Question!!! Please answer

[CNALongTermCare]

Please help! I had a patient fall. We found her towards the end of the shift. I didn't check on her all night because she's independent. Can I be fired for abuse?

[OliveOyl91, BSN, RN]

It all depends on your facility's policy. It may not be classified as abuse, but rather neglect. Is it marked in her care plan that she's independent? Does she have a documented history of refusing care? How long was this person on the floor and were they injured? Even though a patient is independent, it's our responsibility to at least perform a visual round on people who are independent and to check their environment to ensure that things like this don't happen. Working nights, I usually poke my head in throughout the night to make sure they're still in bed and most definitely do an environment check a couple times per shift. Make sure their call button is in reach, pick up anything on the floor that they could trip on, etc... You will most likely have to fill out an incident report and you (and probably the entire facility) may have to go through an education in-service.

Like I said before, it all depends on your facility's policies and how severe the incident was. I personally have never heard of one single CNA being fired over an incident like this. Just be honest and cooperate with anything your supervisor might need.