I agree with you only on one point. You’re right, it’s not up to the nurse to decide. The supervisor or hospital attorney should inform the doctor of the legal requirement, and then the doctor should order, or refuse to order, the blood test. The nurse is not legally permitted to draw blood without a doctor’s order.
This is completely bogus that the nurse was put in this position at all. Someone with the proper authority to refuse or to approve the test should have been dealing with the cop. They were hiding behind her.
I have been in similar positions several times when families had to decide when to discontinue resuscitation efforts or arranging for urgent organ donations. Hospitals have trained people to assist with legal and administrative decisions. It is common for them to consult with the doctor on the floor when an immediate answer is required, and to stay until the crisis is resolved. Where were they? This nurse should have merely been one of a team, and she should not have been the primary spokesperson.
I agree with you that the nurse should not have been in that position. I don’t know if someone else put her there, or if she inserted herself into it. I too feel bad for her. I do think that the news mischaracterized it, though. The cop gave her opportunity to remove herself but she didn’t. When the cop reached toward her she withdrew and started screaming. The police had also spoken with the hospital staff by phone and explained the implied consent and exigent circumstances they were relying on prior to their arrival.