My daughter had a hemorrhage type stroke on 1/23/11. She was on a ventilator for approx. 3 weeks and her left side was immobile for several weeks but now is regaining feeling/usage of her arm and leg. We put her in a nursing home that have a therapy group on staff to assist her in regaining her independence and dealing her life changes when she left the hospital.
Prior to her having a stroke she had a water retention problem that resulted in serious swelling to the point she was unable to flex her legs until she was put on a diuretic.
Now to the problem: Last week she started feeling congested and was found to be gaining weight. When questioning the staff it was found that they had stopped her diuretic medication but had done it without either discussing it with my daughter, myself or the prescribing doctor. To beat it all this change was done by a staff nurse. My question would be: Are changes of this nature acceptable?
Absolutely NOT! There is a law suit here. Any changes in meds must be discussed with the Doctor, Medical Power of Attorney and hospital/nursing home staff. Unless in an emergency situation and you are not available, then they must consult you after the fact. (Then the damage may have been done.) They did this with Mother and she had a stroke in the hospital. I am not an advocate for litigation, but you should check into it! One more thing along this road, but I look at it as educating people that NO! DNR's are important in this type of situation too. Hopefully she will recover somewhat.
BTW, it was her delegated Nurse Practictioner that made the change, not a RN, CNA or administrator. Nurse Practictioners can perscribe medications, but must consult with their boss (the doctor) before adminstering. I've no idea if this guy consulted with anyone or he played God.
Needless to say, I had words with this man.
I was wondering too, Is possibly the nurse in question a nurse practitioner with the authority to write or change prescriptions?
So it may not be gross negligence, but someone just misapplying standard practice of trying to reduce unnecessary drugs - which can be a good thing - but without taking enough care to find out why they were on them in the first place.
If that happened it needs to be addressed immediately! Very unprofessional & possibly criminal.