I read an article that talked about the liability someone would have in different situations that could happen with being a nurse. The article is called "Just like the real thing?" by an author named Penny Simpson Brooke. She has experienced these situations herself being a nurse.
She first talks about a code and responding to it appropriately. She had a situation where when with a patient the code cart was not appropriately equipped with the supplies she needed to help the patient. The patient could have died in this situation. She says that when a code comes there should be enough staff there, at the hospital in order to respond to the code appropriately. She says that the supervisory staff members need to be there to respond.
Also there are policies within most facilities. These let them know who is responsible to check the code cart to make sure all supplies are there. Another thing that nurses should do is comply to policies that indicate that they should stay with a patient and chart the events of the code.
Another thing she goes on to talk about is how some nurses use a tape recorder to report to the next nurse who comes in. In her opinion it is not necessarily good to use a tape recorder. She said that you could be kept from knowing whether or not this record was when the information came right when it was recorded or if the condition of the patient changed from the time it was recorded. It is also difficult to question or discuss this type of report in her opinion. She questions the legality of this and who would be held responsible. In her opinion if you(the nurse who came in after the previous one) acted upon the report being inaccurate then both of you would be liable. Also only you would be held responsible if you didn't understand the report and acted on it resulting in harming the patient. As a nurse if I chose to tape-record something I need to remember to update it always.
Last, she talks about a situation in which she as a nurse had a pretty good sense of when people would eventually go into cardiac arrest. She tells of how she told her physician that she thought they should intubate a women because she felt she would go into one. It turns out her physician rejected her request and the patient did go into cardiac arrest and died. Who would be held liable? Well, a physician is capable of listening to a well experienced nurse, but is not necessarily forced to follow. In this situation the physician is held mostly responsible because they chose not to intubate the patient. Although if a nurse really does question their physician's ability they should quickly ask another one for what they think they should do. In this situation, according to Penny, you should ask your physician why they didn't intubate the patient. She thinks that by talking with the physician you will be able to discuss ways to improve how you care for patients in the future.
In this article I did not see anything that was reffering to questions or answers posed by other people that the author used. I believe this article was based soley from the experience of the author as a nurse and perhaps from the her observing acts of other nurses. I question the code cart. What supplies are to be put on the cart for any given situation? I don't really question anything else about this paricular article. I think she outlined a lot of good answers for her questioning. |