Thoughts - Nurse Mistake

[Seven, RN2b]

Hello All -

Just curious as to everyone's thoughts on this situation:

My aunt had kidney surgery earlier this week and was in ICU following. Our family called to check on her and, over the phone, the nurse advised us that she had gone for a brain scan which revealed "no activity" and she would be transferred to hospice. My family was understandably hysterical. Although she was in ICU - she wasn't in imminent danger of dying. My family, including my aunt's only child, a 30 year old son, drove 45 minutes to the hospital - all the while discussing what they would have to do (funeral arrangements, etc). I'll save the details - but, her son became violently ill due to being so upset. When they arrived at the hospital - the nurse greeted them with sincere apologies and advised that she had given them the information of another patient and my aunt was doing well. How do you think the family should have responded? Should they have reported it to administration? DON? As a brand new student nurse - with worries of errors that would harm a patient - I can see both sides - especially due to the fact that no one was "physically" harmed. Just curious on the perspective of nursing professionals.

[smk1, LPN]

Instead of going to administration first, why not talk to the nurse and see what happened and how she reacts with your concerns? I always say first go to the source and see if you work things out man to man woman to woman. If things don't seem kosher THEN move up the chain, particularly since no physical harm occured.

[TRAMA1RN]

while the nurse did make a mistake, i for one am sick and tired of patients and family members wanting it both ways. if you want information then wait till you get to the hospital and speak directly to medical staff. family members get irritated when they can't get info and advice over the phone but when they do they are the first to complain if a mistake is made. i am not making an excuse for the nurse but their could have been patients there with similar cases and the unit could have been busy and the nurse trying to be nice and helpful grabbed the wrong chart and had the wrong info, gave the info to the family. i think there needs to be a new policy put into place now with the hippa thing hospital units should be able to opt to no longer to phone calls from outside lines at all to protect themselves. hippa has by far done more harm to healthcare than it has done good. give the nurse a break, she felt genuinely remorseful.

[EmmaG, RN]

I have to revise my original statement to say that I concurr with some of yours; the physician should have been the one to actually make the call.

I read the OP to be that the family called the nurse for an update. It sounds as though she was confirming what the other patient's family already knew.

[EmmaG, RN]

I can think of a number of scenarios to explain how this could have happened.

I'm wondering just how many calls this nurse had been fielding throughout her shift from the families of both patients. I can't help but think if there had been one person designated to call and receive updates on each patient, this may have been avoided. It is incredibly confusing and distracting for us to have to field numerous calls from all the friends and family wanting these updates, and of course it takes away our time caring for the patients. But no matter how many times I've tried to explain this to families, asking that they designate only one contact person, they continue to ignore that request.