Each day, people are admitted into hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare settings in hope for a cure or treatment for their illness. During these times, patients are usually at their most vulnerable state and need the best care possible from healthcare providers. Some patients end up recovering after several dreadful days or even months in hospital care, while others do not get another chance at life and take their last breath on a hospital bed. What is shocking here is that patients are not only losing their lives because of their bodies not having the strength to combat illnesses, but also because of mistakes made on behalf of medical staff members. Medical errors in places like hospitals, dental offices, and even doctors offices account …show more content…
What is being reported now is that these healthcare providers are now showing signs of severe illnesses and diseases after years of working extreme hours. A particular healthcare provider that is being heavily studied on are nurses, because of their extreme eighteen-hour shifts. What is being reported now is that there is a link between breast cancer and nurses. A study in Norway showed that there is in fact a correlation. This is because nurses are usually the ones who work the graveyard shifts, and are not exposed to changes in the light outside, because they are indoors a majority of their life. Not being exposed to the changing of light and darkness during each day tricks the human body, and thus causes issues such as sleep deprivation and depression of the hormone melatonin (a hormone secreted to allow for a regular sleep and wake cycle) (Lie, et al). With these dramatic changes, it is being reported that cases of breast cancer are coming up from these working conditions. Nursing is also an occupation that is predominantly women, as is the disease breast cancer, so this also contributes to the issue. Not only nurses, but also other healthcare providers that find themselves working extreme shifts are highly susceptible to illnesses, which is why dramatic changes in their shifts need to be
Chasing Zero is a documentary which was meant to both educate the viewer on the prevalence of medical harm as well as to enlighten both the public and health care providers on the preventability of these events (Discovery, 2010). The documentary expounded on the fact each year more people die each year from a preventable medical error than die due to breast cancer, motor vehicle accidents or AIDS (Institute of Medicine, 1999). Medical harm can result from adverse drug events, surgical injuries, wrong-site surgery, suicides, restraint-related injuries, falls, burns, pressure ulcers and mistaken patient identities (Institute of Medicine, 1999). Incidences of medical error have been reported in the media for many years. The most startling revelation in the documentary is how common medical errors are and how preventable they are.
Breast cancer has always been a common thread among the women of my family; especially on my mother’s side, including my Grandmother whom passed away due to this disease before I could ever meet her. More so, my mother was gravely affected by this disease early in my life. Thankfully, she was able to stop the cancer from spreading; the doctors were able to find the cancerous cells and remove them. Due to this grave, but powerful impact on my life, I have been determined to becoming a biomedical scientist to assist on the research and treatment of this deadly disease. Although this acts as my principal driver, to study in this field, I have also been intrigued and driven by the idea that I could aid lower setting regions to receive health benefits using studies in translational medicine and
A considerable amount of literature has been published on the impact of working hours (8 vs. 12 hour shifts) on fatigue among the nurses. These studies revealed that twelve-hour shifts increase the risk of fatigue, reduce the level of alertness and performance, and therefore reduce the safety aspect compared to eight-hour shifts (Mitchell and Williamson, 1997; Dorrian et al., 2006; Dembe et al., 2009; Tasto et al., 1978). Mills et al. (1982) found that the risk of fatigues and performance errors are associated with the 12-hour shifts. Beside this, Jostone et al. (2002) revealed that nurses who are working for long hours are providing hasty performance with increased possibility of errors.
Harrington, J. M. (2001). Health Effects of Shift Work and Extended Hours of Work. OEM Education. Retrieved on December 3, 2013, from http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full. doi: 10.1136.oem.58.1.68
Kohn, L., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. (1999). To err is human: building a safer health system. Committee on Quality of Health Care in America Institute of Medicine National Academy Press Washington, D.C.
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
It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).
Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000).
...rue cancer”, but it serves as a marker for the increased risk of developing breast cancer in the future. It is important for women with lobular carcinoma in situ to have regular clinical breast exams and mammograms.
I had the pleasure to interview my grandma, Olga Hernandez. She was born on November 8, 1951 in Cuba. She worked in a workshop making clocks. After she retired, she took care of me while my mom worked. I consider her to be my second mom because she lived with me for eight years. She taught me love, discipline, manners, etc. My grandma is: strong, beautiful, caring, and passionate. Most importantly, she is a breast cancer survivor. I chose to interview my grandma because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I couldn’t think of a better time to do this interview. I like her story because although it’s sad, it has a happy ending. It shows you that no matter how hard things get, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.
Cancer. Why was it always cancer? I had witnessed cancer take my friends, family, you name it. My internal monologue pleaded, “You’ve taken so much, but you cannot take her.”
The articles look at how nurses become exhausted which leads to more medical errors when working twelve hour shifts, which in turn puts the patient at risk. Nurses tend to work unpredictable hours and even when they have a set time to be off, that often does not translate into reality. Most nurses end up working a lot of unplanned overtime due to changes in their patients needs and staffing issues, that along with already long shifts, patient care are at risk of being compromised (Witkoski.2012). Many professions such as physicians and residents,though it does not just stop with medical staff, have regulations in place on how many hours a week an employee can work but, nurses are not part of that group. States such as California and Maryland have adopted their own laws that prohibit nurses from mandatory overtime, but, they still have not set limits for voluntary overtime(Witkoski.2012).
Hundreds of organizations across the United States help support the cause of breast cancer by raising awareness, but is awareness what breast cancer patients and their families want/need. Daniela Campari, senior vice president for marketing at the American Cancer Society, believes in the pink campaigns to raise awareness. During the “National Breast Cancer Awareness Month” organizations all around the United States use the method of “pinkwashing” as they use the color pink to symbolize breast cancer. In the article “A Growing Disenchantment with October Pinkification” by Gina Kolata, it says, “Those who promote the pink campaigns say they raise millions of dollars to fight the disease.” These pink campaigns that Daniela Campari support prove
The health care is extremely important to society because without health care it would not be possible for individuals to remain healthy. The health care administers care, treats, and diagnoses millions of individual’s everyday from newborn to fatal illness patients. The health care consists of hospitals, outpatient care, doctors, employees, and nurses. Within the health care there are always changes occurring because of advance technology and without advance technology the health care would not be as successful as it is today. Technology has played a big role in the health care and will continue in the coming years with new methods and procedures of diagnosis and treatment to help safe lives of the American people. However, with plenty of advance technology the health care still manages to make an excessive amount of medical errors. Health care organizations face many issues and these issues have a negative impact on the health care system. There are different ways medical errors can occur within the health care. Medical errors are mistakes that are made by health care providers with no intention of harming patients. These errors rang from communication error, surgical error, manufacture error, diagnostic error, and wrong medication error. There are hundreds of thousands of patients that die every year due to medical error. With medical errors on the rise it has caused the United States to be the third leading cause of death. (Allen.M, 2013) Throughout the United States there are many issues the he...
On October 25,2016, Sue Eichler came to talk about her experience with breast cancer. She works for at an office that works with women who have breast cancer. During her discussion, I felt pretty much informed. I feel a lot more informed on the challenges, process, and understanding of those who are going through treatment and what others decide to do. I feel a lot more confident about my knowledge of breast, as my fiancé’s mother was diagnosed with it over the summer. I feel that I can empathize with her a little more as now I know, in a way, about what she’s going through.