Negligence Paper
Maria Gutierrez
HCS/478
August 5, 2015
Carol Mack
Negligence Paper
The health provider or a nurse has the responsibility to provide the best care possible for the patients. In this paper, I will discuss about neglect and the different between negligence, gross negligence and malpractice. I will also cover my opinion about the situation, agreement or disagreement deciding whether it was a mishap or negligence, the importance of documentation, the ethical principles that serve as a guide for nursing.
Negligence is not being diligent. It is one of the legal issues that all healthcare provider are prone to participate unintentionally. Guido (2010 stated, “Negligence denotes ...view middle of the document...
When an action is performed by a professional person, the acts form the basis for malpractice” (P.93). Malpractice refers to a negligence or misconduct by a professional person that could be a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist or even an accountant. Malpractice may occur when an injury happen through a negligent act or omission. This could be a result of an error when giving the diagnosis, treatment care and after care or even in the health management.
In the neighborhood news under session 3 episode 7 the article is about an amputation mishap. Mr. Joseph Benson, a 62 years old who suffer from poor circulation for the last five years. Mr. Joseph was hospitalized at the neighborhood hospital. Who was going for an amputation of his right leg just below the knee and suffered a complication, the left leg was amputated.
In My opinion the incident happened because the neighborhood staff is going through a severe stress, due to the shortage of nurses, union problem and complaints of poor treatment. The staff seem to be working and not thinking properly this incident falls under a negligence category. I don’t agree with the statements presented in the article of the neighborhood news amputation mishap information.
The article information is trying to cover the negligence from all staff when it mention that the hospital has experienced an assortment of problems lately, including the shortness of nurses and union problem, but patients should not be affected by those problems I don’t agree, because there is no excuse for all the staff to be negligent. The staff is also ignoring the patient’s feeling and not promoting the beneficence for the patient. When the article mention that the hospital did not make a comment on the case.
The surgeon and all the staff involved in the surgery fail to perform the standard of care. The surgeon amputated the wrong leg. Now the patient have to go through the same process again. Griffith Stengnah declare (as cited in Wilson, 2012) that, “when a mishap occurs in the treatment, it is the healthcare professional’s duty of care to inform the patient immediately of the mishap” (para. 16).
This incident could be prevented if the healthcare team follow the protocol and procedure standard, such as; completing the checklist before surgery, double checking of signed informed consent, check or mark the site for surgery, time out and communicate. According to Wilson (2012), the adverse event that happen from surgical intervention are more likely related to errors occurring before or after the procedure. “These include the breakdown in communication within and amongst surgical team, delay in diagnosis or failure to diagnose; and delay in treatment or failure to treat” (para. 2). Because of the negligence of the surgical team Mr. Benson has to live the rest of his life with no legs. The nurse fail the responsibility to advocate for the patient and keep them safe.
Documentation is very important in the nursing field. If there is no...