadn't dealt with a death in a while, and had no procedure manual on it. Don't get me wrong, she's a great DON and I love her to death, but come on....

I guess what I need feedback on is would you do the same if you were the DON? Or would you have come in and assisted? Was what she did ethical?

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Was this a case of she "wouldn't" come in, or "couldn't" come in? The only thing that I could think of is that she was doing something personal regarding her life that she felt like the staff didn't need to know. Is this a law in your state that the DON MUST come in when there's a death or it would have been nice if she had come in? Granted, it would have been nice if she could have come in, but if she was tending to personal business I would understand.

If no laws were broken or true ethics codes violated, I don't see a problem.

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

I don't think this is necessarily an unethical situation. What is a CMA? Your post states something about nurses being mostly CMA's but I don't know what that is. But anyways.. while it may have been a nice consideration for her to come in, the staff should be prepared to deal with situations as they arise. That is the DON's job - to make sure the staff is trained properly to deal with situations - not always deal with them herself. Like the other poster stated, maybe she had something else she was already committed to that she couldn't or didn't want to share with the group.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
This was a great shock/disappointment to all the nurses, who are mostly CMA's, afterall shouldn't she be there?!

Yes, she should have been there, since CMAs are not nurses, only LPNs and RNs are. And the DON is an RN.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

and this could be exactly the reason she was not there...scared to death about losing her license.....

Yes, she should have been there, since CMAs are not nurses, only LPNs and RNs are. And the DON is an RN.
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