To Prosecute or Not To Prosecute Essay

In the Code of Ethics for Nurses provision 4 states “The nurse has authority, accountability, and responsibility for nursing practice; makes decisions; and takes action consistent with the obligation to promote health and to provide optimal care.” This was not done, there was no regard for human life. The patients in the hospital were treated as a burden. A meeting was held where the doctors agreed that

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).

The negligence of this incident had a negative impact on the patient’s family members. Approximately 25% of cases involving medical negligence involve poor nursing care. Another negative aspect was patient’s family follow up was poor resulting in lack of importance highlighted on the pressure wounds. Ashley (2003) states nurses can be sued for malpractice, this means he or she is being sued for “negligence”. Furthermore, the nursing health professionals can lose its credibility among a community as they failed to provide a holistic care for the patient. However, a positive outcome was nurses were able to reflect among this evidence based practice to assist in better quality in patient

The two provisions from the Nursing Code of Ethics that were violated are Provision 2 and 3. Provision 2 states “the nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, community, or population” (Brown, Lachman & Swanson, 2015). Provision 2 focuses on “the nurse’s obligation to assure the primacy of the patient’s interests regardless of conflicts that arise between clinicians or patient and family”(Brown, Lachman & Swanson, 2015). Provision 2 was violated because the nurses

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.

If testing results support the suspicions of impairment, then management is mandated to report the incident to the North Carolina Board of Nursing (NCBON, 2011). With increased medication errors, Beverly failed to provide a safe and effective nursing care to the patient, therefore violating the laws of the Nurse Practice Act (NCBON, 2009).

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,

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 American Nurses Association (ANA) has the Code of Ethics which holds Nurses to the codes or provisions of these documents. I summarized Provision 1 of the ANA 's Code of Ethics. I give a scenario where this provision is broken by the nursing staff and consequences of doing so. Provision 1: Provision 1 reads as follows “The nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems” (American Nurses Association 2001). Provision 1 is divided into five subdivisions. Provision 1.1 is titled “Respect for human dignity"(ANA 2001). The nurse always needs to place value on their patient as a unique individual. Provision 1.2 is titled “Relationships to patients” (ANA 2001). As a nurse you need to leave all prejudice, personal beliefs, and convictions out of the care of your patient. The patient’s self-worth and value is not defined by their religious choice, culture, lifestyle, hygiene, financial status, sex, and race. The nurse needs to form or follow an individual treatment plan that fits your patient’s personal preferences, religious beliefs, and requests. Provision 1.3 reads as follows “The nature of health problems” (ANA 2001). A nurse is not to judge or look down upon a patient by their "The disease, disability, or functional status “(ANA 2001).The nurse needs

Ellen Hughes Finnerty, a registered nurse, was found guilty of negligence and incompetence, and was consequently disciplined by the Board of Registered Nursing. Accordingly, Finnerty’s license was revoked, and she was placed on a three-year probation. The following timeline gives a detailed summary of events that led to the conclusion of nursing negligence and incompetence on the part of Finnerty (NDC Learning House, 2015).

“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

Nurses are constantly challenged by changes which occur in their practice environment and are under the influence of internal or external factors. Due to the increased complexity of the health system, nowadays nurses are faced with ethical and legal decisions and often come across dilemmas regarding patient care. From this perspective a good question to be raised would be whether or not nurses have the necessary background, knowledge and skills to make appropriate legal and ethical decisions. Even though most nursing programs cover the ethical and moral issues in health care, it is questionable if new nurses have the depth of knowledge and understanding of these issues and apply them in their practice

The Code of Ethics for Nurses was created to be a guide for nurses to perform their duties in a way that is abiding with the ethical responsibilities of the nursing profession and quality in nursing care. The Code of Ethics has excellent guidelines for how nurses should behave, however; these parameters are not specific. They do not identify what is right and wrong, leaving nurses having to ultimately make that decision. Ethics in nursing involves individual interpretation based on personal morals and values. Nursing professionals have the ethical accountability to be altruistic, meaning a nurse who cares for patients without self-interest. This results in a nurse functioning as a patient advocate, making decisions that are in the best

Each of the seven primary values encompassed within the code of ethics were involved in this case include, providing safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care, promoting health and well-being, promoting and respecting informed decision-making, preserving dignity, maintaining privacy and confidentiality, promoting justice and being accountable (Canadian Nurses Association, 2008). I am going to thoroughly examine providing safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care, as well as preserving dignity. The code of ethics states under providing safe compassionate, competent and ethical care that nurses’ ethical responsibilities are to follow their practice standards, participate in compassionate care exhibited through actions, behaviours and body language, build trustworthy relationships, be able to fully place oneself in the individuals shoes to fully comprehend their situations, admit to mistakes, and prevent and minimize all forms of harm and violence (Canadian Nurses Association, 2008). This ethical quandary displays how this ethical value was not implemented, the health care aids did not place themselves in their shoes and try to understand their thoughts and feelings or how abandoned and meaningless they felt when they were not even acknowledged. No one

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).