Analysis of Nursing Ethics, Legal Standards, and Case Study Review

This case study examines a scenario involving a patient, Mr. Peter Sutcliffe, who died due to negligence in his post-operative care at Sunny Days Private Hospital. The analysis focuses on the violations of nursing codes of ethics, the Australian Charter of Health Care Rights, and the implications of duty of care and reasonable standards of care. The nurses involved demonstrated unprofessionalism, failing to adequately assess the patient's condition, provide appropriate care, and maintain proper documentation. The case highlights instances of medical negligence, including the Registered Nurse's failure to monitor the patient and the enrolled and ward nurses' negligence in rechecking oxygen saturation levels. The case was referred to the coroner due to the suspicious nature of the death, attributable to the nurses' failures to meet their professional responsibilities. The Registered Nurse is held most accountable due to their experience and supervisory role, though all nurses involved contributed to the adverse outcome. The case underscores the importance of ethical practice, adherence to legal standards, and diligent patient care within the nursing profession.

CASE STUDY ON
NURSING CODES AND ETHICS

Nursing codes of ethics
• The Nursing Code of Ethics provides guidelines
to the nurses regarding the ethical obligations
and responsibilities
• It was proposed by American Nurses
Association(ANA)
• The nurses abide by these codes and implement
those in their nursing practice, thus, delivering
improved quality of healthcare to
patients(Carrick-Sen et al, 2019)
• In nursing, ethical and legal issues are quite
common, to reduce such unpleasant occurrence,
the nurses strictly follow the guidelines, keeping
in mind of all the ethical considerations while
treating a patient

Application of Nursing code of ethics in this case study
• The nurses showed complete unprofessionalism in their attitude
while treating for Mr. Peter
• They failed to take proper care of him, did not perform their
duties and responsibilities properly
• Failed to assess his conditions well, and also did not understand
the needs of the patient
• They failed to build a therapeutic relationship with the patient,
did not give him enough attention, there was no sign of
empathy and compassion in their attitude and behavior towards
Mr. Peter

Australian Charter of Health Care Rights
• The Australian Charter of Health Care Rights
speaks about the ethical and legal rights of the
patients falling under the Australian Healthcare
System(Victoria. Department of Health and
Human Services, 2017)
• It ensures that every patient is treated well by the
nurses and other healthcare providers and there
is no violation of their rights(Atkins et al, 2020)
• The nurses should show enough compassion,
dignity and integrity in their attitude while
interacting with the patients
• They should respect the values and opinions of
the patient
• Provide a safe and secured environment for the
patient to ensure their quick recovery

Relation with the Case Study
• It is evident from the case study that the nurses violated the
“Australian Charter of Health Rights”, as they failed to
provide safety and security to the patient
• There was also lack of empathy and compassion in their
attitude
• They did not perform their duties and responsibilities

Duty of care
• The duty of care is a requirement that a person act towards another person with
attention, alertness, caution and prudence(Oldland et al, 2019)
• If the nurse fails to give proper attention of the patients and shows negligence,
then they are claimed in a lawsuit of negligence and should be penalized
• In this case, the nurses were not at all performing their duty of care and showed
negligence towards Mr. Peter.
• The nurse did not inform the ward nurses about the low oxygen saturation level
in the blood of Peter, when handing him over to them which indicates his
carelessness and negligence towards the patient. Moreover, though the ward
nurse administered facial oxygen, they did not even feel the importance of
rechecking the oxygen saturation level
• This shows that both the nurse and the ward nurse fails to perform their duties
and responsibilities towards Peter, indicating that they might not be aware of
“duty of care”

Reasonable standard of care
• In nursing it is used to find out whether the
nurses are performing their duties properly
and doing justice to their role(Cashin et al,
2017)
• It is the level of caution or carefulness a
nurse should show while caring for a
patient, they should keep the patient
under strict observation, monitor and
evaluate their health status regularly
• Failure to meet the standard will lead to
patient negligence, and the nurse who fails
to meet the standard is liable and
accountable for any damages caused by
such negligence.

Medical negligence
• Medical negligence or medical malpractices is a legal cause
of action which arises due to the negligence of a nurse or
any other healthcare professionals towards a patient,
which in turn, leads to harm or injury of the patient
• In this particular case study, the nurses were negligent
towards to Mr. Peter from the beginning, they did not
prescribe proper medications to him, failed to keep the
oxygen saturation level in control, failed to assess his
condition and perform appropriate documentation of his
medical records
• Instead of observing the patient, the Registered nurse
went to sleep, it was an example of pure unprofessionalism
and negligence from a RN and is not at all from such an
experienced and professional healthcare personnel

Coroner
• A coroner is a government official who investigates or hold
inquests for a violent, suspicious or controversial death and
find out the actual reasons for the person’s death, whether it
was natural or was due to negligence or violence
• Mr. Peter’s case was sent to the coroner for further
investigation as the reason for his death was not natural, it
occurred due to the negligence and carelessness and
irresponsibility of the nurses, who failed to perform their
duties and responsibilities as a nurse and needs to be
scrutinized properly for preventing any further repetition of
such misconducts

Summary
The reason for Mr. Peter’s death was due to the negligence and
carelessness of all the nurses. However, the Registered nurse is more
accountable than the other nurses, because they are the most
experienced and professional healthcare personnel in the clinical settings,
so this kind of unprofessional behavior was not at all expected from the
Registered nurse. The enrolled nurses and ward nurses are under the
supervision of the RN. So if the Registered Nurse looked into this matter
carefully and seriously, such disasters would not have taken place

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healthcare-rights.
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