Nurse Albert Case

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I have reviewed the HR issues surrounding a recent case concerning an impaired nurse providing care to a critically ill patient. The issues surround three employees, Nurse Albert, Nurse Cusack, and Nurse Minor. The Case raises concern for the potential of other incidents. Nurse Albert is described as very conscientious nurse. Her actions may not violate HR policy but raise questions of ethical conduct and professionalism. Caregivers have the right and responsibility to report impaired, incompetent, and unethical colleagues (Pozgar, 2016, P. 512). The rules of ethics recognize the nurse’s obligation to safeguard the patient’s health and safety. Nurse Albert provided initial ICU care to the patient and subsequently handed the patient off to …show more content…

HR and supervisory personnel failed to perform an adequate performance evaluation that document the known performance issues of Nurse Cusack. This lack of adequate documentation of all apparent performance demonstrates a failure of HR and ongoing performance evaluations. The failure of to take corrective action for the know issues is also a failure of HR. Average to poor performance should not be an acceptable performance expectation. HR must set expectations and with the employee develop the action plan and re-evaluation process. The HR hiring process is also a concern. Was a thorough background performed prior to hiring Nurse Cusack? Were the references contacted and verified during the hiring process? Is there a policy for random drug testing and would it apply in this situation? Nurse Minor is a charge nurse in the ICU. In this role, she was the direct supervisor of Nurse Cusack. Nurse Minor had reason to know of Nurse Cusack’s history of narcotic addiction. Nurse Minor was aware of lapses in Nurse Cusack care and documentation and followed her patients more closely than the patients of the other ICU nurses. Given Nurse Cusack’s history and the care provided Nurse Minor knew or should have known that care was being provide by an impaired nurse. She failed to act or report the issue. The HR issues surrounding Nurse Minor include:

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