Supreme Court rules that the emergency room nurse must assess the severity of patients
The Supreme Court emphasises the crucial role of the nurse in assessing the severity of patients in the emergency room
2' min read
2' min read
The emergency room nurse is not only required to fill in the person's data, but also to offer an assessment of the severity of their condition.
This was pointed out by the Court of Cassation in its ruling No. 15076 of the Fourth Criminal Section, filed yesterday, in which the appeal of a nurse's defence against the ruling that there was no need to proceed due to the statute of limitations and the sentence, however, to repay damages in a case brought for manslaughter, was rejected.
Facts
.The nurse on duty in an emergency room was alleged to have neglected to correctly assess the gravity of the clinical picture of a woman, an asthmatic subject, when she entered the facility, giving her a green access code, which led to a delay in medical intervention, causing the death of the patient from cardiac arrest due to a severe asthma attack.
The 2001 Guidelines
.Central, as is usually the case in medical malpractice proceedings was the Court of Cassation's assessment of the guidelines of reference, consisting of those on triage published by the State-Regions Conference on 25 October 2001. This is a fundamental element in determining the degree of culpability.
The role of triage
.More in detail then, the 2001 Guidelines emphasised how triage must be carried out by an experienced and specifically trained nurse, always present in the reception area of the emergency room, who is able to consider the signs and symptoms of the patient to identify potentially life-threatening conditions. The nurse is then entrusted with the determination ofa severity code to prioritise access to the medical examination.
