Patient Safety Essay

As health care workers we are under a legal obligation to protect an individual from any kind of abuse, whether it is physical, financial, emotional, sexual or psychological .Legislation, policies and procedures exist to promote a safer working environment and reduce the potential for risks occurring. They are tailored for the needs of each setting, known and understood by employers and employees and reviewed on a regular basis.

According to American Nurses Association (ANA), (2010) “the nurse promotes, advocates for and strives to protect the heath, safety and right of the patient” (p. 6). Nursing responsibilities should be acted at the highest standard and must be based on legal and ethical obligations.

Patient safety and risk management should be intertwined in the organization. Patient safety is where the patient does not experience unnecessary harm or pain or other suffering during their treatment (Youngberg, 2011). Minimizing risk is to decrease unnecessary losses or improve or implement process that will decrease adverse event (Youngberg, 2011). The Samantha Jones adverse event is a perfect example to enhance patient safety through improved process or project. To understand the event a root analysis needs to be done and action items are created from this analysis.

Nursing profession is constantly changing with the development of new technologies that lead to a new level of responsibility. The new level of responsibility challenges nurses torespond to different and difficultsituations in the health care industry, especially in protecting the human right, dignity of patients and their safety. Nurses hold adistinctive position as patient advocates, regardless of their respective areas of practice; either in a home health, clinic, or in a hospital setting. Nursesare faced with ethical decisions, both personal and professional decisions.

This can include cases of perceived “pain-seeking” patients or “frequent flyers”. It can be difficult to treat those we see as trying to “use the system” for pure personal gain equally to those we may see as “truly ill”. It is important to remember to treat everyone in the same manner. Another important provision is provision 3. This provision states, “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient.” This means that nurses must always do everything thinking of the patient’s best interest first. This includes making sure they are fully informed before signing any consents for procedures and questioning any orders that may seem inappropriate for said patient. It is the nurse’s job to be the patient’s advocate and to always provide a safe environment for the patient.

The main ethical issues that presented in the case scenario is maintaining privacy and confidentiality. “Privacy is limited access to a person, the person’s body, conversations, bodily functions or objects immediately associated with the person” (CNO, 2009, p. 7). Nurses recognize the importance

According to the ANA (American Nurses Association), it is the duty of nurse to protect the patient’s rights, safety, health and advocate for the patient. By treating the patient in an open area, invades their privacy, can cause embarrassment and most of all jeopardize trust between the patient and care giver. This negligent care could also lead to legal ramifications in the future against the hospital. By breaking this trust, the patient may also omit valuable information that could affect their treatment ultimately causing them harm. Some patients may become noncompliant with their prescribed treatment. It is essential that effective communication between patient and care provider occurs at all times. . Healthcare providers are obligated to give safe and effective care.

Nursing and healthcare continue to change on a daily basis. The one thing that has remained constant during these changes is maintaining the safety of our patients. By maintaining their safety, nurses must ensure that they are keeping up-to-date with the changes in technology now being introduced in healthcare, new and emerging diseases, new equipment, and changes in treatment modalities. One such responsibility is ensuring that nurses do not operate equipment they were not oriented to or trained to use in an effort to prevent injury patients. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are being held accountable for practicing within their scope of practice based on their licensure regulations, and the company policies and procedures. Therefore, nurses are responsible for their professional growth and practice by ensuring that they comply with the necessary standards required by their profession.

In the 1966 film, Fantastic Voyage, world famous scientist Jan Benes suffers a stroke after being attacked on his way to the United State Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces (CMDF) lab. He possesses vital information that the US needs in order to defeat the Soviet Union, so they put Benes into a coma to prevent his brain from hurting itself further. Dr. Peter Duval, the lead surgeon, informs Mr. Benes’s Secret Service handler that the injured part of Benes’s brain is located in an area that they cannot operate on without fatally injuring the man. Their only option is to shrink an expert team of four engineers and scientists, along with Mr. Benes’s Secret Service handler, down to microscopic size and inject them through Jan Benes’s carotid artery

As a radiographer patient safety is an essential part of the scope of practice that cannot be taken lightly. This essay will look at a scenario where patient safety is compromised and the effect this can have on a career. The implications on the radiographer’s career will be discussed in alliance with the Radiographers scope of practice and Medical Law.

Patient autonomy, patient safety and risk are the main key issues which have arose from the scenario of Ward 6 regarding patient, Mrs Green. These issues have been chosen to be addressed as it is important that the patients in your care have the choice and are always safe and not at risk, to do this The Institute of Medicine (2010) says nurses and other health professionals should work together to ensure a safe delivery of quality care (cited in Kim et al. 2015 p.2491).

Nurses are subject to a plethora of legal, ethical, and professional duties which can be very challenging on a day to day basis. Some of these duties include respecting a patient 's confidentiality and autonomy, and to recognize the duty of care that is owed to all patients. As nurses our duties are always professional; however there are legal implications if these duties are breached. We also must consider when it is okay as nurses to breach these duties and therefore ethical issues arise. As nurses one of our main priorities is to advocate for our patients, without our own personal feelings on the matter taking over.

Nurses should be aware that their negligence causes very bad effects on patients and should be anxious about medical malpractice because nurses are held answerable for their own negligence and could find themselves being charged for malpractice. (Elis, 2012).

In addition, “As mandatory reporters, nurses have an additional duty to immediately report any unsafe patient care to the appropriate supervisor or manager. This duty includes identifying and reporting staffing problems, protecting the health, safety and rights of the patients, preserving the nurse's own integrity and safety, refusing a patient care assignment based on concerns for patient safety, and practicing with reasonable skill and safety.” (Nurse Together, 2016, Nurse’s Duty and Accountability section, para.1) (C. #83)

In order for a nurse in Texas to determine whether or not a particular action is within their scope of practice they must first consider the obligation to upholding patient safety. After all, the mission of the Texas Board of Nursing focuses on protecting and promoting the health of its citizens by ensuring every licensed nurse in their state is competent to practice safely (Texas Board of Nursing [TBON], 2013a). The scope of practice is wide-ranging and integrates a full spectrum of care (Bungay, Masaro, & Gilbert, 2014). In efforts to guide a nurse in deciphering whether an action is capable of fostering patient safety, a flowchart from the Board of Nursing is made available and can be referred to as the Six-Step Decision-Making Model for Determining Nursing Scope of Practice (TBON, n.d.). Each step is comprised of a question, if the answer is no at any point the nurse may discontinue going down the flowchart with the determination to not follow through with the action (TBON, n.d.). However, if the answer is yes the nurse is to continue asking themselves the relevant questions to determine the appropriateness of the action (TBON, n.d.).