Instead of sentencing this piece of crap to prison, why wasn’t he sent to a detox center? The state can’t have it both ways. Sounds like he was a habitual drunk anyway and nobody should be expected to baby sit him 24×7. Now they’re trying to throw the nurse under the bus.
I get what you’re saying…and I can understand why you might feel the way you do; I can certainly emphasize with this nurse. However, I also feel there are probably a lot of other little details that weren’t mentioned in the article that may be a good defense for the nurse. As it is written…and from a patient care standpoint, I can only say that it’s a safety issue. As nurses, we follow the same sort of “oath” physician’s do, to “Do no harm”. A nurse takes responsibility for providing care to his/her patients and 1st and foremost is their safety. It is irrelevant if the man was a prisoner or not…he was her patient and from the information presented in the article, she failed to provide a safe environment for him in his current state albeit drunken. I’d be willing to bet that at one point in her interaction with the patient, she questioned her own actions. It’s anybody’s guess why she did what she did. The article reads like they want you to think she did this on purpose…because of his drunkenness…I’m willing to bet it was absolutely unintentional and just a very unfortunate lapse in good judgement as a caregiver. I feel bad for her and her family with this accident. I also feel bad for the family who lost their loved one, despite his faults. We all have them…and we all make mistakes. I don’t think many people even realize the level of responsibility a nurse assumes when caring for a patient…if you’re reading this, remember to tell your Nurse/MD/Caregiver when you have a new problem or new medication…our care of you depends on knowing all the facts. (How’s that for my $.02…what a mouth full! lol!)
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Instead of sentencing this piece of crap to prison, why wasn’t he sent to a detox center? The state can’t have it both ways. Sounds like he was a habitual drunk anyway and nobody should be expected to baby sit him 24×7. Now they’re trying to throw the nurse under the bus.
I get what you’re saying…and I can understand why you might feel the way you do; I can certainly emphasize with this nurse. However, I also feel there are probably a lot of other little details that weren’t mentioned in the article that may be a good defense for the nurse. As it is written…and from a patient care standpoint, I can only say that it’s a safety issue. As nurses, we follow the same sort of “oath” physician’s do, to “Do no harm”. A nurse takes responsibility for providing care to his/her patients and 1st and foremost is their safety. It is irrelevant if the man was a prisoner or not…he was her patient and from the information presented in the article, she failed to provide a safe environment for him in his current state albeit drunken. I’d be willing to bet that at one point in her interaction with the patient, she questioned her own actions. It’s anybody’s guess why she did what she did. The article reads like they want you to think she did this on purpose…because of his drunkenness…I’m willing to bet it was absolutely unintentional and just a very unfortunate lapse in good judgement as a caregiver. I feel bad for her and her family with this accident. I also feel bad for the family who lost their loved one, despite his faults. We all have them…and we all make mistakes. I don’t think many people even realize the level of responsibility a nurse assumes when caring for a patient…if you’re reading this, remember to tell your Nurse/MD/Caregiver when you have a new problem or new medication…our care of you depends on knowing all the facts. (How’s that for my $.02…what a mouth full! lol!)