Assignment on Nursing - Professional Accountability

RUNNING HEAD: NURSING 0
Professional accountability &
patient safety
March 30
2020

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Healthcare or medical sector is a honourable sector. Medical professionals grind
themselves to save lives. Few medical professionals ignore seriousness attached and involved
with their profession and they begin to make mistakes. If a medical professional makes a mistake
it is extremely dangerous because there is always a human life involved in every step. Healthcare
centre all over the world should work with quality service and try to do no mistakes to save more
and more life and treat more and more patients. This essay has involved a case in which medical
professionals careless behaviour made a young adult lose her life. An eighteen-year-old young
adult girl committed suicide in the healthcare centre in psychiatric intensive unit care in the
presence of two nurses per shift. This essay will analyse the case and express what the nurse's
omissions were and how they must have saved the girl. This essay has also highlighted how the
situations have been controlled by enhancing the worth of the healthcare centre.
On 24th April 2019, the health care complaints commission impeached a complaint
against four registered nurses. They were suspected of unsatisfactory professional conduct and
professional misconduct at the time of their duty. Ms. Ahlia Raftery was a patient in a psychiatric
intensive care unit at the master mental health care centre. She was admitted to the health care
centre for her high suicide risk. Ms. Raftery was eighteen years old at the time of her death.
There was RN Lilly as the unit manager of the psychiatric intensive care unit and was on the day
shift on the day event took place. The complaint supposed a failure to undertake appropriate
observations about all four nurses and concerning RN Lilly there were additional allegations
regarding failure in performing the duty of a nurse unit manager. On 19th March 2019, the
tribunal found RN Lilly guilty. Tribunal found that despite the case involved a high level of risk
Ms. Raftery was sighting for every fifteen minutes. An observation of a patient that is awake
should have been done with seriousness and responsibility. A sighting in such circumstances
requires continuous monitoring of the patient to avoid any miss happening. On 24th April RN
Lilly’s registration was cancelled for twelve months with a non-review period of twelve months
(Commission, 2019).
All the four nurses involved were experienced and were expected to handle the case with
professionalism (Tribunal, 2019). Mr. Davies and Ms. Drinkwater were at night shift and
Ms.Than and Mr. Lilly were at the day shifts. Ms. Alhia was able to build a noose from bed
sheet she than attached it to the door handle on the outside bedroom and hang herself in the

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period between 6:30 AM and 7:25 AM on 29th March 2015. This took place in the presence of
nurses. According to the case, Ms. Ahlia was in the psychiatric intensive care unit and was at
high risk of suicide. This first wrong and unprofessional behaviour by medical professionals was
patient’s information in the clinical document were incorrectly registered. Patient was at high
risk and in medical documents, it was mentioned patient was at a medium risk of harming
herself. The clinical document was circulated in every nurse as shifts were changed. Registered
nurses failed in keeping the medical records safe and relevant. After the tragic event when nurses
were been inquired instead of showing cooperation all the registered nurses was busy defending
themselves. They all made it challenging to find the truth in the case. The nurses failed to
analyse the mental health condition of the patient. Registered nurses failed in monitoring the
patient.
All four registered nurses hold the experience and still were unable to save the life of a
young adult. Nurses did not fill the clinical documents of the patients with care. Carelessness in
recording the medical documents was extremely unprofessional. They were to monitor the
patient care but they just kept a check on the patient every fifteen minutes. The way they
conducted themselves at the duty was unprofessional. At the time of the interview, all the nurses
tried to push the blame on one another. The patient was at higher risk of attempting suicide yet
the registered nurses ignored the seriousness involved in the case. All the nurses were found with
unprofessional conduct. Registered nurses in the health care centre failed in properly observing
and attending the patient.
A patient that approaches a doctor or medical professional trusts the medical professional
with their life (Ozawa, 2013). Patients show blind trust in doctors and nurses and return, medical
professionals, must provide the best and quality service to the patients and help them recover and
make them return to their normal life. The healthcare profession is considered to be a noble
profession because they aid in saving human life. Medical negligence is extremely
unprofessional and medical professionals involved in the misconduct must be punished.
Nurses are the most trusted in the healthcare sector (Hall, 2010). Nurses are the ones that
take care of the patients 24/7. Nurses are ones that help patients as well as the doctors in
providing care service. According to the case, the registered nurses were responsible but also the
remaining staff of the healthcare centre ignored the patient that was on a higher risk of self-harm.

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The patient committed suicide in the healthcare centre and no one noticed. It shows that the
healthcare centre needs to improve their service quality. It is not just nurses that were at fault it
was the entire healthcare centre that was at fault.
The entire system needs quality improvement. Healthcare centres are known for
preserving life. According to the case, the health care centre’s CCTV was also not active. After
the tragic incident took place in the medical centre, no worker was present to stop the patient
from committing suicide other than the duty nurses. Medical negligence is misconduct by
medical professionals or practitioners (Schmeidel, Daly, Rosenbaum, Schmuch, & Jogerst,
2012). Medical negligence is a crime and is treated extremely unprofessional if a patient has to
suffer during the treatment process. The medical staff and medical centre need to provide quality
services. The only objective of health care and communal care setting should be to satisfy the
patients that are involved with the health care and communal care setting. Hospitals are always at
pressure to improve the worth of care, but what happened in the above-mentioned case was pure
carelessness. Health care centres should be more responsible and disciplined because they have
to deal with human life. To improve the worth of patient care it is essential to establish care
standards that will aid the health care and communal care setting to improve the worth (McColl-
Kennedy, Vargo, Dagger, Sweeney, & Kasteren, 2012). Patients might be satisfied with the
services provided by the health care setting but it is essential to continuously improve the worth.
Quality enhancement in the medical sector will help in maintaining the health of people. Quality
enhancement in the medical centre will also build trust in the people and that will help the
medical centre to grow as an organization as well.
According to the case, all four nurses were unable to save a life. According to the case, it
was essential for the nurses to monitor the patient to avoid self-harm she was planning. Nurses
need to behave in a certain manner to prevent any kind of misshaping in the healthcare centre.
All four nurses were well-experienced yet they were unable to save a life that was clearly at a
high risk of self-harm. The situations have been different just if nurses have been little more
careful about their duty (Labiner, Bagic, Herman, & Fountain, 2010).
In the very beginning of the patient's admission in the health care centre, the clinical
records recorded incorrect details by the medial workers and it is was a huge mistake for a
medical professional. Medical documents provide information about the patient to every

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changing and new coming medical professional. It was essential for the nurses to record the
correct data for the next medical professional (Maillet, 2015).
Monitoring the patient well is another big duty of the nurses (Schmidt, 2010). Once the
doctors are done with treating the patients, the nurse must look after the patient. According to the
above-mentioned case, it was the nurse's responsibility to provide the best care and service to the
patient. There were two nurses at night and morning yet they were unable to save a life. This
happened because nurses were taking rounds in the intensive care unit in every fifteen minutes. If
one of the nurses from every shift had monitored the patient for 24/7 then this tragic incident had
been avoided and a young adult have never lost her life. It was a medical professional's duty to
save a life.
This essay has analysed a case in which a young adult lost her life. An eighteen-year-old
young adult girl committed suicide in the healthcare centre in psychiatric intensive unit care.
This essay has analysed a case and expressed what the nurse's omissions were and how they have
saved the girl. This essay has also highlighted how the situation has been controlled by
enhancing the worth of the healthcare centre. It is essential for health care professionals to act
mature and handle patients with care.

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References
Commission, H. C. (2019, April 24). RN Russell Lilly - Unsatisfactory professional conduct and
professional misconduct - Reprimand and Registration Cancelled. Retrieved March 30,
2020, from NSW Government: https://www.hccc.nsw.gov.au/Publications/Media-
releases/2019/RN-Russell-Lilly---Stage-1---guilty-of-unsatisfactory-professional-
conduct-and-professional-misconduct
Hall, A. G. (2010). Health Care & Nursing Practice. AAACN Viewpoint, 4.
Labiner, D., Bagic, A., Herman, S., & Fountain, N. B. (2010). Essential services, personnel, and
facilities in specialized epilepsy centers—revised 2010 guidelines. Epilepsia, 2322-2333.
Maillet, É. M. (2015). Modeling factors explaining the acceptance, actual use and satisfaction of
nurses using an Electronic Patient Record in acute care settings: An extension of the
UTAUT. International journal of medical informatics, 36-47.
McColl-Kennedy, J., Vargo, S., Dagger, T., Sweeney, J., & Kasteren, Y. (2012). Health care
customer value cocreation practice styles. Journal of Service Research, 370-389.
Ozawa, S. &. (2013). How do you measure trust in the health system? A systematic review of the
literature. Social Science & Medicine, 10-14.
Schmeidel, A., Daly, J., Rosenbaum, M., Schmuch, G., & Jogerst, G. (2012). Health care
professionals' perspectives on barriers to elder abuse detection and reporting in primary
care settings. Journal of elder abuse & neglect, 17-36.
Schmidt, L. A. (2010). Making sure: Registered nurses watching over their patients. Nursing
Research, 400-406.
Tribunal, C. a. (2019). HCCC v Drinkwater; HCCC v Lilly; HCCC v Davies; HCCC v Chan
[2019] NSWCATOD 39. New south wales.