I'm a new grad nurse, and have heard misleading flip-flopping answers on this throughout nursing school. I live in a very hurricane-prone area, and just want to clarify before I am licensed what is/is not acceptable..
Are there times that an RN can act outside of his/her scope? Such as mass casualty nursing, car accidents or other incidents where there may not be other help available? In cases where we know how to help, how can we just stand by while someone dies and do nothing? Aren't there some circumstances where we can go above and beyond our 'hospital scope'?
Hope this is the right place to ask this, couldn't find any boards more suitable. Thanks!
In a declared mass emergency where normal avenues of physician evaluation and orders were overwhelmed, I'm assuming there would be protocols established under which nurses and EMTs would do what they could.
After 9-11 and Katrina, we have probably all had the mandatory mass casualty training. You still have protocols even in mass cas incidents - in fact in order to have order in the chaos, you actually need more controls in place.
Good Samaritan laws DON'T protect you anymore. Witness the CA case where a judge allowed a person to sue after she was paralyzed when someone pulled her from an MVA!
birdgardner
333 Posts
In a declared mass emergency where normal avenues of physician evaluation and orders were overwhelmed, I'm assuming there would be protocols established under which nurses and EMTs would do what they could.