Help, we as RN's are scared!! I work in a small rural hospital and our anesthesia doc falls asleep all the time (during cases.) We've reported it to administration..and he gets slaps on his hands..then is back at work. It is almost as if it is a joke to the surgeons.. they don't seem to care (or they at least turn their head.) We've had it with waiting on admin to do something.
We need to know if we are liable if we work in the OR or even the hospital and don't report him to his medical board? Or do we report to the state. We are scared of getting fired, :angryfire but SOMEONE has to stand up and be a patient advocate.
Make sure you have copies of WRITTEN notification to everyone you can think of to tell in your hospital, and their replies before you go outside the hospital. Your jobs and public reputations will be on the line when you go further with this- and you need to, definitely. Notify the doc in question too about your concerns, in wrting, and that you will keep going up the chain of command until the situation is remedied.
I love the picture taking idea, but not at the expense of your jobs if there is a policy against it.
Then notification of external quality assurance groups like the medical board, JCAHO, etc. Make sure you do this as a group- it's harder to fire a group than one rabble rouser.
Then, and only then, to the media, with documentation that you have done everything in your power to fix it internally.
canoehead, BSN, RN
6,909 Posts
Make sure you have copies of WRITTEN notification to everyone you can think of to tell in your hospital, and their replies before you go outside the hospital. Your jobs and public reputations will be on the line when you go further with this- and you need to, definitely. Notify the doc in question too about your concerns, in wrting, and that you will keep going up the chain of command until the situation is remedied.
I love the picture taking idea, but not at the expense of your jobs if there is a policy against it.
Then notification of external quality assurance groups like the medical board, JCAHO, etc. Make sure you do this as a group- it's harder to fire a group than one rabble rouser.
Then, and only then, to the media, with documentation that you have done everything in your power to fix it internally.