What would you do?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So here's the back story....one of the nurses on the unit went into respiratory distress. She was yelling and screaming for oxygen and a nebulizer treatment no one did anything except call 911. The supervisor stated that he did not want to lose his license and the administrator said it was against the facility policy to give any type of treatment. The nurse died on the unit before the ambulance came. What would you have done in this situation? Would you have risked your license if you believed that you could have possibly saved the nurses life?

as a nurse you should have the priority of life before anything. That is why you became a nurse to help people. yes your license is very important but ethically how can you call yourself a nurse. especially it being your coworker.

I get what you're saying within the context of this thread, but life isn't "our priority above everything". Just ask a hospice nurse or a LTC nurse.

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I don't think it matters that the lady was screaming for her to be receiving/not receiving oxygen. Obviously something was wrong with her because she died. it is unethical to be more worried about your job position/license when someone's life is at stake.

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I don't think it is ethically or morally correct to disregard the cries for help from anyone especially someone that counts on you to protect them. This person was a coworker and a friend and to let them just die to protect your license and your job...Think about it

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This is not a real scenario-- you got that, right?

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as a novice nurse im having a hard time understanding where the morals are. I can not imagine making those same choices. it is unethical.

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Morals and ethics are not the same thing. Really, they aren't.

In this case, it would have been unethical to do CPR on a woman who came to this facility knowing she wouldn't be harassed by CPR at the end of her life. Your personal morality may not agree with hers, but in nursing, the patient's wishes do, in fact, come first. People are allowed to refuse treatment even if it's not something you would recommend or agree with.

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as a novice nurse im having a hard time understanding where the morals are. I can not imagine making those same choices. it is unethical.

I'm pretty sure the scenario put forth by the OP never happened.

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this is unethical and immoral to my personal standards. i dont agree with the way things we're handled in this situation. As a nurse we should be more caring about the people around us.

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Are we talking about the OP's original scenario? I believe the consensus there is that it was just a hypothetical from an ethics essay or something......

If we're talking about that infamous "news story" about the residential facility that called 911 and then "refused" to do CPR..... well, it's been established there was more to it than that. Go back and read GrnTea's post. The staff member never should have called 911 in the first place. The media got a hold of partial truths of this story and ran with it, as they always do.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
this is unethical and immoral to my personal standards. i dont agree with the way things we're handled in this situation. As a nurse we should be more caring about the people around us.

^As well as use that "caring" for someone who may not want interventions, but comfort....it goes both ways, as GrnTea, BrandonLPN have eloquently stated...

"Personal standards"do not matter in nursing...the patient matters. UNLESS there is complex issue where the interventions placed for pts are not helping the pt's quality of life, then again, the patient matters.

Also, this is a hypothetical post placed here, not an actual event. However, anything in nursing can happen...

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Specializes in Telemetry.

Several first time posters chiming in all at once. Huh. Anyway, I believe this is a hypothetical situation, and if something similar were to actually occur, most facilities would have a set protocol to follow.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Several first time posters chiming in all at once. Huh. Anyway, I believe this is a hypothetical situation, and if something similar were to actually occur, most facilities would have a set protocol to follow.

I find that fact interesting as well.....:yes:

Since the OP has not returned to let us know more about their homework assignment I agree that facilities has protocols that take care of incidents like these.....visitor can be coded as well as staff. Once a hospitalist wasn't answering their pager which was VERY uncharacteristic for this MD....I went looking for them....and found them apneic, with a slow thready pulse, thank GOD!, post ictal ....and performed mouth to mouth....couldn't call for help as there was no real "phone"...a nightmare...however they survived. Again THANK GOD!!!!

The sensational news story.....I am positive we don't have all the facts and can't possibly make decisions off of half truths and hearsay.....I believe it wasn't a nurse at all....here is the whole thread about this incident here......

Nurse refused to give CPR

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