She got fired...

I was in my Ethics class today and one girl started talking about how her friend, an RN was with a patient when they started to bleed out. She said that the patient needed their vein sutured up or they would die. They called the dr and it took him over a hour to get to the room. She knew that she needed a dr in the room, but knew that if she waited the patient would be dead. She saved the patient and her and the dr both got fired.

How is it possible that she saved someone's life, but she gets fired for doing so?
I'm not sure I understand what, exactly, the nurse did?

Quote from Hygiene QueenI'm not sure I understand what, exactly, the nurse did?

It sounds like most of the pertinent information about the incident is missing, so it's going to be a hard one to evaluate.

Quote from FutureRN2013She saved the patient without the dr being in the room. She was supposed to wait until he got there, but the patient would have died. It took him over an hour to get there.

Was there no other MD that could be called? No ER Doc? Way too little info.. Outside her scope, she could lose her job and her license .

Quote from FutureRN2013She saved the patient without the dr being in the room. She was supposed to wait until he got there, but the patient would have died. It took him over an hour to get there.

Quote from MN-NurseIt's clear from the OP and your response that you really don't know what happened so it is impossible to answer any question you may have.

I get the feeling she sutured a vein, but unless they were in the wilderness with no other docs available, and nothing to make a tourniquet out of, I don't get why she would have done the suturing (if that's what she did).

Quote from FutureRN2013She saved the patient without the dr being in the room. She was supposed to wait until he got there, but the patient would have died. It took him over an hour to get there.

I think there is more to the story here....the nurse failed to call an MRT or RRT (different facilities call it something different). If i need a doctor there NOW, i don't page him/her because it will take them 20 minutes to call me back, and another 30 minutes to get there. I won't hesitate to call an MRT (Medical Response Team). basically meaning "Get here now or this patient is going to turn into a code blue."based off the information im given is i don't think dr. should have been fired personally because if he was just "paged" rather than an MRT...that is telling the doctor "it is ok, the patient is stable. i just have a question." but if you call an MRT...you can bet your a$$ the doctor will be there in less than 5 minutes.So...75% of the post doesn't make sense to me, but i think i got the major point of it. yes the nurse failed to do something he/she SHOULD have done.

How did she save the pt? What did she do? Please elaborate!

If you're in a hospital... you call the ER doc, you call rapid response, you call code blue...If you're in a nursing home, you call 911...I don't know the whole story, but I'm guessing thatthe nurse deserved to be fired. She either didn't doANYTHING that she SHOULD have done, or she didsomething outside of her scope of practice that sheSHOULDN'T have done.Or both. :spin: