Case Study: The Charge Nurse

The charge nurse can continue to search for an available CNA that could possibly float to the unit. There are several hospitals that do cross training with the CNA’s just in case they are asked to float to another department. The charge nurse can help several ways by helping Brandi with the CAN tasks until help comes, she could care for a patient of Brandi’s, ask if one of the CNA’s could stay an extra hour or so to help with the tasks that need to be completed by 8am. Also, look over any morning tasks that could potentially be moved to a later time. She can possibly redo the assignments on the unit to even out the work load between the nurses until help arrives. We are all a team working together to provide the best care possible, so team

Delegating is one of the most valuable leadership skills a charge nurse possesses.   Effective delegation skills are essential for proper patient care and safety. Delegation is defined as when a nursing professional entrusts the performance of a nursing task to someone who is qualified, competent, and able to perform the assigned task (Q1).  In order for the charge nurse to delegate effectively,  he or she must take into consideration the patient's needs as well as the capabilities of the nursing professional for whom he or she is delegating the task to. The American Nurses Association outlines The Five Rights of Delegation as a guideline for nursing professionals.  The first right is for the professional to determine if the task is one to

Each year, roughly 1.5 million adverse drug events (ADEs) occur in acute and long-term care settings across America (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2006). An ADE is succinctly defined as actual or potential patient harm resulting from a medication error. To expound further, while ADEs may result from oversights related to prescribing or dispensing, 26-32% of all erroneous drug interventions occur during the nursing administration and monitoring phases (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). These mollifiable mishaps not only create a formidable financial burden for health care systems, they also carry the potential of imposing irreversible physiological impairment to patients and their families. In an effort to ameliorate cost inflation, undue detriment, and the potential for litigation, a multifactorial approach must be taken to improve patient outcomes. Key components in allaying drug-related errors from a nursing perspective include: implementing safety and quality measures, understanding the roles and responsibilities of the nurse, embracing technological safeguards, incorporating interdisciplinary collaborative efforts, and continued emphasis upon quality control.

Medication errors are the leading cause of morbidity and preventable death in hospitals (Adams). In fact, approximately 1.5 million Americans are injured each year as a result of medication errors in hospitals (Foote). Not only are medication errors harmful to patients but medication errors are very expensive for hospitals. Medication errors cost America’s health care system 3.5 billion dollars per year (Foote).Errors in medication administration occurs when one of the five rights of medication administration is omitted. The five rights are: a) the right dose, b) the right medication, c) the right patient, d) the right route of administration, and e) the right time of delivery (Adams). Medication administration is an essential part of

Every morning the charge nurse from the night shift does a huddle between 7:30am and 8am. All of the staff members participate in the huddle, including the ones coming and leaving. The charge nurse gives a report of the main points of what is going on in the unit, how many patients they have, who is going to be admitted, or transferred. Also, if any patient is on one to one care. The charge nurse mentioned the acuity of the patients. They give thanks to nurses and patient care technicians who did an excellent job. The manager gives a brief up date of how the day is going to be, and any news she has for the staff.

On Saturday 10/26/2016 at approximately 2328 hours, Security Officers Christopher Paz, Ariel Weiland, Omar Alonso along with Supervisor Steven Evans were dispatched to the EMS Off load Ramp for an incoming (51S) Patient Standby In E.D. Upon arrival at 2328 hours Security met with E.D. Charge Nurse Johnathan Bacal who stated that there was a combative male patient being transported by the Orange County Fire Department. At 2330 hours, the patient, Alan Castillo (DOB: 08/03/84; Fin #86501337) was brought by Orange County EMS (Engine #83) with an escort from Orange County Sheriff's Deputy. He had been combative on the way in and kept stating that he wanted to leave. He was rapidly taken to the Special Care Unit, E.D. room #38 but once inside the

While this is a serious error by institutional standards, it fails to meet the tort definition of negligence. There was a duty of care to this patient who was admitted to the hospital. A breach of that duty occurred when the patient was given the incorrect medication. The requirement of injury necessary to meet the definition of negligence was not me. There was no reported adverse outcome reported from the single dose of the incorrect medication. Due to lack of injury, there appears to be no risk to the institution from negligence surrounding the medication

On Thursday 12/24/2015 at approximately 2307 hours. Security Officer Omar Alonso (420) was contacted by E.D. Charge Nurse Sharey Selover about an uncooperative intoxicated male patient, Jose D. Gonzalez (DOB: 03/30/1977; FIN# 85006354), come in through the EMS Offload area. Officers Alonso and Ayuso reported to the call and observed an intoxicated male being wheeled into the Special Care Unit (SCU) E.D. room # 39. According to his assigned Nurse Sara Lopez, the patient had been involved in a physical altercation and had been kicked hard in the groin area. Patient did not behave badly or disruptive once he saw that Security were present and his Nurse was able to get his vitals, blood work, and urine without having any issues. Security staff

Leadership by the team leader, who has responsibility for the team, is critical for team

On Thursday 11/17/2016 around 2300 hours, I, Security Steven Evans was informed by Dispatch to make contact with 5 East Unit Charge Nurse Tonya Smith in regards of Code (34) Customer Service Assist. I arrived at 2302 hours and met with Charge Tonya Smith who explained to me that the Correction Officers for the prisoner in room # 504 had given her hard time few Months ago on the patient, Angel SantiagoGonzalez (Fin# 86424089) last visit. Nurse Smith further stated that she had a personal problems with one of the Officer and that she was informed by Lake Correctional Institution that this Officer would not be working at all on 5 East. She described the Officer as a Black female about 6 feet tall with braided hair. I walked over to the room and

Safe medication practices are key to every nurse since it results to safe medication administration. When medication is not administered correctly it results to adverse drug event which refers to harm to the patient that includes mental harm, physical harm, or loss of function which is as a result of a medication error (practices, 2017). Medication errors occur when a mistake is committed by a person administering medication and in order to avoid these errors safe medication practices need to be adhered to. Some of these

As a leader in the workplace, medication errors mostly occur when the workplace is understaffed with a patient load of full nursing cares that require more attention and care than patients who are independent. Due to being understaffed with a patient load of 13 to 2 nurses, medication errors occur more often as nurses are being rushed to finish all cares within their work timeframe. To decrease medication errors it is important to implement more staff during medication rounds, thus giving nurses additional time to concentrate and assure that the correct medication and dose is being given to the right patient ( ). The 6 medication rights are important to implement into every workplace as it decreases the chances of administrating medication to the wrong patients ( ). The medication right include; ______________________________________________________________ ( ). Medication errors have important implications for patient safety and in improving clinical practice errors to prevent any adverse events (

I currently work third shift at a facility in which I am the charge nurse. I delegate tasks to staff members every night. When I was chosen to be the team leader, I personally believed it would be no different than what I do at work. I could not have been more mistaken. I did not realize how uncomfortable I would feel delegating tasks to other people that have the same educational experience that I currently have. I cannot begin to image how difficult it is going to be when I am in charge of people that have more clinical experience than I have such as having to be the actual charge nurse on the floor with other RN’s. Also not only being responsible for the CNA’s actions, but other nurses as well. I really enjoyed the opportunity to be team

In today’s current fast-paced and demanding field of heath care, medication administration has become complex and time-consuming task. Approximately one-third of the nurses’ time is used in medication administration. There is much potential for error because of the complexity of the medication administration process. Since nurses are the last ones to actually administer the medication to the patient therefore they become responsible for medication administration errors (MAE). Reasons for MAE may include individual factors, organizational factors or system factors. This paper will discuss the root causes analysis of MAE and strategies to prevent them.

Medication error is one of the biggest problems in the healthcare field. Patients are dying due to wrong drug or dosage. Medication error is any preventable incident that leads to inappropriate medication use or harms the patient while the medication is in the control of the health care professional,or patient (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015). It is estimated about 44,000 inpatients die each year in the United States due to medication errors which were indeed preventable (Mahmood, Chaudhury, Gaumont & Rust, 2012). There are many factors that contribute to medication error. However, the most common that factors are human factors, right patient information, miscommunication of abbreviations, wrong dosage. Healthcare providers do not intend to make medication errors, but they happen anyways. Therefore, nursing should play a tremendous role to reduce medication error