Can a college nurse be charged with abandoning a patient?

A faculty nurse in a public school district asked me about potential liability when she and her colleagues leave school buildings for an hour-long lunch break.

Some school nurses pay for lunches in order that they can stay within the constructing during this time for college kids who need medications for certain conditions. However, she is worried in regards to the liability of the varsity nurse who goes out to lunch within the event of a medical incident involving a student. She identified abandonment as her foremost concern.

Historically, the law has defined patient abandonment within the context of the doctor-patient relationship. When a physician unilaterally now not provided care to a person and no time was allocated for the patient to acquire care elsewhere, there was a risk of abandonment.

However, currently, and definitely in today’s world, patient abandonment has been applied to nurses. In a 2009 position paper, the American Nurses Association defined patient abandonment as “the unilateral termination of an established nurse-patient relationship without providing sufficient advance notice to the appropriate person so that arrangements can be made for continued nursing care by others.”

Abandonment issues that will impact nurses

Abandoning a patient isn’t the identical as abandoning an employer. This last one was is defined as a nurse who has failed to offer the employer reasonable notice of her intention to terminate the employer-employee relationship in circumstances that seriously impair the availability of skilled care to patients or clients. Of course, the nurse’s behavior has an impact on the employer in such a situation, but this impact is the employer’s issue. Nursing boards haven’t any jurisdiction over employer abandonment or employer-related matters. The most immediate liability for a nurse who unilaterally leaves a patient without further nursing care is to risk skilled disciplinary motion from the state board of nursing. This behavior is seen as “unprofessional behavior.” The Nurse Practice Act and/or its rules might also list abandonment of patient care as grounds for disciplinary motion. All nurses, including school nurses, are chargeable for their very own actions and judgments. The school nurse must rigorously assess students’ specific care needs.

The decision to go away the varsity constructing for lunch break when there are students who may require the presence of a nurse as a result of diagnosis or treatment isn’t smart. In the event of a medical incident, a college nurse could also be charged with abandoning a patient.

Additionally, if a student was injured or died, parents can file a lawsuit. While the varsity district will surely be named as a defendant within the lawsuit, the varsity nurse is also named individually for failing to satisfy its overall legal standards of care and standards of conduct.

How to avoid charges of patient abandonment

You can avoid allegations of patient abandonment by first remaining in the varsity constructing during lunch hours, even in case you should not paid for it, and thoroughly assessing the coed population and its needs. If the varsity nurse, in his or her best skilled judgment, believes that there’s a risk of harm to a student or students through the student’s absence, the varsity nurse must have a lunch break within the constructing.

Another option could be to rent someone to switch the varsity nurse who leaves the varsity constructing for lunch. This person could also be an RN who isn’t employed by the varsity district but who has an agreement with the district to be present through the school nurse’s absence.

The school nurse’s “handoff” to the RN in her absence should be accurate. The RN ought to be instructed to call the varsity nurse immediately within the event of any incident. In addition to orienting this RN to the needs of scholars, policies and procedures ought to be implemented that every one staff remaining within the constructing should follow within the event of a medical incident, equivalent to:

• Who should call paramedics and when?
• Who notifies the varsity nurse immediately when an incident occurs?
• Who accompanies the coed through the ambulance transport to the hospital?
• Who calls the parents?

Another option is to make use of the resources of a college nurse consultant. It can have realistic solutions when the varsity nurse leaves the varsity constructing in such circumstances. Expressing concerns about this arrangement along with your school administrator and/or superintendent may lead to increased coverage for varsity nurses who leave the constructing for lunch. Finally, delegating responsibility to at least one or more individuals who should not authorized to intervene in an emergency situation when the varsity nurse isn’t present is an option, but a slightly tenuous one at best. A very good source of data on this last option could be present in this 2010 article by Cheryl Resha: “School delegation: is it a safe practice?”

Please do not forget that the law doesn’t require a nurse to forestall all risks of harm to the people they look after. Rather, the law requires that a nurse prevent an affordable and foreseeable risk of harm to patients/students.

If you’re a college nurse, how do you take care of short absences from the varsity constructing where you’re employed?

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