NUR312 Assessment Task 2: Template

NGAIRE SMITH
STUDENT ID: 1111996
NUR312 Assessment Task 2: Template
Please refer to the assessment task 1 instructions and rubric for guidance to
complete your work.
Name:
Student Number:
Step 1: Look back at the experience, present a brief overview of your life crisis
case study and identify 2 social justice principles related to your case study (300
words).
You must not include any identifying information in the case study
related to a patient or organisation.
In this section, an overview of the case study is being provided by using Kanel's
four components of crisis. The four parts of crisis used in this text are 1) the
occurrence of the precipitating event 2) person having a perception of the event
to be threatening, 3) that leads the person to emotional distress 4) and emotional
distress causing impairment in the functioning due to failure of the coping
method of an individual. The case study centers on Mrs. Brown, who was
suffering from chronic bronchitis when she was under the treatment of a
palliative care unit. She had displayed signs of loss of appetite and alteration in
the urinary and the bowel movement. With each passing day, Mrs. Brown became
weak, often meeting with fever. Complications like delirium were displayed by the
patient due to the imbalance in the sodium-potassium. As a result, her immune
system became week and she was easily attacked by common cold and other
viral fever. The compromised immune system and the minimal care received by
the patients made her emotionally weak. Due to the negligence of the nurses,
the son of Mrs. Brown had to take up the treatment and provided her with an
aspirin. Due to the loss of functioning of the kidney, the dose of aspirin initiated
an adverse drug reaction causing symptoms like abdominal pain and vomiting.
Following Kanel's four components of crisis, all these led to physical as well as
emotional distress in the patient.
Followings are the two social justice principles that have been breached in this
life crisis.
Equity
The patient was an Indigenous Australian from the Torres Strait Island. Hence she
NUR312 Assessment Task 2

NGAIRE SMITH
STUDENT ID: 1111996
has belonged from socially deprived class and was not getting standardized care.
The negligence and the indifference of the nurses were due to her aboriginal
background.
Rights
As per the International convention of human rights, every human being is
eligible for a standard of living adequate for the wellbeing of himself and the
family. The patients could not talk in English, hence the medical staffs including
doctors and nurses did not agree to share the information about her treatment
procedure. They also refused to provide her with standardized palliative care due
to the poor economic background. This was a direct breach of the nursing codes
of ethics, which stated that nurses are accountable to provide quality care to the
patient irrespective of their caste, creed, and ethnicity.
Step 2: Elaborate and describe your life crisis case study (500 words)
What happened
Mrs. Brown was admitted in the emergency department, due to chronic bronchitis
and abnormal sodium-potassium balance due to water and electrolyte deficiency.
Mrs. Brown came from an aboriginal background and belonged to low
socioeconomic status, which deprived the patient of getting the minimum amount
of care. The nurses did not pay heed to her complaint about constant pain and
headache. The negligence was evident from the fact that the patient suffered
from an adverse drug reaction, due to the intake of aspirin, even in the presence
of other health care professionals (Dal Pont 2015). I was asked to attend the
patient and provide her with a pain-relief. She was finally taken to the critical
care unit.
Feelings
I was feeling extremely disheartened and awkward for the incident experienced
by an elderly person. It was noticed, that the cause behind the deterioration of
the health condition of Mrs. Brown was exclusively stimulated by the innate
sexism and racism in the Australian health care system (De Lepervanchen 2013).
Being a nurse, it was a shameful event as nurses are legally as well as ethically
accountable to provide justifiable health service to the patient and address all
their health care needs. The practice of racism and discrimination not only
compromises the care but also undermines the essence of this profession (Allen
NUR312 Assessment Task 2

NGAIRE SMITH
STUDENT ID: 1111996
et al., 2016). This was my feeling towards my profession and my colleagues, with
whom I had been working, and the patient might have felt the same justifying
their conception of westernized treatment to be rude and unacceptable.
Outcomes
The outcomes of the inappropriate palliative care provided by the health care
staffs are that Mrs. Brown turned weak day by day. The patient contracted a
common cold and had a fever that worsened her health. The nurses did not pay
heed to the grievances when they faced a communication issue with the patient.
Racism and discrimination added up with socio-economic status lowered the
quality of care to the patient. Due to over reluctance of the nurses, Mrs. Brown
also experienced adverse drug reaction, that caused swelling of the hands, feet,
and legs and caused shortness of breath, which left the patient panic-stricken.
Mrs. Brown was so frightened, that she even refused to take an IV infusion.
Actual /potential social justice principles that impacted the life crisis
Social justice principles refer to equality, diversity and supportive environment. It
refers to the values that believe in the elimination of equity, social justice and
provision of a supportive environment (Cole, Wellard and Mummery 2014). In this
case study, the hospital organization did not follow of unity and diversity as none
of the nurses, displayed an inclusive behavior and the hospital environment also
did not support inclusion.
Step 3: Analyze the outcomes of your life crisis case study (500 words)
Use your references in your analysis. The analysis must refer to the social justice
principles related to the life crisis case study.
There are small number of literature on strategies at the health service level for
culturally respectful care to the aboriginals (Hole et al. 2018). It is evident from
this case study, that the health care staffs lacked cultural sensitivity. The ICU
admission of Mrs. Brown, could have easily been avoided by adhering to the
safety protocols.
According to (Tobiano et al. 2015), the two possible outcomes of the study are
due to inequity Mrs.
Brown started to feel depressed and due to negligence in patient rights, her
condition of ailments became more serious and severe. It has already been
mentioned that the right to equity has been breached in this case study. This is
because equity means that the resources are assigned under the requirements of
an individual and population (Mazel 2018). Another social justice principle that
NUR312 Assessment Task 2