what would you do in this situation

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Question for nurses. Let's say you are a med surge nurse walking down the hallway of your hospital and around the corner is the ED entrance. A man, who is not a patient, walking in front of you suddenly grabs his chest and collapses to the ground. He is short of breath and states he has chest pain. What do you do? Would you do anything different if he were a current patient?

A man, who is not a patient, walking in front of you suddenly grabs his chest and collapses to the ground. What do you do?

Try to rip the football out of his arms and make a run for the other endzone.

(It's football season, and apparently I've been watching a lot of games lately....)

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Specializes in Med/Surg & Hospice & Dialysis.

We have a "code" for visitor down. I've only heard it called once and it was weird, because the location was in a long hallway between units.

I came across a pt that had fallen in the parking garage. She was aaox3 without neck head tenderness. I learned that day that EMS is called in that situation. I was able to get her doctor on the phone and explained what happened and agreed she would be okay to get up, so I escorted her to her doctor's office.

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Do everything exactly as you would like it to be presented on the incident report. Because you're gonna do one.

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Specializes in ICU/PACU.

I think this is a homework question.

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Specializes in Pedi.

Call a code.

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I dunno. Wouldn't want to leave the person, but I would call out for help.

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Specializes in Neuroscience.

I think I would approach this question as if I weren't a nurse (or nursing student). What would you personally do? I know I have stopped at accident scenes before EMS responded to make sure that everyone is okay. Not much I can do, but I can keep someone from moving if I suspect a neck injury, or apply pressure if they are bleeding. If someone went down in the hospital and no one helped them, then that's a lawsuit. Regardless of whether it was in a health care setting or it was in a mall (or some other place), I would respond with care, and get them to where they needed to be. Be it ambulance, a stretcher, or flagging down doctors making rounds.

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Question for nurses. Let's say you are a med surge nurse walking down the hallway of your hospital and around the corner is the ED entrance. A man, who is not a patient, walking in front of you suddenly grabs his chest and collapses to the ground. He is short of breath and states he has chest pain. What do you do? Would you do anything different if he were a current patient?

I would keep walking and say "it's 6:59pm well that is my cue to clock off don't want to hit violation." :sarcastic:

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Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

I think the more important question is: With infinite choices of names, why in the hell would you choose "d00d00butter"?

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I think the more important question is: With infinite choices of names, why in the hell would you choose "d00d00butter"?

Agreed :)

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Specializes in public health.

Even if you are on your way to a code, I would not just walk pass by him and do nothing. It doesn't matter if he is a patient or not. He collapses in front of you. He needs your help. I would do a quick assessment, make sure he is not in immediate danger, then call for help.

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