Class 6 Unit 3 Topic 1 Comment 3

Thing to Remember:

Answer this discussion with opinions/ideas creatively and clearly. Supports post using several outside, peer-reviewed sources.

1 References, find resources that are 5 years or less

No errors with APA format 6 Edition

To Comment:

Case 2:

   A 55-year-old female patient is status post hip surgery. Post operatively, the patient experienced a hypotensive episode and was treated accordingly then was transferred to the med/surg unit for post op care. Supposedly, it was not reported to the nurse that took over the patient’s care and routine post op care was given to the patient along with her other patients on this busy day. Subsequently, the patient was later unable to tolerate respiratory treatments then her status decreased, was found blue (by either the LPN or RN, which is not clear according to documentation) and a code was started. The patient was intubated and sent to the intensive care unit, eventually the patient expired from hypoxic encephalopathy due to delay in CPR initiation. Upon legal implications of this case, standards of care are in question.

            Standards of care are dependent on the situation and in which state the individual resides. According to Westrick (2014), a nurse is not only to know their scope of practice, but to be aware of any harm that may come of the patient and actions the nurse is supposed to take to prevent that harm. Sometimes nurses and physicians go by clinical guidelines for their practice. What they need to be careful of is, just because they are following clinical guidelines, it doesn’t mean that those guidelines are part of the standards of care (Moffett and Moore, 2011). It is important that everyone involved in patient care know exactly what is within their scope of practice and what they are allowed and not allowed to do in certain situations.

            The National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN] (2017) explain that the Nursing Practice Act (NPA) doesn’t provide guidelines for nursing as a profession, but it does make up a board of nursing for each individual state to help in the rules and regulations of nursing practice. Even though they do not provide the guidelines, they do require that the board includes the following: “authority, power and composition of a board of nursing, education program standards, standards and scope of nursing practice, types of titles and licenses, requirements for licensure, and grounds for disciplinary action, other violations and possible remedies” (NCSBN, 2017, para 3). Not only it is important for nurses to know this information and apply it to their practice, but if it was not documented it was not done. Especially in cases like this, documentation is very important and the one major thing that is learned in nursing school is if you did anything with or for the patient, document it because if not, then there is no proof that you did it. This will not keep you from being sued, but it will help in your case and it will help you remember exactly what happened that day. These court cases do not come within the next week, but years later when you have forgotten everything that happened that day.

Reference

Moffett, P., & Moore, G. (2011). The standard of care: Legal history and definitions: The bad and good news. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 12(1), 109–112.

National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN]. (2017). Nurse Practice Act, Rules & Regulations. Retrieved from https://www.ncsbn.org/nurse-practice-act.htm

Westrick, S. J. (2014). Standards of care. In Essentials of Nursing Law and Ethics. (2nd ed., pp 23-25). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.