Responsive Quality of Nursing Report 2022

Running head: NURSING
NURSING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Medical error and malpractice crisis can be considered as one of the main emerging
challenges in the health care facilities. Medical error directly indicates towards poor clinical
governance. The case here is related to a terminally ill elderly patient, who died right after the
application of the three medicines at a go on an IV drip. The NSQHS standard 4 will be the
base of this essay as the nurse had directly breached the NSQHS standard (Medication safety
standard)
Thesis statement: Nursing incompetence and lack of accountability leads to medical
malpractices that not only brings about economic and psychological distress to the families,
but also undermines the profession of nursing on the whole.
Nursing incident and nurse’s role on this incident
The incident is about a 97 years elderly woman who has died in a hospital at Sydney,
after a nurse had administered three different oral tablets and put her under an intravenous
drip. As per the statement of the defensive lawyers, the patient was already on her death bed.
She was reported to be died of heart attack. Reportedly, the patient was admitted in to the
emergency department with extensive medical issues like nausea, vomiting, angina,
dehydration and urinary tract infection. As per the report a lawsuit has been filed against the
nurse and she had been standing the trial in charge for manslaughter by gross criminal
negligence.

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Consequences of the incidents on the nurses and health care consumers
Medical malpractices are generally considered if there is a failure to the provide a
proper standard of care and the health care professionals remains adhered to certain
professional standards like NMBA standards and NSQHS standards Sweeney, LeMahieu &
Fryer, 2017). The adverse effect of medical malpractice might differ from person to person.
Some of the gross consequences involve disabilities, birth defects, disfigurement, repeated
hospital admission, infertility, and loss of consortium, loss of opportunity and even death and
moreover economic and psychological distress to the family of the patient (Rodziewicz &
Hipskind, 2019).
Medical malpractices and fowl play greatly affects the reputation of a hospital and
such incidents undermine the essence of the profession (Kim & Bates, 2013). The NMBA
nursing codes of conduct gets breached, which states that nurses are legally and ethically
obliged to provide an appropriate, safe and responsive quality of nursing (standard 6).
Breaching of this professional standards not only questions the personal and the professional
values of nursing, but can bring about tort of negligence (Butts & Rich, 2019). The health
care consumers loses trust from the doctors and other health care providers. If a criminal
offence is proved right by the plaintiff, it can bring the profession of the defendant under
stake. The licensure of the nurse might get cancelled permanently.
Identification and development of the nursing standards
In order to avoid medical malpractice and law suits against the nurses, a lot of
strategies can be taken up by the organisations. The first strategy is to be patient and maintain
resilience during heavy crowding of the hospital department (Nursing and Midwifery Board
of Australia, 2017).. Crowding in the triage area, less staffing and heavy workload might lead
to medical errors, hence proper delegation of tasks should be done by the registered nurses.

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According to the NMBA standard 6, registered nurses should delegate practices to the
enrolled and the junior nurses to prevent overcrowding and uneven dissemination of the
workload (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2017).
Nurses should ensure that there is a prompt reporting the of any medication error take
place. Nurses should be accountable to their patients and will cross check the dosages before
applying them to the patients (Wittich et al., 2018). The organisation should use safety
measures like the use of electronic health records to prevent wrong patient selection or theft
of the data. According to the Medication safety standard of NSQHS, there should be an
organisation wide system for supporting and promoting safety for the supplying, promoting,
storing and monitoring the effects of the medicines (Nursing and Midwifery Board of
Australia, 2017). The medications provided to the patients should be reviewed thoroughly
and information should be provided to the patients and their families about any associated
risks (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2017). Some of the other
recognised solutions for reducing the medication errors should include improvement of the
governance and the quality measures, providing training to the nurses to increase the overall
competency of the nurses and using technology for recording of the electronic health records
(Rodziewicz & Hipskind, 2019).
Furthermore, appropriate training should be provided to the nurses, regarding the
management of patient’s data, handling of the electronic health records. A punitive free
environment caters to prompt reporting of malpractices (Konetzka, Park, Ellis & Abbo,
2013).

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Reflection
What?
Such incidents question our personal values and our learning, as what of we have learned
during our nursing standards. I feel ashamed that the health care consumers trust us blindly,
hoping that their needs will be addressed, and our action cannot meet up to their expectations.
So what?
I am not very sure, as of what the nurse might have been thinking while committing this
crime, but even if it is an unintentional mistake, such mistakes cannot be overlooked, as
nurses are accountable to review the type of care they are providing to the patient. The nurse
could have reviewed the vital signs of the patient and could have initiated an emergency call
on further deterioration of the condition of the patient.
Now what?
In order to avoid such mishap, the nurse could have been more alert while providing care to a
terminally ill patient, as he had been already at the edge of life. According to NSQHS, and
the NMBA standards , it is the duty of the nurses to use a range of assessment for identifying
any health risk present and to evaluate and monitor any progress towards the expected goals
and its outcomes.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said, it was due to the negligence and the indifferent attitude of
the nurses that causes medical errors. In order to avoid such errors in nurses should update
their knowledge about the current medical guidelines, ways to review medication dosage, use
of electronic health records. They has to be more alert and accountable to whatever they do

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on their part. Special attention needs to be taken while handling palliative care patients.
Furthermore, they should also work for their own professional improvement.

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References
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. (2017). National safety and
quality health service standards (2nd.ed). Retrieved from
https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/our-work/assessmentto-the-nsqhs-standards/
nsqhs-standards-second-edition/
Butts, J. B., & Rich, K. L. (2019). Nursing ethics. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Kim, J., & Bates, D. W. (2013). Medication administration errors by nurses: adherence to
guidelines. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 22(3-4), 590-598.
Konetzka, R. T., Park, J., Ellis, R., & Abbo, E. (2013). Malpractice litigation and nursing
home quality of care. Health services research, 48(6pt1), 1920-1938.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, (2017).Professional standards. Access date:
6.8.2019. Retrieved from: https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-
Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards.aspx
Rodziewicz, T. L., & Hipskind, J. E. (2019). Medical error prevention. In StatPearls
[Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.
Sweeney, C. F., LeMahieu, A., & Fryer, G. E. (2017). Nurse practitioner malpractice data:
Informing nursing education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(4), 271-275.
Wittich, C. M., Burkle, C. M., & Lanier, W. L. (2014, August). Medication errors: an
overview for clinicians. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 89, No. 8, pp. 1116-1125).
Elsevier.