Ethical Boundaries Of A Professional Nurse

One may ask, “what does a professional nurse look like?” “Educated, competent, altruistic, practices with integrity, responsible, accountable, advocates, and autonomous are just some of the things that come to mind when thinking of a professional nurse.” (Nitka, 2016). A Nurse who is concerned with others, knowledgeable, takes ownership of their mistakes, is a good listener, good communicator with his/her team, and a quick and efficient decision maker while staying in ethical boundaries is what a professional nurse consists of. Also, a professional nurse is someone who can come up with a step by step plan with their team through observation and analysis to act on, but also be able to adapt if it was a misdiagnosis, something is missing, the

For example, the fact that Josie’s mother witnessed her daughter screaming when seeing a drink, sucking on a towel, almost drinking an entire liter of juice, are simple signs of dehydration. Negligence and non-listening skills are what caused Josie to dehydrate. No one in the hospital should brush off a concerned parent without taking action to reassure them. As a nurse or a doctor you need to comfort and reassure the families that you are doing everything you possibly can to keep the patient alive and well. The nurse should of gotten the doctor to look into Josie’s dehydration to ensure the mother that Josie was okay. If she did take this different look on Josie’s condition, the outcome could of possibly been different. Out of anyone in the hospital, Josie’s mother should have been able to go to the nurses and doctors and had been taken seriously as she, as a parent, would know Josie better than anyone in the hospital. Additional info, a different perspective, re-evaluating assumptions, along with reflective thinking of the situation could have changed the

Another medical error that was preventable in Josie’s story was when Josie’s mother told the nurse that there was a verbal order of no narcotics. The nurse said the order changed and administered the meds. Not only did she not listen nor care what the mother had to say, but she also did not communicate with her team again to see if what the mother said was true. It would have also comforted the mother that you talked to the doctor even if the order was not changed. Keeping the family informed on what is going on would ease their minds. If the nurse had checked back with her team, she would have known that Josie should not receive any narcotics. Josie’s mother also mentioned how the nurse was “demonstrative and in a hurry”. (King). The doctor agreed as well. As a nurse, competency and accountability is important. The video did not say why the nurse was like that (possibly because she gave her narcotics), but if it was because she had made a mistake giving her narcotics she should have owned up to it to her team and Josie’s mother. If she told someone this, then they could adapt and come up with another plan to possibly save Josie. And if the nurse was showing feelings that made the mother uncomfortable, the doctor or the nurse herself should of made a decision to take her off the case or