Nursing Professional: Case Summary, Contributory Factors and Future Practice Implications

Running head: NURSING PROFESSIONAL
NURSING PROFESSIONAL
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

NURSING PROFESSIONAL
1
Answer 1. Case Summary: Summarizes the case and presenting professional practice
issues’
The case study reflects to show the deteriorating health condition of the patient who was
of 81 years initially suffering from shortness of breath, leads to death of the patient. The patient
was administered oral Lasix drugs which did not prove to be effective in her health. The chest X-
ray and blood test, revealed diarrhea and tenderness in the right abdomen. Ventilation lung scan
result was not clear. The patient was observed with sign of dizziness, depression and anxiety.
She was continuously refusing food and liquid, as a result, she became physically weak. No
nursing intervention was given to patient regarding it. The health care professionals were not
performing the duty of care and they were not accountable for their work. His blood sugar level
and heart rate increased for which he was administered valium and digoxin. He showed many
significant symptoms like cold, grey and pale body, which was ignored by the health care
professional. His health was continuously being deteriorated with severe back pain, UTI,
leukocytosis and immobilization. Then doctor did not arrive on time, and respondent waited for
his arrival, even after observing increase in respiratory rate and low heart rate and blood
pressure, which was not, paid any attention. In the case study despite describing patient as
“deteriorating” during clinical handover, emergency doctor arrived one hour late, and patient was
referred to another rural hospital, which should not be entertained because of her critical health
and they are not accountable for their action. While being assessed by air evacuation team,
patient died because of septicaemia. Due to two major professional issues noticed in the case
scenario, which is lack of duty of care and responsibility has deteriorated her condition in faster
rate.

NURSING PROFESSIONAL
2
Answer no 2. Contributory factors: relevant professional errors that potentially
contributed to the incident happening.
From the review of the case study, there are many shortcomings in practice by health care
professional which is describe as follow:
The first professional error noticed in the case study is relate to violation of non-
maleficence ethical principle. The principle is focused to not adopt any action that can cause
harm to the patient (Wong et al., 2017). In the case history, the diagnosis of disease was also
executed late, which is supposed to be performed at the time of admission or notice of
interpretive sign in patient for better recovery (Hutchinson et al., 2016). Health care
professionals should not ignore her diet plan, and should have paid attention in necessary
interventions and took steps on her continuous refusal of food. Additionally, the health care
professional should have provided important medication to improve the health of the patient
instead of waiting for assigned doctors. According to Shlisky et al. (2017), it can be said that it is
essential to consider diet of the patient as balanced diet with medication improve the health of
person and result in faster recovery. It is also evident that it is the duty of the nurse and health
professional to ensure quality care plan to avoid harm to the patient (Mira et al., 2015).
The second professional issue noticed is poor communication. It is evident from the case
study that when the health of the patient was deteriorating and she needed immediate medication.
The patient has showed symptoms of high respiratory rate, low blood pressure, and high
abdominal pain. Such sign and symptoms were important to be taken care as ignorance can lead
to poor health of the patient. Respondent communicated to Clinical nurse manager, but seek for
medication for another patient. They did not raise any issue or query regarding the patient A with