Case Study Reflective Essay: Unprofessional Conduct in Nursing

This assignment analyzes a case study involving unprofessional conduct in nursing, focusing on a CARNA member's failures in patient care and documentation. The essay identifies five acts of unprofessional conduct, including documentation violations, failure to seek assistance, inadequate patient assessments, medication errors, and breaches of established protocols. The analysis highlights the importance of adherence to the scope of practice, proper documentation, and ethical considerations in nursing. It underscores the potential consequences of unprofessional behavior, such as patient dissatisfaction, medication errors, and legal repercussions. The document also provides a hospital unit clerk's perspective on the impact of such misconduct and emphasizes the need for improved communication among healthcare professionals. The essay stresses the importance of learning from mistakes, maintaining professional responsibility, and upholding the nursing code of ethics to ensure patient safety and quality care.

UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT IN NURSING
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Unprofessional Conduct in Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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According to the Medical Practice Act, an unprofessional conduct in a healthcare
organization arises when the healthcare professionals or clinical staffs fails to follow the
minimal standards of medical practice, engages themselves in unfair means regarding rude or
abusive behaviour with patients, prescription of inappropriate medicines to them and
applying incorrect diagnosting procedures for treating the patients.
In this particular case study, an allegation of misconduct has been made against
CARNA member XXXX, who has failed in documenting a post operative assessment of a
patient. She even failed to take proper care of the patient.
Unprofessional conduct #1
In this case the member has violated the act of professional documentation and the
member has also failed to appropriately address the patients’s concern and needs, did not give
enough time for the patient, which has lead to patient dissatisfaction. The member was so
irresponsible that he did not even advice the next shift to give a dose of Septra to the patient,
missing a Septra dosage is not at all advisable as it could lead to many severe health
complexities in the patients specially who suffer from liver or kidney diseases.
Unprofessional conduct #2
She has violated the act regarding failure to seek assistance or make appropriate
referrals. Every nurse has some limitation or time constraint, but she could have asked the
other nurses to provide the patient with the septra dosage, but she did not do so. Seeking help
from others is not a weakness, it is a sign of professional strength and responsibility, which
the member failed to execute(Andersen et al, 2019). This may have happened due to the
personality conflicts of the member with other colleagues or fellow nurses.

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Unprofessional conduct #3
She has also violated the act of professional documentation, since she has failed to
document the pain assessment of a patient who was suffering from fever. She did not even
document the vital signs and pain assessment of the patient, the next day, who has not been
given septra dosage previously. This is a sign of unprofessionalism and irresponsibility and
should not be tolerated, as this is a matter of someone’s life and death and should be taken
seriously.
Unprofessional conduct #4
She did not give colyte to a patient who was preparing from colonoscopy. A colyte is
a bowel cleanser which is used to cleanse the bowel before colonoscopy. If a patient is not
given a colyte before the colonoscopy test, his bowels will not be cleared, which will
interfere will the test procedure resulting in false results. She also applied VAC (Vacuum
Assisted Closure of wounds) dressing to a patient incorrectly, which shows she lacks proper
knowledge and expertise. As a result, the wound healing process is delayed and may lead to
further wound infection, bone infection or dead wound tissue.
Unprofessional conduct #5
She also told one of the Health Care Asisstant (HCA) to give breakfast to a patient
who was supposed to be in NPO(Nil per Os or nothing by mouth). This will give rise to
complications during surgery because when the patient will be under anaesthetic, his body
reflexes will be stopped, and if the stomach has food or drink in it, there is a risk of vomiting.
This showed that she was not at all concerned with patient needs and failed to understand its
consequences on patient’s condition. Not only this, she even failed to provide adequate care
to a diabetic patient, repeated the same thing with another patient failing to properly assess
the uronomy sites, and administration of Fragmin which lead to clotting of blood and did not

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perform saline flushing which created blockage in the intravenous catheter. She even failed to
insert the NG tube into the stomach of a patient, due to which the patient could not eat or
drink anything.
Professionalism does not necessarily mean perfectionism, even the professions makes
mistakes, miatakes are part of daily life, but we should learn from them and do not repeat
them intentionally. Nursing is a very respectful and most responsible profession, since nurses
deal with patients, so any mistake from their side may cost the patients life or lead them
towards more severe healt risks. So the nurses have to be extra careful about their actions and
should strictly adhere to the standards of practice provided to them, however, if still some
mistakes happens, they should go to the root of the causes of unprofessional conduct, analyse
them and work their best to ensure that those mistakes are not repeated again(Hoffmann &
Nortjé, 2016). Being a nurse, one is commited to the code of ethics and should act
accordingly. Any violation to the same may lead to losing of nursing license, and can
negatively impact their career, or they might lose their job. So it is advicable that the nurses
take their job seriously, be dedicated towards their responsibilities and committed to patient
care. Unprofessional conduct may lead to lack of trust and respect of the patient towards the
nurse, leading to patient dissatisfaction(Komolafe & Porterfield, 2018). Unprofessional
documentation
As a hospital unit clerk, I am answerable to the patients and their family regarding the
unprofessional conduct of the nursing staffs and need to justify the reasons for such
misconduct to the patient families(Kennedy, 2016). I am involved in managing information
flow in the hospital settings, and also the first point of contact for the patient and their
familes. Medication error are the most crucial cause of patient death, this kind of issue arises
when the nurses do not communicate with me, and do not inform me whether they are
prescribing medications to patients, that would have greatly reduced the amout of avoidable

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interruption and lead to less medication errors.So I advice the nurses to collaborate and
communicate with me before medication administration to avoid interruption during
administration and prevent any further confusion.

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REFERENCE:
Andersen, P., McAllister, M., Kardong-Edgren, S., Miller, C. W., & Churchouse, C. (2019).
Incivility behaviours exhibited by nursing students: clinical educators’ perspectives of
challenging teaching and assessment events in clinical practice. Contemporary
Nurse, 55(4-5), 303-316.
Hoffmann, W. A., & Nortjé, N. (2016). Patterns of unprofessional conduct by medical
practitioners in South Africa (2007–2013). South African Family Practice, 58(3), 108-
113.
Kennedy, M. (2016). The Importance of a Role-Specific, In-Hospital Ward Clerk Education
Program. Hospital topics, 94(3-4), 43-48.
Komolafe, G. U., & Porterfield, S. (2018). Unprofessional Conduct In Nursing and its Impact
in Nurse Retention and Job Satisfaction.