Was I in the wrong here?

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Hey, all....I've got a question. Tech....soon to be RN(may 16th, WOOT!) here.

Patient came up with a broken ankle. ER orders clearly state that she is NPO....and she has a box lunch on her lap(sandwich, applesauce, cookies, juice, milk). As the ER transporter drops off the order, I look at them and note (oh, she's NPO). I take the box lunch off the lap, explain to patient and daughter that "well, you're NPO, so we need to take your box off here". patient states "oh, my sugar was low downstairs, and they told me I wouldn't go to sx for a day or two" AFTER the ER orders clearly mark NPO on the sheet! (sugar was 62...so not crashing out) I explained that I would be happy to bring her a 1/2 cup of juice once we moved her to her bed...and did. Also, patient has D5.45NS running at 86 ml/hr. (so she wasn't going to crash).

The daughter filed a complaint against me about my attitude as I took away the lunch because I didn't know the whole situation.....My thought is "Ummm...she's NPO, we're erring on the side of caution, and they should have given her juice downstairs....not an entire box lunch!" And she just got d/c'd on the 7th...from tele floor...and when we call the doc? Oh, we have to admit her and THEN transfer her to a monitored tele bed.....all 1 hour before shift change.

So, was I in the wrong for taking away the box lunch? should I have had that complaint monitored against me? Or am I just figuring that the daughter thought I was "just" a tech...and I didn't know what I was talking about?

congrats, welcome to a new side of nursing

orders need to have been clarified, but to hold the lunch until you were better informed was not wrong, if she had needed to be kept npo and you had fed her, not an unusual situation, it would have been much worse

you can always go back and feed them

i agree that you cannot tell from averages on what is normal for a particular patient

You werent in the wrong, but I would have let the RN know about the order and handle the situation from there.

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