Nursing indicators such as education on unnecessary use of restraints and not repositioning the patient every two hours, are failures to deliver quality care. The staff increased the chances of Mr. J to develop pressure ulcers. Also the use of restraints increased the chances of Mr. J to develop a deep vein thrombosis or pneumonia from lack of mobility. All members of the healthcare team are responsible to provide the best care possible and be an advocate for the people they care for. (American Nurses Association, 2015).
Research has shown that this can result in a decrease in quality of care and patient safety and increase adverse patient events (Tevington, 2011). However, some criticize this research because it does not show a direct link between nurse staffing levels and individual patient outcomes (Needleman, Buerhaus, Pankratz, Leibson, & Stevens, 2011). This paper will investigate if inadequate nurse staffing levels have a negative impact on patient outcomes on adult inpatient acute care hospital units? Adequate Versus Inadequate Nurse Staffing The American Nurses Association (ANA) defines adequate nurse staffing as an appropriate match between the nurse’s skill level and the needs of the patient ( American Nurses Association, 2012). To achieve adequate nurse staffing, it is known that balance must be achieved by properly staffing the unit with the appropriate number and correct mix of nurses to adequately care for the unit’s patient population (Sanford, 2010).
Running head: DISCLOSURE OF ADVERSE EVENTS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP Disclosure of Adverse Events and Its Relationship with Justice in Health Care Health Care Systems and Environments Graduate Program in Health Care Management Case Study Disclosure of Adverse Events and Its Relationship with Justice in Health Care Providing safe quality care is a priority in health care. Unfortunately, errors occur. Adverse events are unplanned negative outcomes, however, they are not the intention of health care personnel. Research has shown that fatigue and stress account for most errors. Today’s fiscal environment adds an additional stressor to an already burdened infrastructure.
Nursing Liability in Critical Care Settings Robin M. Rostock University of Phoenix Health Law and Ethics HCS/478 Debrah Archer March 05, 2011 Nursing Liability in Critical Care Settings Litigation in critical care is a question of when, not if. This reality makes it even more important to understand how nurses expose themselves daily to lawsuits and how they may prevent or limit their liability. Charge nurses found liable for the actions of reassigned nursing personnel when delegating assignments is always a risk. Many of the tools used by the critical care nurse to expedite care such as standing orders do not offer the protection that one might expect in a lawsuit. Administrative policies may be incomplete in their definitions, leaving them open to court determination.
For example, side effects of appropriately prescribed and administered chemotherapy are an example of adverse events not caused by error (Hoy, 2006). Medical errors should be disclosed to patients for a number of reasons. Because of their fiduciary relationship with patients, physicians have an ethical responsibility to disclose errors to them. To withhold this information undermines the public trust in medicine and damages the therapeutic relationship between physician and patient. In fact, patients may be caused additional, avoidable harm by failure to disclose because they lack information that would allow them to receive appropriate treatment should further complications arise (Hoy, 2006).
Why does missed nursing care occur? Missed nursing care is a failure to perform a required patient intervention, which is either delayed or omitted. It is identified as a nursing task left undone. Omissions in basic care often go unrecognized and unreported and can result in deleterious patient safety outcomes. Missed nursed care by its very essence challenges the nursing professions mandate for patient advocacy and weighs heavily on the minds of patients, direct care nurses, and management alike.
With this said, a determination needs to be made of why nurses are staying longer then a normally scheduled 12 hour shift. Root Cause Analysis: Staffing shortages will cause a nurse to have to stay over in order to take care of patients. What one might think is being helpful, so they are not working shorthanded, can cause harm just the same . The data for 4E shows numerous occasions of nurses staying well over 12 hours. At this point the nurse is tired and distracted which can lead to error.
If you are not technologically savvy and do not know how to use the program, then it defeats the purpose of trying to help the patient and can lead to errors in judgment and advice, as well as distrust of the patient. Also, because of the limited amount of memory space, it is important for the nurse to know what information is the most important to put in the chart, and when old records can be erased (for example, labs that are always repeated, you only need 2-3 sets to show the
RTT Task 1 Western Governors University A. Nursing Sensitive Indicators As the medical field becomes more-and-more complex, it is crucial that the nurse does not overlook the day-to-day needs of the individual patients. It is very important that the nurse as a professional does not become so bogged down with the medical aspect that one loses touch with the patient as a person. What may seem very minute to the nurse, can be of great significance to the patient. If the nurse is not sensitive to these minute needs, it can cause the patient to be unable to trust the medical team meeting the needs, and understanding the importance of more serious issues.
One of my areas of concern is evidence-based practice (EBP). This organization does not placed enough emphasis on EBP in home care considering the many risks that are involved in patients knowledge deficits in common areas like falls, preventing bed sores and the benefits that could be achieved with teaching them. EBP has been introduced to the United States years ago, however, many nurses have negative attitude towards research, in large part due to the manner in which they were taught research in their education program. In conclusion, I expect to gain a better understanding of this course, advance my knowledge skills, especially in EBP, demonstrate personal and professional integrity; concentrate on a more specific area of study. I enjoy researching topics of interest and making intellectual decisions.