Nurse Refused to Assess Nursing Home Resident's Chest Pain: OK To Fire, Court Says

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

February 1999

  Quick Summary: A nurse can be fired who fails to acknowledge and assess an elderly nursing home resident’s complaints of chest pain but instead insisted that the resident get out of her bed and into a wheelchair, according the the New York Superior Court, Appellate Division.

  The court ruled the nurse’s actions were not merely negligent or careless, but were directly detrimental to her employer’s interests. As such her actions were intentional misconduct serious enough to justify termination.

 The resident was suffering from coronary artery disease. However, according to the court, the nurse responded to her complaints of chest pain by telling the resident and the nurse’s co-workers that the resident was faking her pain. The nurse refused to give the resident her medication or to call her doctor and the nurse told her co-workers not to give her any medication and not to call the doctor.