I read an article in the newspaper (StarTribune, March 12, 2013) tonight. The front page title caught my attention "FAMILIES WANT VOICE IN NURSING INQUIRIES". However, after reading the first couple paragraphs, I couldn't even figure out why they had chosen the introduction they did.
It begins like this:
"No evidence of neglect. Sheila Van Pelt couldn't believe it when she received the letter from the state health investigators in 2011. Her mother had suffered a stroke at an assisted-living facility and later died, and now she wondered: Did they even bother to seriously review the case? Investigators never formally interviewed her, Van Pelt says, even though she found her mother, with her legs twitching as she suffered convulsions from a severe stroke. No one was ever held accountable for the incident and she says, investigators didn't seem interested when she tried to bring information forward."
What is she talking about? Why should someone else have to be held accountable for her 'the incident' when her mother suffered a stroke, especially at an assisted-living facility and not a hospital? I don't get it - is it really that bad out there now that people don't expect their loved ones to ever die of natural causes? And when they do, it has to be someone else's fault?
Although I am an LPN, I still have very little experience. I continued in nursing school and am hoping to have my RN by the end of the summer. When I read articles like this, I feel discouraged before I even try. Why are people so unrealistic? We can't save every life, nor can we be there every time something is going wrong.
I'm taking it that the daughter's principal beef is that the State investigators never even bothered to hear her out.
(But who knows what her underlying theory was. And perhaps the newspaper didn't wanna publish the reason(s) without having some response from the agency.)
... in my area, the coroner gets called for every single death. He or one of his designees makes the determination whether or not the death becomes a coroner's case... We have many cases that become coroner's cases...
Similarly at two facilities I worked at -- in two different States -- we were required to notify the ME.
I've had a "full code" 90ish patient tell me that having nurses to give her her medications isnt enough. That she felt like she needed a doctor to call her and get after her every day about taking her meds. Knowledge was assessed and pt edu was given (q 2-3x/day) regarding the importance of taking meds. She even said that she had always been healthy and couldn't understand WHY she'd had a few (fairly minor) health probs. The family bought into this mindset wholeheartedly, and we staff were continually scrutinized by them
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
I feel sort of like we have built a house on sand relative to death and dying in health care.
With patients, we show them the pretties, we talk about the pretties, we admire the pretty blue sky, we walk patients and families through and examine all the nice amenities.
We never talk about the storm. We never talk about the tides that erode the foundation. We, in fact, don't do anything to prepare for the inevitable fall of the house.
And then when the house falls and the owners are angry and upset, we wonder why. Weren't you responsible for the "maintenance and upkeep"? they shout? "What about your medical plan, and all of the things you did"?
Wouldn't it just be easier to tell people that, as it stands now, the COPD, Diabetes, CHF, Dementia, etc WILL result in your death. We are powerless to stop it, we can't cure it, and sometimes we cannot even slow it down much with drugs and surgeries. GRANDMA will die from this, when, well can't say for sure, but death...yeah on the agenda.
That might free us up to pursue some health behaviors which might enrich and improve their quality of life, well before the hospice phase.
Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN
2,722 Posts
Liked your phraseology!