Malpractice Case Summary

“Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor or other health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, causes an injury to a patient. The negligence might be the result of errors in diagnosis, treatment, aftercare or health management.” (Admin) One of the most common type of claims that pharmacies face are negligence claims. Negligence is one of the categories that falls under the area of law called Torts. In the Hundley v Rite Aid case, a tort was filed for injuries that were sustained by Gabrielle Hundley after she took medication from an incorrectly filed prescription. The case involved a jury trial verdict involving Gabrielle Hundley, a minor child, against Howard Jones, the pharmacist, and the Rite

As the article The Impaired Nurse stated, “Impaired nurses can become dysfunctional in their ability to provide safe, appropriate patient care” (Thomas, C.M., & Siela, D. 2011). As we learned in class the four ethical principles include; beneficence which is the act of doing the most good, non-malfeasance which is the act of doing the least amount of harm, autonomy which focuses on allowing each individual to make their own decisions and justice which focuses on being fair to all involved. Nurses who are abusing substance typically can’t follow these for ethical principles to the best of their ability because they are too focused on themselves. As mentioned in the article Substance Abuse among Nurses, nurses who are abusing substances are not able to complete tasks and function as a typical nurse would (Talbert, J. J. 2009). These types of nurses are not able to apply the four ethical principles to their everyday work environment because they are too focused on the substances they need. These nurses would not be able to function and apply to principle of doing the most good because they will not be doing the best if on substances. As mentioned in both articles, these nurses will spend a good amount of time in the bathrooms hiding and using, take medications from patients, and forget tasks that need complete. Beneficence and non-malfeasance in my opinion could not apply to nurses who are abusing substances because they are not caring for their patients as

An experienced nurse Julie Thao was taking care of 16-yeas old Jasmine Gant who was about t give a birth. Thao is accused of making a mistake that had terrible and tragic result on the life of a pregnant teenage, unborn child, Gant’s family, health care, and Thao’s life. Thao mistakenly gave Gant an epidural anesthetic intravenously instead of an IV antibiotic for a strep infection. Within minutes of receiving the epidural IV, Gant suffered seizures and died. Her child, a boy, was delivered by emergency Caesarean section and survived. So what caused this tragedy to happen? According to investigation, Thao improperly removed the epidural bag from a locked storage system without authorization, she did not scan the bar code, which would have told

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).

Ethical Issues that the Nurse, Employer, and society encounter when dealing with a nurse that is an addict

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,

Wisconsin has similar laws and rules of conduct as Illinois with Board information readily available online. The types of disciplinary actions, nonetheless, seems to be universal among the states. The main difference with Wisconsin when compared to the Illinois State Board of Nursing is how specific the rules of conduct and grounds for taking disciplinary action are laid out in Wisconsin Administrative Code for the Board of Nursing. For example, the rules of conduct listed in Illinois lists five acts or practices deem to disciplinary action, whereas in Wisconsin multiple and specific examples of the unethical acts or practices are provided. Regardless, it seems both state boards of nursing have more in common how nursing practice is regulated. It would not be surprising if further research of other state boards would be similar to that of

It is important that management acts quickly if they suspect a nurse is under the influence of alcohol. Acting quickly reduces the chances for harm to the patient, staff or visitors. Per Marquis & Huston (2015), nurses using alcohol at work are less likely to admit to using due to lack of peer acceptance of their use. The manager or supervisor’s greatest obligation is to protect the patient. Ethically and legally the manager or supervisor cannot dismiss this impaired behavior (Marquis & Huston,

If the defendant would have adhered to the numerous safeguards for nurses, it could have prevented the alleged wrongdoing. According to the American Nurses Association’s Code of Ethics for Nurses, nurses must advocate for proper assistance for coworkers when indicated. This supports nurses in early recovery when they return to work (O’Neil, 2015). If the coworkers of the defendant would have recognized her issue and spoken up prior to December 9th. 2015, than this hearing could have been prevented. It is the nurse’s ethical responsibility to safeguard the patient, the public, and the profession from prospective harm when a nurse appears to be impaired. This can be

On January 19th, 2009, Ian Andrews was given a seven-month suspension from the nursing profession. A year prior, Andrews was working as a full-time practical nurse at a mental health and addictions hospital located in Ontario. The client affected by Andrews ' actions was an elderly individual, who was diagnosed with autism and presented occasional periods of rage and fury. The client’s care plan involved managing periods of aggressiveness through staff support and the use of restraints, as necessary. On the day of the incident, staff nurses noticed that upon the client’s grunt, Andrews punched the client in the face several times, as the client tried to cover his face. Andrews then took the client into the bathroom where thudding noises were heard. Upon arrival, the nurses noticed Andrews standing over the client uninjured, with the wall covered with traces of blood and a broken faucet resting in the sink. Later in the evening, Andrews ' left a progress note within the client 's chart which described that the client had injured himself due to a period of restlessness. Upon patient assessment, a wound was noted on the client’s bottom lip along with minor lacerations present at the back of the client’s head.

The event that essentially precipitated the criminal charges against Ann Mitchell and Vicki Galle was when they reported the unsafe medical practices of Dr. Ronaldo Arafiles. They stood up for many of Dr. Rolando Arafiles patients and their rights. They felt as if Dr. Arafiles was not providing standard care for his patients. After they filed an anonymous complaint to the Texas Medical Board (TMB), Winkler County Sherrif Robert Roberts requested copies of the confidential complaints and notified Dr. Arafiles. Following this action, the sheriff and Dr. Arafiles a attempted to retaliate against the two nurses (Sack, K). After reviewing the outcome of the case, the nurses were both impacted negatively. They will probably never be hired into the

Attending the meeting held by the Missouri State Board of Nursing located at the education center in Jefferson City, I was able to sit in on two hearings with my classmates. There would have been more but no one else had shown up. The first hearing I was able to sit in on was a disciplinary against the nursing license due to a failed drug screening. This was an older lady who couldn't remember what she had taken and didn't know why the test would come back positive. She had multiple no call, no shows along with showing up for work under the influence and smelled of alcohol. The Missouri State Board of Nursing suspended her license. My belief on this case is that the lady was lazy and guilty due to the way she presented herself to the Missouri State Board of Nursing.

I am Myrna Montoya, a registered nurse from New Jersey and currently taking the RN-BSN online program at Notre Dame College, South Euclid, Ohio. In our course on Health Care Policy in Complex Adaptive System, the students were given the opportunity to review the 2002 case of Finnerty v. the Board of Registered Nursing. As was ruled by the Court of Appeal, Ellen Hughes Finnerty, a registered nurse, was found guilty of gross negligence and incompetence.

“The definition of a health professional is a person who works to protect and improve people’s health by the diagnosis and treatment of illness to bring about a complete recovery from mental, physical and social perspectives, either directly or indirectly (Kurban, 2010, pg. 760).” Nurses in the community today have acquired an increasing responsibility to intervene with medical decisions. In the past, there were clear differences between nurses and doctors. It was more common for a nurse to be supervised directly under the physician. They are not just performing Doctor’s orders anymore. The nurse role in patient care has been widely expanded. Allegations against someone can be one of the most stressful moments of their careers. Negligence

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