Heart Stopping Medication Injections

The plaintiff in Ard v. East Jefferson General Hospital, stated on 20 May, she had rang the nurses station to inform the nursing staff that her husband was experiencing symptoms of nausea, pain, and shortness of breathe. After ringing the call button for several times her spouse received his medication. Mrs. Ard noticed that her husband continued to have difficulty breathing and ringing from side to side, the patient spouse rang the nursing station for approximately an hour and twenty-five minutes until the defendant (Ms. Florscheim) enter the room and initiated a code blue, which Mr. Ard didn’t recover. The expert witness testified that the defendant failed to provide the standard of care concerning the decease and should have read the physician’s progress notes stating patient is high risk upon assessment and observation. The defendant testified she checked on the patient but no documentation was noted. The defendant expert witness disagrees with breech of duty, which upon cross-examination the expert witness agrees with the breech of duty. The district judge, upon judgment, the defendant failed to provide the standard of care (Pozgar, 2012, p. 215-216) and award the plaintiff for damages from $50,000 to $150,000 (Pozgar, 2012, p. 242).

Many advocates are fighting for improved medical care. It is improving slowly but surely. For example, many prisons started new counseling and education programs for HIV/ AIDS. Lawsuits and grievances are filed against prisons that are careless. The best strategy for change to occur is by having the media involved. “Lawsuits and Media go hand and hand,” Law stated. For example in Wisconsin, anonymous female prisoners called a Milwaukee newspaper to report medical negligence that led to an inmate’s death (Law, 2009). This phone call gave attention to this problem. Laws were passes to train medical personnel and for improved medical records.

In the health care business, there are certain standards and laws that have been put in place to protect our patients and their personal health information. When a health care facility fails to protect their patient’s confidential information, the US Government may get involved and facilities may be forced to pay huge sums of money in fines, and risk damaging their reputation.

As a nurse it has happened to be an essential need to be conscious of the legal aspects associated with caring and serving people in the health industry today. Unfortunately, only fewer people want to get into the health care field fearing the legal aspects and the predictable law suits. The Tort Law is one of the legal aspects of the law that most nurses is more familiar with. This is the law that involved misconduct and negligence cases, which many nurses take the time to study in depth. This is one of the most universal and well-known laws, something that nurses and doctors must be familiar with, to maintain their care resourcefully.

While the seriousness of a patient’s death should be investigated, the hospital failed to act promptly and investigate the supervisor’s or human resource (HR) department’s denial of reasonable accommodations or the previous errors made by the nurse. Therefore, the wrongful termination seems more likely to have been the case in this situation. The defense will show that rather than terminating her employment earlier the hospital waited until something catastrophic happened. The nurse took appropriate action discussing her health condition diagnosed by her physician that precludes her from working in the ER at full capacity with her supervisor. The nurse should have been given alternative assignments as appropriate or disability leave if no other alternative was available and should not have been terminated wrongfully after the incident (Pozgar,

The facts of this case are that Dr. Guiles who is self-conscious of his prostate cancer diagnosis is treated horrendously when he finally decides to have surgery ( Buchbinder, Shanks & Buchbinder, 2014). Considering that Dr. Guiles is already sensitive about his condition, his unbearable symptoms are not helping matters (Buchbinder et al, 2014). Upon arrival at the hospital, he is treated subpar. The admitting clerk is rude and unbecoming to a patient who isn’t feeling well and who is embarrassed about his sickness (Buchbinder et al., 2014). To make matters worse, he has to find his own way up to the floor by walking, which causes him to be even later in checking in because of the need to stop frequently to urinate as well as having difficulty in walking (Buchbinder et al., 2014). Once he arrives on the floor, the charge nurse is not welcoming and unprofessional (Buchbinder et al., 2014). After figuring out what to do with the paperwork; and the nurse aide delivers Dr. Guiles to his room, the nurse aide does not offer to help settle him in (Buchbinder et al., 2014). Therefore, Dr. Guiles is faced with battling obnoxious family members who are on his bed and to make matters worse someone is in the bathroom which doesn’t help his need of having to frequently urinate (Buchbinder et al., 2014). When the issues are brought up to the charge nurse, the charge nurse accuses Dr. Guiles of wanting preferential treatment

Ethics, or also referred to as moral philosophy, helps determine when things are right and when things are wrong. To kill or not to kill? To abuse or not to abuse? To hurt or not to hurt? In the nursing profession, as in all major health professional fields, nurses are bound to a certain Nurse’s Code of Ethics (Kelly, 2010). Obey the code, and a registered nurse can potentially live a long healthy career in the nursing field. Violate the nurse’s code of ethics, and one can seek penalties including but not limited to fines, fees, revocation, license suspension, probation, and even imprisonment. So what exactly happens to a Nurse who disobeys the code of ethics? The case between the State of Florida vs Mr. D.R.O. helps in getting a better understanding of what happens when a registered healthcare professional, in this case a Nurse, challenges the nursing code of ethics. Is the verdict appropriate in the defendant’s case? Were the consequences adequately applicable to the damages the defendant imposed? How can future and active registered nurses avoid situations like this in their career? Although the concept of ethics and the answers to some of these questions can seem common sense to most of us, in some cases, our minds can be clouded or disturbed

The State of Tennessee Board of Nursing’s Rules and Regulations of Registered Nurses, Rule # 1000-01-.13-1r states that unprofessional conduct is defined in part by "failing to take appropriate action in safeguarding the patient from incompetent health care practices" (State of Tennessee, 2011). There are a number of arguments in this case study that incompetent health care practices are being performed, from the decision to place a patient on a ventilator for an oxygen saturation of 88%, circumventing the patient’s written and verbal advanced directives, utilizing an unauthorized family member to get consent for

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.

1.) Criminal law is considered wrong against society and Civil law is considered a wrong in between individuals. I believe that these facts could give rise to both a criminal and a civil case. The reason I think this is because these nursing aides did stuff that society would see as wrong, like abusing the elderly. Also the residents/patients didn’t like what these aides where doing to them so in turn it is a civil law that is being broken as well. The nursing aides were simulating sexual acts with the residents/patients in which they were screaming, and also striking pinching and poking the residents/patients.

Health insurance fraud is what drives up health insurance premium costs, wastes taxpayer’s money, but can also endanger beneficiaries or leave them uninsurable. In 2015, Medicare Strike Force reported over $700 million in false billing by doctors, nurses, other licenses medical professionals, laboratories, and individuals (FBI.gov). This is a staggering figure that is only getting worse. In this fictitious federal case I will be describing the criminal offender, the crime that was committed, the charge handed down by law enforcement, and the judicial process from the beginning of the criminal case to the sentencing of Dr. Richard Heartman, an internal medicine physician.

Our text defines a tort as “a civil wrong” and negligence as “a tort, a civil or personal wrong” (Pozgar, 2012). Negligence as it is related to healthcare is an unintentional commission or omission of an act that a reasonably prudent person or organization would or would not do under normal circumstances. Not following a recognized standard of care could be considered negligence. The case I have chosen to study is one from the Circuit Court of Baltimore City Maryland and is that of Enso Martinez a minor by and through his parent (Rebecca Fielding) vs The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore Maryland July 2013. I would describe this as a landmark, “David vs Goliath” case

Kevorkian administered a lethal injection. Dr. Kevorkian was tried for first degree murder in Oakland County, Michigan as the result of the TV show. Prosecutors argued that, in administering a lethal injection to Youk, his actions constituted euthanasia rather than PAS. Kevorkian was convicted of second degree murder in 1998, sentenced to a 15-25 year term of which he served 8 years, and was released in 2007 (Levine, 2009) .

Ethical principals are the seed of which nursing flourishes from. Many ethical principals were involved and dishonored in this case such as, justice, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, confidentiality and fidelity (Burkhardt et al., 2014). I believe justice was the main principal involved as the entire ethical predicament was revolved around unjust behavior and treatment of the residents. The residents were treated poorly and given unequal rights as a causation of their illnesses. Autonomy, an essential piece of human rights was also being violated in this ethical dilemma. The residents did not have any choice or independence in their care or how they were being treated. Beneficence and non-maleficence are significant dynamics of this ethical situation, as the health care providers needed to reflect on how they can have the maximum benefit while diminishing possible damage to the residents (Burkhardt et al., 2014). Our actions as nurses should always be beneficent and non maleficent, continuously being kind, compassionate and doing what is in their best interest as well a removing and preventing harm. Confidentiality is a key component of nursing and it was blatantly being violated as the health care

Other concerns are conversations within the hospital cafeterias/lobbies about patients and their families, and employees sharing information throughout the hallways without a “need to know.” Once employees discover their colleagues looking at patient information without a “need to know basis,” and, other wrong doings according to the agency’s standards, their own sense of what is right and wrong instantly comes into question. Reporting the unethical behavior, the employee who had discovered the violations of patient rights is presented with a number of difficult choices. The legal basis for imposing liability for a breach of confidentiality is more extensive than ethical guidelines, which dictate the morally right thing to do.