homework

An infant had been discharged from the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit the day before his parents brought him back to the emergency room.  The parents told the emergency room triage nurse that the baby had turned blue at home, had not had a bowel movement all day, appeared limp and that his eyes had rolled back in his head.  The parents had been told to bring the baby back to the hospital at once if the baby had even a slight fever, a change in eating habits or if there was a change in his color.

 

From the court records, it appeared that a struggle developed in the emergency room between the parents, who were highly agitated and insistent that their child be seen by a physician immediately, and the triage nurse on duty, who was insisting that the parents fill out certain forms.

 

According to the court, the triage nurse made a cursory examination of the baby.  She then reassured the parents that the baby was fine, apparently to calm the parents and stop their demanding behaviors.  The nurse then classified the baby as semi-urgent under the hospital’s classification scheme, which meant that the baby would require medical intervention within eight hours, but did not have an immediately life-threatening problem.  The nurse told the parents to wait, and the physician would be with them shortly.

 

The parents, however, based on the nurse’s reassurances concerning their baby’s condition, within a few minutes elected to get up and leave, without waiting for the baby to be seen by the emergency room physician.  The baby died several hours later.

 

Questions

Legal Issues in Nursing

Read the legal case studies. As a nurse, you may encounter similar situations someday. 

1.Should this case have reached the courts? Why or why not?

2.Was there an error in judgment on the part of the nurse? If so, what should have been considered or done differently? If not, why not?

3.Who, ultimately, is responsible for what happened?

4.Justify your answers using legal guidelines that you have learned in school. 

Bottom of Form

INSTRUCTIONS: CITE USING APA 7TH EDITION WHEN ANSWERING QUESTIONS, SIMPLE ENGLISH PLEASE.

Read chap 3 0f the book