Where do you draw the line

Specialties Correctional

Published

A HUGE issue occured today with treating staff (custody). Do you start an IV and push pain med's for an injured staff? Or do you do the BLS and call for an ambulance? What is your protocol?

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Specializes in Case Management, Corrections, Home Care.

Absolutely Not! Comfort care only, and than call the ambulance, or family, friend depending on the situation. We don't even give out Tylenol to the staff were I work. We were hired to care for the inmates not the staff. I just think it's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

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Specializes in private practice, corporate.

agree completely, I would not advise putting an IV in staff members. Call 911 and do basic first aid til EMS arrives.

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pushing pain meds?? no way, no how. This is crazy.

Now if it was a life or death situation which needed action within seconds/minutes or someone would die, I would act. If an officer got stung by a bee, was allergic and was in danger of dying within minutes then I would hand over an epi pen if he/she said they needed it. The emergency response system may take too long for timely treatment. This has never happened but if someone were in a life or death, time sensitive situation, I would "break" policy.

Everything else, activate ERS and go from there.

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Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.

up to a point it will depend on the policy and guidelines of the unit ...

if you have a Doc on site and/or your standing orders cover staff then fill your boots , otherwise stick to life saving first aid and send them to the ED via ambulance...

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911.

If it is not in your Policies and Procedures manual, if it is not backed by protocol, Don't do it. Otherwize you are on your own legally, and even the person whos very life you may have tried to save can go for you legally if the outcome is not positive (and sometimes even when it is). At least thats how it is in California.

It is worth checking out your states' Good Samaratan law, and always utilize your work place legal consul with these kind of questions. We had a similiar one in the county I work in. Our discussion was about inmate visitors, that was our conundrum, were we responsible?

Our answer was: Any procedure or treatment that is provided to an individual whom is not your patient, in an emergency, with the amount of information available at the time of the emergency, making a reasonable decision (within your scope of practice and skills, with the information you have available) will likely not be held responsible by a jury.

So the other guideline is; Is it within the scope of your practice? If it is not within the scope of your practice, don'tdo it. Our risk managment decided that since we were medical personel, the community would probably expect us to do something to assist the person in emergency (and not stand by watching), but it must be reasonable and within the scope of practice.

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Specializes in Neurology, med-surg, terminally ill, ICU.

Basic Life Support. The Tax Money That Is Issued To The State Prisons Is For The Offenders Only. I Agree With Whoever Stated That There Be A Doc On The Unit Who You Can Work Under Is Another Issue. We Have Protocols To Cover Us With The Inmates, But You Are Practicing Medicine When It Comes To An Officer Or Other Co Worker. Bls...unless Life Threatening And You Have ACLS Certification And Administration That Backs You.

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