Approaches To Professional Nursing Practice

Running Head: APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE
APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE
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Introduction:
Critical reflection aims to enhance the communication between the patient and the nurses.
It enables the novice nurses to enhance their confidence and patient managing abilities and help
them to get adapted to the clinical environment.
Clinical error in the healthcare organization is frequently observed by the nurses due to
lack of proper clinical knowledge. Improper transfusion, wrong site surgery, falls, pressure
ulcers, erroneous patient identities are the most common clinical errors identified in the
healthcare setting.
This essay focuses on the clinical error conducted by a nurse which led to death of a 97
year old woman. The essay aims to critically reflect on the incident in order to identify the
breach of the nursing care and its consequences.
Critical reflection in the nursing is considered as the fundamental skill which aims to
enhance the healthcare delivery of the patient by the nurses.
Body:
Critical reflection of the case study of a 97 year old man, who died due to the clinical
error conducted by the nurse that resulted to her death, helps the healthcare staff to gather
learning about the clinical errors and its consequences.
A 97 year old woman named as Nymphea Anderson, has been admitted to the hospital
due to heart complication. Apart from that, she has been suffering from urinary tract infection,

APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE
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dehydration, angina along with vomiting and nausea. The past medical history of the patient
involves chronic heart illness and high blood pressure.
The nurse Mavis Lopez, who is taking care of the patient, observed that the patient is
unable to swallow the prescribed medication. Hence, to administer the medication, nurse crushed
three oral medications mixed it with saline and intravenously injected into the patient without
even consulting it with the registered nurse (Bibby, 2019).
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that the nurse does not follow the
principles of duty of care of the patient which posed a negative impact on the patient as well as
on the nurse.
To conclude, the medication administration error conducted by the nurse had impacted
negatively on the patient, family members and the nurse itself. Reflection of the incident help the
nurse to learn the issue which could be done while treating a patient in order to avoid medication
error.
The clinical error by the nurse led to heart attack of the patient and to death. After that the
blood samples of the patient had been diagnosed and foreign particles were identified which is
expected to be present due to the intravenous administration of the oral tablets (Hewitt, Tower &
Latimer, 2015). Foreign particles in the artery hinder the oxygen flow which might give rise to
the heart complications in the individual (Alam et al., 2019).
The nurse has been suspended from her duty due to the allegation of the manslaughter of
the patient. According to Australian Commission on safety and Quality in Health Care, (2019),
the nurse should provide safe and quality care to the patient.