To Prosecute or Not To Prosecute
As stated in the Code of Ethics for Nurses (1985), the nurse assumes responsibility and accountability for individual nursing judgments and actions. In other words, the nurse is ultimately responsible for all interventions and aspects of care that he/she gives the patient, whether it is knowledge-based and appropriate, negligent and improper, or even honest human mistakes that at times result in patient deaths. Those honest human mistakes that nurses have the possibility of making and that do result in patient deaths can cause nurses their licenses and even put them in jail. However, should nurses be criminally prosecuted for their mistakes that result in patient deaths? According to Christy Lyon (1998), healthcare practitioners across the country are asking the very same question.
The nationwide debate on sanctions that nurses should face for mistakes made on the job began in April 1997 when three Registered Nurses in Denver, Colorado were charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of an infant. In this case, a physician ordered an intramuscular injection of penicillin for a day-old infant at risk of syphilis. The pharmacist incorrectly dispensed a syringe containing 10 times the prescribed amount. Although the infant's primary nurse did not notice firsthand, a staff nurse noticed the large dose and discussed it with a neonatal nurse practitioner, who then told the staff nurse to change the route of administration to intravenous so the child would only be stuck once. Although the nurses consulted several books, they did not consult with the physician before administering the penicillin. The baby soon died thereafter. The Colorado Board of Nursing suspended the nurse ...
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...rors, however, it should be up to the state board of nursing to decide on the punishment that would best fit the error. Then depending on the severity and negligence of the error, should the state board of nursing call in the district attorney, rather than the district attorney stepping in on his own. All in all, however, I think that nurses should only be prosecuted when there is the intention and direct infliction of harm on the patient, while all other errors should be punished using civil sanctions.
Bibliography:
American Nurses Association. (1985). Code for nurses with interpretive statements. Kansas City, MO: Author.
Lyon, Christy. (1998). Crime and punishment. Retrieved from the World Wide Web October 25, 2000: http://www.nurseweek.com.
Smith, Adam. (Ed.). (1986). The essential Adam Smith. New York: Norton.
• Paton, John, et al., eds. Crimes and Punishment Vol. 2 New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1986.
The evidenced based problem that was identified for this research assignment, was that nurses were causing multiple medication errors in a clinical and practice setting. According to the authors Wolf, Hicks, and Serembus (2006), a medication error is defined as any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. It is very important for experienced nurses and nursing professors to identify medication errors to prevent them from harming the patient. Some of the errors that were identified were not reported because registered nurses didn’t want their peers to think they were irresponsible (Unver, Tastan, & Akbayrak, 2012). Nurse shaming did not help increase positive outcomes of reporting errors among nursing students and registered nurses (Harding & Petrick, 2008). When medication errors were reported they were not being reported properly, and the consequences for improper reporting were not taken seriously.
White, R. & Haynes, F. (1996) Crime and Criminology: an introduction. Oxford University Press UK.
For hundreds of years doctors and other medical professionals have gotten away with little to no punishment when doing wrong in the medical field. Medical Malpractice happens in the care of the reckless medical professional and can be stopped by the correct supervision and discipline. Although medical malpractice is something huge, it could be eliminated by just taking a little extra time and review the care that is being given to a patient. Would you allow someone to give the care you’re giving to others, to your own family? You need the bed, so you discharge early. Patients aren’t properly informed. Legal documents aren’t thoroughly explained. Shortage of staff, hospital downsizing, or mergers. (“Nursing Center”) The only thing that the medical team should be worried about it the care of all of the patients. The medical field would become more advanced if the actual medicine was practiced the right way. Lives are being compromised everyday with incompetent doctors, practicing medicine. Medical Malpractice can be solved with the buckling down of the medical professionals, and the administration that watch over these professionals. Medicine is a complicated field, where lives, money, and careers are put on the line for such an important matter. Together, we can lessen, even eliminate Medical Malpractice all
...is causes injury or not is an example of unsafe practice. This act could also be categorized as careless or repetitive conducts that puts a patient in danger. Drug diversion is a type of drug dealing, nurses have access to many drugs and it is a part of the nurses’ responsibility to ensure those drugs go where they should, precisely document and closely supervised. Criminal conduct can happen in the work place or on personal time. If a nurse is convicted of a crime, such as Driving While Intoxicated, it could affect their ability to practice nursing. It is out of a RNs legal scope of practice to medically diagnose any patient, order a medical treatment or conduct a medical treatment that has not been ordered by a physician. It is the nurse’s duty to their patient’s to exhibit sound clinical judgment, with in their scope of practice to ensure patient safety.
Of the 28 participants interviewed, nine reported making a medication error or experiencing a ‘near miss’ with particular focus on the level of supervision that was provided. A ‘near miss’ refers to a time when a student makes an error in the preparation of medication for a patient (Reid -Searl, 2010). The error had the potential to cause harm but no harm was initiated because it was corrected before administering it to the patient. Most of the participants who stated causing an actual error described receiving no supervision from a registered nurse at the time. One participant even stated that when realizing he made an error he went straight to the nurse to confess and she told him to not tell anyone and brush it under the rug. The results of the study suggest that errors are more likely to be made when required supervision levels are not provided by the registered nurse.
Nurses as part of regulated health care practitioners are responsible and accountable to abide by the standards, codes and guidelines of nursing practice (NMBA, 2016). The nurse in the case study has breached the standard 1.4 of the Registered nurse standards for practice. According to standard 1.4 the registered nurse should comply with "legislation, regulation, policies, guidelines and other standards or requirements relevant to the context of practice” when making decisions because this will be the foundation of the nurse in delivering high quality services (NMBA, 2016). The nurse in the scenario did not follow the hospital policy concerning “Between the Flags” or “red zone” and a doctor should be notified in this condition. Furthermore, the nurse failed to effectively respond to a deteriorating
Todays healthcare environment is demanding for nurses at a time when there is a critical shortage of staff to meet the multifaceted needs of patients. Ethical issues can occur in any healthcare situation where profound moral questions of the patient’s rights exist. Nurses everywhere have long struggled with ethical challenges in patient care, but it has become difficult for nurses in all parts of the world to practices with integrity amidst moral choices and pressures that nurses confront. According to one article in the demographics are reported no or low stress which is associated with the staffing pattern that creates the most ethical stress. About 80% felt confident that they could justify their ethical decision and nearly two third felt prepared to deal with ethical issues. About 44% nurses are frustrated and about 57.5% are overwhelmed. Nurses are constantly facing these ethical issues every day of the year. One of the reasons why it’s happens is do to facilities shortage of staffing. Those facilities that have insufficient staff it is hard to meet the ethical standard of professional practice.(Ulrich2513)
However, we are looking at a case study where patients safety has been compromised, professionalism has been voided, lack of communication, nurses aren’t liable for their work, the duty of care has been breached and lot more issues can be discovered. Which will be incorporated in this paper. Looking at the patient Christopher Hammett
In this essay the author will rationalize the relevance of professional, ethical and legal regulations in the practice of nursing. The author will discuss and analyze the chosen scenario and critically review the action taken in the expense of the patient and the care workers. In addition, the author will also evaluates the strength and limitations of the scenario in a broader issue with reasonable judgement supported by theories and principles of ethical and legal standards.
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Healthcare errors occur at an alarmingly high incidence and are the eighth leading cause of death (IOM, 2000; Langdrigan, Parry, Bones, Goldman, and Sharek, 2010). The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has estimated that there are 40,000 incidents of medical errors every day. At least 1.5 million preventable medication errors occur each year in the United States. Nurses, as one of the largest groups of healthcare providers, have new roles and responsibilities to improve patient safety and quality. Nurses can attempt to do this through being educated.
The Classical School of Criminology generally refers to the work of social contract and utilitarian philosophers Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham during the enlightenment in the 18th century. The contributions of these philosophers regarding punishment still influence modern corrections today. The Classical School of Criminology advocated for better methods of punishment and the reform of criminal behaviour. The belief was that for a criminal justice system to be effective, punishment must be certain, swift and in proportion to the crime committed. The focus was on the crime itself and not the individual criminal (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). This essay will look at the key principles of the Classical School of Criminology, in particular
Nursing is defined as simply caring for an ill or injured individual. It takes years of schooling to become a nurse, but patience, compassion and the ability to care are needed to be a good one. Although Nursing seems like an excellent profession, it is believed that “the ability of the health system to deliver consistent quality health care continues to be debated on a national level, and nursing’s moral obligation is not only to be a part of the debate, but also to advocate for communities and as individuals deserving quality health care” (Pope, B., Hough, M. C., & Chase, S. 2016). It is highly important that the professionals in the nursing field keep an ethical and moral perspective within the community. It also takes having respect for
...ve heard, it may not be possible to prosecute the nurse as she was just following the home’s policy. In the same manner, it may also not be possible to prosecute the nursing home because such conditions (i.e. not administering CPR) are clearly stated in their policy, and all of their clients understand and are amenable with it. However, in cases like this, I don’t think that the law should be the be-all and end-all of things, that is, I think that mere compliance with the law does not necessarily equate to good management or administration; rather, I believe that good administration should also be guided by moral and ethical guidelines.