Discuss The Role Of Nurses And Accountability In Health Care

Accountability means:” being accountable for one’s own action”. The American Nursing Association (ANA) states in its code that the nurse will assume accountability for individual nursing judgments and actions. Professional nurses are accountable in several areas including accountability to the public, client, profession, employer, and self (Hood, 2010, p. 307). All professional nurses have the responsibility to work within their scope of practice to provide the best possible care to patients. Nurses’ should have a thorough knowledge about their accountability in specific areas of practice. The level of responsibility and accountability depends on professional levels. A nursing supervisor has more responsibility than a charge- nurse. A

Accountability of nurses is clearly pinpointed and well within the realm of law. A nurse is accountable to all the patients he or she is expected to attend to. Such accountability as underlined by common law helps promote safety of all patients.

The child's mental, physical and medical health are the main priority and when the parents are resistant to treatment, we sometimes have to take a legal approach in order to provide the best quality care available. Provision 4 of the Nursing Code of Ethics states "The nurse is responsible and accountable for individual nursing practice and determines the appropriate delegation of task consistent with the nurse's obligation to provide optimum patient care" (ANA 2014). This provision surrounds my position of being a nursing manager completely! Being a nurse manager and directing youth care workers of the facility is an extremely big responsibility. It is my duty and obligation to ensure the safety of not only the children in the facility, but also the employees that work there. I am accountable both professionally and personally, even when I am not physically in the building. It is my responsibility to make sure all jobs are delegated appropriately and all those concerned are safe plus secure with the best available care possible. Only some of the employees have formal education or training, such as nurses... most employees are actually trained in the facility by the managers and the nurses. I am responsible for making sure the youth care workers and other personnel are educated on proper interaction, safety, infection control, policies and procedures from a medical standpoint.

I found your post to be very interesting with, your definition of accountability. More so, I would completely agree in that, nurses are accountable to their patients, as well as, and how our actions as nurse will affect them, for example, checking the vitals before administering medication Thanks for sharing.

The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to preserve integrity and safety, to maintain competence, and to

Accountability: As an endorsed enrolled nurse my responsibility is to be accountable for my actions and know the legal and ethical requirements and ramification of care for my patients. It’s my own professional practise to accept accountability and responsibility for my own actions and know my own level of competence and accept delegation from an RN or others in the health care team but also choosing whether or not I feel competent and do so these tasks by demonstrating and recognising my own level of competence and providing safe and practical care for patients

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.

The sequencing of the human genome has a new approach to health care in regards to promotion, maintenance, and treatment. Genetic research is defined as a new approach to a better understanding of the genetic components of common diseases: Cancer, diabetes, stroke, and creating new gene-based technologies for screening, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of both rare and common diseases. Nurses are a main aspect within the first line of care, and therefore will contribute fully in genetic-based and genomic-based practice activities such as collecting family history, obtaining informed consent for genetic testing, and administering gene-based therapies. Lea, D, (January 31, 2008). My paper is based on an article Genomics in the public

Nursing interventions which we does on our floor is early ambulation, frequent assessment, proper communication with other health team members, use of Sequential Compression Device and Foot Pump, it is an evidence based guidelines for prevention (Kehl-Pruett W., (2007). Most of the patients tolerate it well, sometimes they complaints of feeling warm and sweaty, and can’t go to sleep.

268). Accountability and responsibility differ, because responsibility belongs to the person doing the task and accountability belongs to the person who assigned the task. The nurse is both accountable for the task being completed and is also responsible for evaluating the task or the results of the task. Therefore, within every delegated procedure, both the nurse and the UAP hold responsibility, yet only the nurse is accountable. If a procedure is done wrong or the patient is harmed by the task, the nurse is at fault because she delegated that procedure and she is ultimately accountable for patient outcomes.

Accountability is an extremely important component of professional nursing practice in all settings and at all levels. The great responsibilities closely placed on human service and the commitment. The nursing profession starts with a strong and clear understanding of the responsibility, accountability, confidence with a healthcare discipline. It is of vital importance to nurses are held accountable for their actions, and nurses cannot escape the inevitable consequences of these actions. Therefore critical thinking, and nursing knowledge, continuity of care, lifelong learning, is an essential in order to apply and to practice at workplace, also with everyone involved in health care.

This concept is taken from module 1 of block 6 entitled “Ethical Issues in Nursing Practice”.

It is very common after adverse consequences or for actions not taken that lead to something seriously going wrong that someone has to take full responsibility and be held accountable. This idea in particular applies to health and care services where service user’s life and well-being can be seriously at stake. Carers must be responsible for the provisions that benefit service users than harm them and therefore they are accountable for what they do or omit to do. Accountability is clear list of tasks which failure to adhere to may result in penalties.

Irene Heywood Jones (1999) says that to be accountable is to be answerable for the service and the care a nurse has provided (28). The four areas cited by Dimond B (2001) in which the medical caretakers are accountable are the patient and society through civil or criminal courts, to the employer and to the profession (29). But in ethical accountability, the willingness to give care and the relationship and respect between self and client is taken into account. According to Tschudin and McGregor (2001), Moral responsibility can't be requested or measured yet professional, legal and moral accountabilities should be seen and seen together at each level of work (30). Accountability rests and stems out from responsibilities but not all responsibilities demand accountability.

A study was performed at John Hopkin’s Hospital that investigated an intensive care unit and found over a 12 day period that there were over 350 alarms per patient, making a grand total of over 59,000 alarms (Sendelbach & Funk, 2013). It is no wonder that health care workers can become easily desensitized to the alarm sound, constantly listening to the repetitive alarms for an entire 12 hour shift. In addition to the constant beeps and buzzes from the alarms, many of the sounds are not “true” alarms. There are many things that can initiate a false alarm. It is said that more than 85% of hospital alarms are false, meaning that they truly do not necessitate involvement from the nurse or health care worker (Cvach, 2012; Horkan, 2014; Jones, 2014; Paparella, 2014; Sendelbach & Funk, 2013).