Nurse’s procrastination ends badly

A rural NSW hospital nurse who delayed calling a doctor for a dying patient says she won’t repeat the mistake even if it means copping verbal abuse, a disciplinary committee has been told.

Heather Conyard was the nurse in charge at Glen Innes Hospital when 81-year-old Patient A’s condition declined on 11 January 2013, with symptoms including abdominal pain and diarrhoea, a respiratory rate of 40–44 breaths/min and blood pressure of 89/53.