Jane Smith Case

Response Post:

Unit 6 Case 5 – Worker’s Compensation Nurse Jane Smith is a 30-year employee of the Medical-Surgical Unit and injured her back transferring a post-op 250-lb patient from the gurney to the bed. Her co-workers who were present heard her complain about the pain in her leg immediately after the patient transfer. She did not report the injury at the time, but two days later, when she was unable to get out of bed due to back spasms, she called her nurse manager and reported the injury. Answer the following questions based upon your knowledge of worker’s compensation both from the literature and from your place of employment:

1. What is the likelihood that Nurse Smith will receive Worker’s Compensation?

Nurse Jane respectively did

Of course, there are determinants that would be evaluated during the Occupation Health assessment such as the previous history of back problems, previous work injury, medical issue, etc. to determine the association of current injury and the incident that occurred. This could be a single isolated incident or an injury that was caused by aggravation to previous trauma to Nurse Smith’s

What options does she have for care in the future? Nurse Smith will have the ability to use her primary care physician under her personal health insurance coverage. Likely if she needs any further therapy that will be at the recommendation of her primary care physician and under her coverage. Typically this would be after the determination of Occupational Health that her injury was work-related or not.

4. Will Nurse Smith be able to return to work in a “light duty “role in her current position? In a light duty role in another position? What would the light duty consist of in either of these positions?

Nurse Smith most likely will not be able to return to work in her current capacity. It would be a liability for Nurse Smith to continue to work on her unit with patient care. She appears to be a bedside nurse, therefore, it would be difficult to provide care with an injured back for there is a risk of further injury and she probably has lifting, bending, and twisting restrictions. Saint Vincent will typically try to find an applicable job for the employee while under light duty restrictions. The nurse may be asked to other jobs such as office work, chart reviews, etc.

5. What financial compensation with Nurse Smith has while on Worker’s