Upset Family

[DonaldE16]

Ok so I am an LPN just turned RN last week. I work at a long term facility and I had a resident that had a fall last night. We picked him up off the floor and put him in bed. Alert and oriented x3, no c/o pain, no s/s of any injury, equal strength in both lower extremities. Everything was properly documented in an incident report. This was at 1 AM so I did not notify the family because everything was ok.... Big mistake on my part. Turns out he had a hairline fracture of the right femur. Now the family is extremely upset and they are probably going to call DHEC. I am very nervous about what is going to happen and would like to have some advice about what I should do next. I have obtained my first write up in my nursing career after 2 years of nursing. If anyone has any suggestions of what they think I should do please let me know. I'm a nervous wreck!

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

I'd call your Liability Insurance for legal advice, otherwise make sure you document everything --denied pain, full ROM, etc.

It's tough, I mean calling 911 after every single fall isn't a good use of resources either. FWIW I probably would have done similarly.

[DonaldE16]

I documented everything. The only thing I did not do was call the family. I just really do not want to get more than a write up at work for this.

[LuvScience]

I can understand the family's anger about not being notified of a fall. I don't normally call family members in the middle of the night unless its an emergency or I happen to know that they will be awake. If they need to be notified then I usually make my phone calls at the end of the shift around 7 am.

You made a mistake and received a write up. As long as you have otherwise followed procedure and documented properly then you probably won't be further penalized. My advise is simply to acknowledge your mistake, apologize as needed and not repeat this mistake in the future.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Chalk it up to a valuable learning experience. Always err on the side of caution when it comes to patient safety. It's better to do too much than too little. As long as you are following your organization's procedures & adhering to your state's nurse practice act, it's all good.