Professional Accountability And Patient Safety

Professional Accountability And Patient Safety 1
PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND PATIENT SAFETY
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Professional Accountability And Patient Safety 2
Professionalism can simply be defined as one's conduct or behavior at the workplace
(Manuel & Crowe 2014). An employee irrespective of their occupation or level of education
should at all times demonstrate high levels of this attribute (Krautscheid 2014). The medical
profession, like any other field of employment, has its code of practice and any breach on
these regulations could land one in accountability circumstances. This paper dissects the
December 2017 case of Midwifery Board of Australia (MBA) vs. Mr Makoni, case reference
number Z206/2017 accessed on
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VCAT/2017/2065.html. This essay
focuses on two incidences of professional misconduct,involving a registered nurse and ant
two of his patients, patient RS, a psychotic inpatient admitted at Monash Health facility
between April 2010 and August 2013 and Patients SP, an involuntary inpatient admitted in
unit 2 of Monash health facility between March and May 2013.Both incidences involve
allegations of a professional caregiver making sexual advances to his clients and or having
sexual intercourse with them against the standard rules and regulations expected of medical
practitioners. This essay analyses the role of the nursing practitioner in the incidents and the
outcomes on the patient, and what the nurse ought to have done right to ensure safety and
professional care for the patient .
In the said case, one Mr Munyaradzi Makoni was accused of two counts of
professional misconduct involving inappropriate affairs with two of his clients. The
allegations involved two clients only identified as patient RS and patient SP, both of whom
the accused had recently given nursing care as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN) at
Monash Health as well as whose nursing care he had recently administered as an Associate
Nurse Unit Manager (ANUM). Mr Makoni transgressed the professional limits that should,
and commonly do, portray the connection between an attendant and a patient.

Professional Accountability And Patient Safety 3
In the first case involving patient RS, the former nurse faced accusations of meeting
with Patient RS outside of the emergency clinic as well as clinical setting, including at a strip
mall and at her home, for reasons which were not clinically vital or defended; Speaking with
Patient RS outside of the emergency clinic as well as clinical setting by phone, including by
use of instant messages, for reasons which were not clinically vital or advocated as well as in
a way which was excessively neighbourly, recognizable, cosy and additionally sexualised; as
well as shaping an improper individual association with Patient RS. The disciplinary board
could not, however, determine whether or not the accused had sexual contact with his former
patient. In the second misdemeanour, Mr Makoni faced similar charges with the addition of
engaging in sex with Patient SP on two occasions and consequently impregnating her and
paying the costs required with Patient SP to undergo a procedure ending her pregnancy and
going to arrangements at a therapeutic center with her for that reason. The board found the
accused guilty of all the charges levelled against him and since the later had long surrendered
his practicing license, the board reprimanded him and suspended him from applying for
practising licence for one year effective 8th December 2017.
Mr Makoni contravened section 5 and 196(1) of Health Practitioner Regulation
National Law (Victoria) Act of 2009 which forbids a health practitioner from engaging in
sexual relations with a current or former patient. The board was told that between 2010 and
July 2013 thereabout, Mr Makoni who was serving as a RPN in Monash Health's Acute
Youth Inpatient Unit met and had a talk with Patient RS outside of the medical clinic and
additionally clinical setting, at a mall, amid which Mr Makoni exchanged mobile phone
numbers with Patient RS for reasons that were not clinically essential or defended; or
potentially recommended that Patient RS go to his nearby church, sending various instant
suggestive messages to Patient RS and visiting patient RS’s residence for motives not
clinically justified. Mr Makoni was also had sexual intercourse with his psychotic patient SP