Nursing Issues in the Critical Care Unit, Patient Confidentiality and Aboriginal Perspectives on Cancer

Running head: NURSING ISSUES IN THE CRITICAL CARE UNIT 1
Nursing Issues in the Critical care Unit
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Module one
Safety issues in a critical care unit
Healthcare workforce such as the nurses plays a pivotal role in patient care as well as
safety surveillance while in the healthcare facilities. For quality care and professionalism in their
positions the nurse require an accord on the significant set of parameters employed to ensure safe
practices. These measures determine decisions about resources allocation positively affect
patient outcomes and the nurse’s safety in the healthcare system. In this article, safety issues in
intensive care units (ICU) will be discussed and the possible strategies for ensuring safety be
outlined.
In the healthcare facility, the critical care setting is one of the most complicated
environments especially for the critical care nurses (CCN). The complexity of the ICU poses a
risk to the patient safety since they sometimes even sustain physical injuries in the process of
receiving daily care. Such a setting demands the management of intersecting issues of running a
high-tech environment by ensuring the staff’s competency in operating these machines. Also, the
core objective of providing quality care must be met by the team working in this very
traumatizing setting (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012).
The severity of the patients’ health conditions is directly related to the number of safety
issues the patient is likely to encounter. The critically sick patients undergo invasive treatments
procedures using drugs and technology that despite its benefits endangers patient safety as well
as that of the nurses (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012).
Moreover, the intensive job in the ICU brings about fatigue to the nurses which
ultimately affects patient safety negatively. Such an issue is worsened by the inadequacy of the

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CCN in most healthcare facilities required to enhance the implementation of a rotational or
working in shifts.
For the CCNs to address the safety concerns of their patients it is essential to seek the
support by engaging the facility’s leadership. The safety concern is then brought to the attention
of the management so that it can come up with and implement safety frameworks. In this regard,
the administration will request for the recruitment of more ICU staff to reduce the work burden
on understaffed workforce. Then it will also ensure that patient safety becomes a teamwork
effort whereby all the team follow the safety measures in the ICU. Great success in improving
patient safety will be achieved when the initiative is translated into a safety culture for the
facility. As a result of the safety culture the ICU staff will understand the best way to exchange
patient data in meaningful and respective manner. One of the ways to set off the implementation
of such a system is by beginning with the assessment of the prevailing climate in the ICU and
evaluate its effects on the patient care as well as safety (Bassuni & Bayoumi, 2015).
Another important safety measure is the assessment of the ICU equipment, technology as
well as its systems from a patient safety perspective before acquisition and implementation.
These devices endanger patient safety by causing injuries when they are not rigorously evaluated
before use. Sometimes inadequate knowledge on the use of these sophisticated poses safety
issues to both the patient and the nurses. Therefore, to ensure they are appropriately used and
serviced there is a need always to ensure that experienced staff operate or supervise the use of
these devices (Rhodes et al., 2012).
The development of a patient safety supporting culture in the ICUs coupled with the
specialized training of the CCN is crucial to alleviating most of the safety issues in critical care

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units. Also, it is essential for all the healthcare stakeholders to recognize safety in the facilities
requires teamwork effort for its successful implementation.
Module two
Patient or client confidentiality and the ethics dilemma
Confidentiality is the basis of providing nursing care as well as a foundation for building
a good relationship between the patient and the healthcare professional. According to Basevi,
Reid and Godbold (2014) confidentiality is the respecting of secrets of other people and keeping
security information obtained from individuals in the privileged situations of a professional
relationship. The nursing act of privacy accords the healthcare professionals with an option of
employing an expert opinion in the disclosure of patient information with first options ensuring
that safeguards have been exhausted (ICN, 2012). Sometimes the nurse is required to provide a
patient’s private information to carers to save the health of the client necessitating the breach of
patient confidentiality. Such situations present ethical dilemmas which require an application of
moral principles as well as theories before reaching a decision.
In the event, confidentiality is sacrificed patients may lose their trust in the healthcare
system discouraging them from seeking medical care for fear of disclosure of their private
information (Routledge, 2015). Also, the breach of confidentiality attracts legal and professional
issues, mistrust, disrespect, and feeling of betrayal and a sign of lack of professionalism in the
patient treatment. Similar to other healthcare departments the ICU gathers patient information
that is liable to the nursing act of privacy deserving patient confidentiality. The major questions
in the patient privacy and ethics are when is it necessary to breach confidentiality between a
patient and a healthcare provider? One such situation for contravening secrecy is when possible