negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample

negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample

Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Assignment

“Just because we can, does not always mean we should.” In today’s healthcare environment advances in technology and medical knowledge allow us to do things that were previously unthinkable. While some advances are clearly in everyone’s best interest others are less clear. The intent of this paper is for students to become familiar with ethical issues, conflicts, and ethical dilemmas. negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample. This allows students to explore one of the “grey” areas of medical advancement. Health care professionals such as nurses who have prolonged contact with patients often come across challenging ethical and legal issues, especially in times of limited resources. In light of these situations, nurses continue to provide safe, ethical, and quality patient centered care. After researching your topic, you will formulate a position and then proceed to support your position from the relevant literature. Remember it is important you support your stated position with the relevant literature.

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In the ethical dilemma paper, students will describe an ethical situation encountered in their daily life and analyze the situation using ethical principles and theories.

Process:

1 The selected topic is “NEGLIGENCE” (NB//Your topic should be a specific one in relation to negligence and concerning your ethical situation that you encountered).

2. Read widely about your topic to familiarize yourself with the different perspectives that exist on about your topic

3. Research a case scenario, which you will be describing in your essay, including the reference and analyse the situation negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample

4. Next, decide on a position that you will take regarding the identified issue.

5. Formulate a clear and concise thesis. The aim of your paper is then to support your position through ethical reasoning

6. Paper Overview:

a. Decide on a position that you will take regarding the identified issue.

b. State if you personally agree or disagree with the practice identified based on a reflection of your personal experience or your own beliefs and values as opposed to professional values.

c. Introduction: Paragraph that engages the reader’s attention, identifies your thesis statement, and gives a brief overview of your essay, case scenario, and flow of paper

d. Identify how 2 different Ethical theories would view the ethical dilemma.

e. Identify how 2 or more Ethical Principles are conflicted in this ethical dilemma.

f. Identify relevant nursing standards or codes (CNO) relevant to the topic

g. Identify legal considerations (RHPA, Nursing Act, Criminal Code, Human Rights, etc.)

h. Conclusion: Paragraph that provides a summary of the most salient points.

 

Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Assignment

Introduction

Harding, Connolly & Wilkerson (2011) argue that as the nursing profession continues to evolve and progresses in the quest for excellence, the discipline is becoming increasingly complex in the light of adhering to the set standards by the implementing agencies. These set standards are the consequence of careful evaluation and observation drawn from the desire to end concerns and issues dealing to the ethical obligations and legal responsibilities of nurses.  Many of these encompasses the duty to carry out and interpret orders, delegation of authority, confidentiality of healthcare records, consent to surgical and medical procedures, negligence among others (Jeffreys, 2008). Among the issues identified above, negligence is one of the most controversial concerns and it has caught the attention of many in the world of nursing. Today, nurses have acquired advanced role to intervene in healthcare decisions. Previously, the distinction between doctors and nurses was clear. negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample. Nurses are no longer performing orders from doctors anymore. The role of the nurse in patient care has been expanded. In addition, this expansion has come with a number of ethical concerns in the discipline. Negligence in the world of nursing refers to the failure to apply care such as a reasonable careful and prudent person would apply under similar situations. Common aspects of negligence in nursing include inadequate hydration, physical injury and malnutrition occurred because of lack of care on the path of the nurse. For a case of negligence to be valid in the nursing field, three main aspects must be proved. These are: a breach in the care standard, the nurse’s duty absconded and a breach in the care standard of duty (Hansen-Turton, Ware & McClellan, 2009). In this respect, this paper will examine the malpractice as an aspect of negligence in the nursing world. Ethical theories and ethical principles will be evoked in order to achieve this end. negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample.

Weld & Garmon Bibb (2009) asserts that malpractice is often viewed as medical malpractice is the failure of a professional in the medical field to meet the set standards of practice. Malpractice is occasioned when a nurse does something contrary to the expectations of the discipline. An example of a malpractice in nursing is a case in which a 45- year-old man is admitted for suffering a sore throat and ends up receiving pain medication and antibiotics known to be a cause of labored breathing. When the patient developed further breathing complications, additional medication was given. The nurse failed to inform the emergency physician and her supervisor about the patient’s condition. Due to the respiratory problems, this man experienced hypoxia, which led to brain damage and developed into a permanent coma. In order to prove a malpractice occurred, it must be proven that negligence occurred and that the nurse breached the care standards and did not act in a cautious manner that a similar nurse would do in the same scenario (Kjervik & Brous, 2010). negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample. In addition, it must be proven that the infringement of the care standard occasioned the harm or injury. A more serious form of negligence is gross negligence. Gross negligence is where there is a complete failure to reveal care and implies a willful disregard or recklessness for the safety of a patient, according to Jonsson & Øvretveit (2008). An example of gross violation is restricting a patient who is experiencing dementia and is difficult to control and watch throughout the day and night can cause bedsores and fractures. In order to prove that gross negligence occurred, a person has to show that the person indicted acted in a manner that was not safe and caused harm or injury to another person. In addition, it has to be demonstrated that the person liable violated his responsibility to the other person, that his / her actions lead to the injury or harm to the said person, and that the said harm or injury could have been averted (Painter, et al. 2011). negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample.

Another example of negligence in nursing is a case of a patient who was subjected to amputation below the right knee rather than below the left knee amputation. This mishap occurred because of the surgical team negligence. The healthcare provider was negligent for the reason that the nurses and the doctors involved in the procedure failed to give appropriate care and execute their role to ensure that the right leg was being amputated. This was a breach of care since the nurses and doctors had a legal duty to safeguard the patient form injury or harm (Stein, 2011). The damages and injury that the patient experienced was a direct negligence on the part of the doctors and nurses.  Health care providers have a duty to safeguard their patients from injury and harm – an aspect that did not occur in this scenario. Due to the negligence of the health care providers, the patient will have to experience suffering throughout his life. In today’s health care, nurses are responsible for documentation of information on a patient and this information must accurately reflect, plan of care, nursing assessment, intervention as well as evaluation of the condition of the patient (Zalon, Constantino & Andrews, 2008). negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample.

In order to satisfy legal and ethical conditions, documentation in this situation should reveal that the standard of care was achieved by adhering to the set care standards by regulation bodies. Ethically, the primary goal of the nurse is to safeguard the patient and act as the patient’s advocate. Therefore, the process of documentation will entail the verification procedure, site marking by the doctor handling the patient as well as time out. The process of verification will entail identifying the accurate patient with double identifiers, obtaining the medical records of the patient, completing a checklist and obtaining the patient’s imaging studies (Harding, Connolly & Wilkerson, 2011).

Verification of the patient allows for time out, surgical site as well as the process in the operations theatre by each member of the surgical team (Jeffreys, 2008). By adhering to these procedures, the patient will be protected legally and ethically. Because the health care providers did not observe the set standard of care in the above case of amputation by enforcing the time out, the patient had the wrong leg cut off.  This means that the patient’s rights were ethically and legally violated.  The case of wrongful amputation of the leg arose from negligence. This situation could be avoided by adhering to a pre-procedure checklist, site marking as well as time out and correct documentation of such processes. negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample.

Nurses have multiple ethical responsibilities to their patients. The main ethical principles are: fidelity, justice, veracity, beneficence and nonmaleficence (Hansen-Turton, Ware & McClellan, 2009). The ethical principles that can guide a nurse in the amputation case are nonmaleficence and beneficence. In a sense, the duty of beneficence is on the opposing side of nonmaleficence. On the one hand, beneficence refers to the duty to better other people’s condition. On the other hand, nonmaleficence means the duty not to inflict injuries on others such as imposing suffering and pain. The first duty of the nurse is to ask himself or herself what is the end harm to the patient. When a nurse injects a patient he or she is causing pain to the patient, but he or she is also averting additional harm or injuries such as prolonged pain or disease development. As a result, the nurse must himself or herself the extent of the harm that can be tolerated by the patient (Weld & Garmon Bibb, 2009). In the case of the amputated patient, the proper identification of the accurate site for surgery would have bettered his condition and averted the amputation of the patient’s good leg. In addition, the nurse would also act as the patient’s advocate by ensuring that he was subjected to the best treatment and care. By adhering to these ethical principles, the nurse would have helped improve the patient’s safety, also avert any harm unintentionally subjected to the patient, and offer him the best health care he deserves. negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample.

In conclusion, the nursing profession continues to evolve and progresses in the quest for excellence, the discipline is becoming increasingly complex in the light of adhering to the set standards by the implementing agencies. These set standards are the consequence of careful evaluation and observation drawn from the desire to end concerns and issues dealing to the ethical obligations and legal responsibilities of nurses. The wrong surgical site discussed in this paper was as a result of negligence on the part of the surgical team. It has been established throughout the discussion that liability from negligence, malpractice and gross negligence arise from deviating from the set medical procedures of care that results in injury or harm to a patient. In order to meet the required standards, documentation of verification procedure, site marking as well as time out are a prerequisite in order to adhere to the set practice standards either ethically or legally and to avert any wrong surgeries. Adhering to ethical principles can help health care professionals and nurses to offer effective and safe care and treatment to their patients negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample.

 

References

Hansen-Turton, T., Ware, J., & McClellan, F. (2009). Nurse practitioners in primary care. Temp. L. Rev., 82, 1235.

Harding, A. D., Connolly, M. W., & Wilkerson, T. O. (2011). Nurses’ risk without using smart pumps. JONA’S healthcare law, ethics and regulation, 13(1), 17-20.

Jeffreys, M. (2008). Dynamics of diversity. Becoming better nurses through diversity awareness. NSNA Imprint, 36-41.

Jonsson, P. M., & Øvretveit, J. (2008). Patient claims and complaints data for improving patient safety. International journal of health care quality assurance, 21(1), 60-74. negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample.

Kjervik, M. D. K., & Brous, M. E. A. (2010). Law and ethics in advanced practice nursing. Springer Publishing Company.

Painter, L. M., Dudjak, L. A., Kidwell, K. M., Simmons, R. L., & Kidwell, R. P. (2011). The nurse’s role in the causation of compensable injury. Journal of nursing care quality, 26(4), 311-319.

Stein, A. (2011). Toward a Theory of Medical Malpractice. Iowa L. Rev., 97, 1201.

Weld, K. K., & Garmon Bibb, S. C. (2009, January). Concept analysis: malpractice and modern‐day nursing practice. In Nursing forum (Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 2-10). Blackwell Publishing Inc.

Zalon, M. L., Constantino, R. E., & Andrews, K. L. (2008). The right to pain treatment: a reminder for nurses. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 27(3), 93-101. negligence in nursing Scholarly Ethics Paper – Individual Essay Assignment Sample.

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+1 (315) 636-5076
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