Monday, 17 September 2018
On November 29, 2017, a panel of expert presenters from the Marion, Indiana, community discussed the arrest of Alex Wubbels, a Registered Nurse in the Burn Unit of Utah University Hospital. Alex Wubbels refused to draw blood on a severely injured and unconscious patient that had been admitted to the Burn Unit. A police detective, who was also an EMT, decided that he would draw the blood and RN Wubbels prevented him from drawing the blood from this unconscious patient. The police detective became violent and handcuffed RN Wubbels and arrested her. RN Wubbels tried to explain to the police detective the hospital policy and the law required patient consent or a warrant in this situation. Both RN Wubbels and the police detective stated they were simply following orders. The purpose for this educational event with an expert panel, consisting of the Director of Campus Police and Emergency Management at Indiana Wesleyan University, Associate Dean of pre-licensure nursing, a DNP and APRN Member of the Indiana State Board of Nursing, the Director of Nursing at Marion General Hospital, Marion, Indiana, and a BSN, Risk Management Consultant for Indiana University Health to present strategies to Registered Nurses and nursing students to be competent if this situation were to occur during their shift. This panel discussion was a successful Continuing Education activity and was sponsored by Indiana Wesleyan University School of Nursing and Sigma Theta Tau, Eta Chi Chapter. Attending the event were 8 Registered Nurses from the community and 9 nursing students. As a result of attending this presentation, 100% of the attendees and did an evaluation to acquire the 1 Continuing Education certificate. Conclusions from the evaluations identified an increase in knowledge about potentially high risk actions that could impact practice areas, more knowledge to identify the key stakeholders in a risky process and intent to change their professional practices related to the discussion and strategies presented.