Reportable?

[GonnaBSN]

I cared for a pt this week who had stage III wound ( it was 4cm deep, MRSA positive, and horribly painful!). This pt was documented as "MR" and lived in a group home. According to my pt, the cause of this wound becoming so bad was that a nurse (LPN) who worked at the home "popped" it like a pimple, spreading the infection to the proximal area. Then they delayed treatment for two days -- a doctor advised them to take her to the hospital, but they waited.

Is this something that should have been reported as abuse?

[sue1000]

It is definitely reportable. It is not up to us to decide if it is abuse/neglect. All you can do is file an incident report documenting everything the pt reported and let the proper authorities decide where it goes from there.

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Report as abuse, NO.. The incident should be report so it can be investigated to find out what happened. This could have been a MRSA infection/abscess from the start. Should the LPN pop it, of course not and it should have been report to the PCP earlier but without knowing all the facts we can not jump to abuse. I have seen similar ruptures and they can be very deep.

[LTCRN4LIFE]

Abuse is "willful intent". I suspect the Nurse didn't have enough education to rationalize he/she was performing an intervention that could result in the wound becoming worse and getting infected. If you asked the Nurse this I am sure he/she would say they did not intend for the outcome to be a wound that progressed and became infected. Also that wound did not get worse because of one Nurses actions. That was lack of pressure relief, lack of assessment and proper treatment 24/7.