The Novice Nurse Case Study

2067 Words9 Pages
Essay 1: The Novice Nurse Case Study Ethical Considerations in Healthcare June, 2014 Nurses play a vital role in the healthcare system. They make up the greatest number of hospital staff (Siela, Twibell & Keller, 2009). In the clinical setting, they are the ones who provide the majority of care to their patients. Nurses’ care for and advocate for the patients they serve. In addition to the formalized education they receive in nursing school, there is also much to learn when they transition from student to professional nurse. It is the responsibility of the organization to make sure that their staff is competent and skilled to perform the duties expected of them. Morrison (2011) states “When patients or clients enter the healthcare system at any level, they make at least one assumption – that those who are treating them know what they are doing”. In the case of Lawanda Person and St. Dismas hospital, it seems that there were many areas where fault could be found. Lawanda Person was a recently graduated nursing student with limited medical/surgical unit experience hired to work in a critical care unit at St. Dismas Hospital. Although Lawanda had obviously completed the necessary course work to obtain her BSN and passed her NCLEX examination to gain licensure as a Registered Nurse, was that enough to qualify her to work in an intensive care unit? As a newly graduated nurse, was this the right position for Lawanda? According to Friedman, Cooper, Click and Fitzpatrick (2011), “newly graduated RNs are the largest pool of available nurses in the current job market. Thus recruitment of new RNs is as important as the recruitment of experienced nurses”. If newly graduated nurses are in fact making up the majority of nurses in the job market, how do hospitals or other healthcare agencies go about making sure these new nurses are qualified and more

More about The Novice Nurse Case Study

Open Document