Will I get fired?

[Chloe86]

Hello guys

so over the weekend I had a patients family come in to visit her father. Father has dementia and hasn't been doing very well for about two days , anyway daughter comes in asks about fathers condition and I tell her what was passed on to me in report, which is he might have a mini stroke. Everything else was done but came out alright. anyway daughter calls don and asks her why her father might have had a mini stroke and he wasn't sent out or called to be informed. Don has started an investigation saying I was not supposed to tell her something that wasn't true( mini stroke) . They are getting statements from everyone who worked that day. Is this a violation or are they overreacting? Is this something I could get fired for? Thanks

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Who decided the pt had a "mini-stroke" (TIA)? Was the pt NOT to be sent out?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Also, what role do you play on the team? Are you the charge nurse, CNA, housekeeper?

[Chloe86]

I am the charge nurse, the off going nurse told me in report that the patient might have had a stroke and I relayed that message to the daughter.

[Chloe86]

That's what the off going nurse told me

[Crush]

Was there any documentation to back up what was said in report? Did you assess pt prior to telling the daughter? Did the nurse who gave you report do an assessment & report findings to the MD, sent out to ER,etc? In other words, it sounds like you reported a diagnosis solely based on the reported "Might have had a mini-stroke".

[klone, MSN, RN]

Patient "may have had a mini stroke" based on what?

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

Our hospital system requires us to refer the patient/family to the physician for any info about specific diagnoses. It saves us from the confusion of what may have been documented in the notes as a possibility and what has been confirmed by the physician via tests/physical evaluation. The world is way to sue happy today.

I would never give info based solely on another nurses report. It could bite you if they were wrong, mixed up one patient with another, etc. My uncle was in a car crash. His son lives out of state and coincidentally the trauma center he went to was the facility I work for. My brother recieved a text stating that the nurse said he was conscious but incoherent and had frontal lobe damage. I brought my father in to see his brother. Luckily, aside from a concussion and some cuts and bruises he was fine and went home the next day. However, one can see where this would have scared his son, who lived out of state at the time and was probably googling ‘frontal lobe brain damage' as soon as he got off the phone with the nurse.

[Buckeye.nurse]

Our hospital system requires us to refer the patient/family to the physician for any info about specific diagnoses. It saves us from the confusion of what may have been documented in the notes as a possibility and what has been confirmed by the physician via tests/physical evaluation. The world is way to sue happy today.

I would never give info based solely on another nurses report. It could bite you if they were wrong, mixed up one patient with another, etc. My uncle was in a car crash. His son lives out of state and coincidentally the trauma center he went to was the facility I work for. My brother recieved a text stating that the nurse said he was conscious but incoherent and had frontal lobe damage. I brought my father in to see his brother. Luckily, aside from a concussion and some cuts and bruises he was fine and went home the next day. However, one can see where this would have scared his son, who lived out of state at the time and was probably googling ‘frontal lobe brain damage' as soon as he got off the phone with the nurse.

This!!! Nurses on my unit will give basic lab results out. We write our patients counts (WBC, platelet level, and Hgb) on the white board in the room. But you better believe that if a family wants to know the PET scan result, wants to know when treatment will start, or even wants to know a CT scan of the abdomen result...I'm paging the doctor! I usually say something like "That's a really good question. I want to make sure you get the most up to date information, so I'll page the doctor and see if he can answer that for you."

After all, that's what they get paid the big bucks for!

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Can you get fired for this? Who knows....depends where you work, whether there is a union, how many other infractions there have been and how upset the family is.

It wasn't an advisable way to respond, unfortunately.

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

But what about the nurse who gave report? As she was the one who (I assume) assessed and made that determination. Was it not on her to call MD and family for further instructions? Is he a DNH or DNR?

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

But what about the nurse who gave report? As she was the one who (I assume) assessed and made that determination. Was it not on her to call MD and family for further instructions? Is he a DNH or DNR?

It is really two separate issues. One, the nurse assigned to care for the patient appropriately. The other, the charge nurse subsequently communicating with the family.