Nervegas
Forum Lieutenant
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Of all the non-voluntary psych transfers I've done, I always get an officer to ride, always. As medics, we cannot enforce the protective custody orders, they specifically state remanded to a peace officer, not paramedic. If they say they want to hurt themselves, then we can restrain them, but I prefer to just let LE deal with it.
Voluntary psych transfers are where it gets fun, because if they suddenly decided enroute that they no longer want to go, unless they say they want to hurt themselves, and are oriented and answering questions appropriately, we have to let them go.
As far as assessments, I try to ascertain where they are mentally before they go in the back of the box, I always get a full Hx and will ask many of those exact questions, they are my patient at that point and if they are in the back, then I'm going to do what I need for my charting and pt care/personal safety. I take everything the RN's tell me with a grain of salt until otherwise proven. I cant go to court and point at my chart and say the RN told me his blood pressure was stable, when in fact it wasn't and my own assessment would have revealed that fact, extrapolate that to anything involved in the assessment and you catch my drift.
PS: Just ignore the security guard, he is there for safety, not medical assessment.
Voluntary psych transfers are where it gets fun, because if they suddenly decided enroute that they no longer want to go, unless they say they want to hurt themselves, and are oriented and answering questions appropriately, we have to let them go.
As far as assessments, I try to ascertain where they are mentally before they go in the back of the box, I always get a full Hx and will ask many of those exact questions, they are my patient at that point and if they are in the back, then I'm going to do what I need for my charting and pt care/personal safety. I take everything the RN's tell me with a grain of salt until otherwise proven. I cant go to court and point at my chart and say the RN told me his blood pressure was stable, when in fact it wasn't and my own assessment would have revealed that fact, extrapolate that to anything involved in the assessment and you catch my drift.
PS: Just ignore the security guard, he is there for safety, not medical assessment.
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