[nursestudent]

I am a nursing student, and was wondering what a nurse would do in the following situation: a patient has returned from surgery and the nurse notices that the surgeon has not accounted for one of the sutures. The surgeon tells the nurse in charge that the suture remaining in the patient will not cause any harm. should the nurse report this to their supervisor? Thank you for your time

[cassioo]

I answered on another page to your question. How does the floor nurse know that there is anything not accounted for? What kind of suture is it? Chormic, vicril, gut? Or are you talking needles?

[nursinghumor]

First of all, it is not your call to decide what is proper or not. Until you have a license and experience to base your analysis on, it's better to ask others (which is what you're doing).

It is the nurse's responsibility to question the physician on the sutures and take action if merited.

The best you can do, is report it to your nursing instructor and if he/she feels it needs further action, he/she will discuss it with the nurse.

A word of advice, you will see, hear and experience many things that will make you want to question the nurse or doctor on the job, that's a duty we owe to the patients.

However, it would behoove you to watch/observe while you're in school and for the first three months (probationary period) at your first job.

After that, it is much safer to be vocal about such issues. You'll have some experience at least and be in a position to question authority without fear of getting kicked out of nursing school or fired arbitrarily.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com