NURS 521: Analyzing Integrity Issues in a Medical Malpractice Case

This discussion post for NURS 521 addresses a medical malpractice case involving a brain surgery error. The student analyzes the issues of integrity related to the case where a doctor operated on the wrong side of a patient's brain, leading to a lawsuit against the insurer. The post discusses whether criminal charges should be considered due to the doctor's negligence, highlighting the severity of the error and its impact on the patient. The student explains their choice to respond to the story, emphasizing the injustice faced by the patient and their parents. Finally, the post defines integrity in nursing, emphasizing accountability and adherence to ethical codes within a clinical setting, and references relevant literature to support these points.

Running head: NURSING DISCUSSION
NURSING DISCUSSION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1NURSING DISCUSSION
Answer 1) Integrity is defined as the exercise of being truthful and exhibiting an
uncompromising and steady observance to strong ethical and moral values and principles.
The issue of integrity in the provided case study was against the insurer of Arkansas
Children’s Hospital (ACH), where a doctor had operated the incorrect side of the patient
brain. The parents of the patient, who was a small child had filed the case against the insurer
in the Supreme Court under medical malpractice lawsuit. The insurer had to pay $11 million
judgment against the malpractice performed by his hospital, which was initially $20 million
and the parents wanted the jury to reinstate the original judgement value and consider the
doctors who were involved in the surgery equally responsible (Insurance Journal, 2019). The
primary issue of integrity was that the jury were not sure if they have to involve the doctors
and ask them to share the blame of malpractice. Hence, both appeal of the child’s parents
were rejected by the court.
Answer 2) Yes, criminal charges should be considered in this case because of the doctor’s
negligence, the child named, Methenys, was living in the rehabilitation centre. The doctors
have destroyed the tissues of Methenys left side of the brain and after realising their mistake
they started operating the right side of his brain (Insurance Journal, 2019). The doctors should
have been more aware while operating the patient as they were operating the child’s brain,
which is considered as the most crucial and important part of a human body. Evert activity
that takes place in a human body is performed and controlled by the brain and thus such
medical malpractice can result in a life-threating situation for the patient.
Answer 3) I chose to respond to this story because the kind of negligence performed by the
doctors while operating the child was very dangerous and life-threatening as the he child was
very small. The court had also rejected the appeal of Methenys parents and were still thinking
if they should restore the judgement process to $20 million or not. The court was also not
sure if they should include the doctors and share the blame of medical malpractice (Sweeney,

2NURSING DISCUSSION
LeMahieu & Fryer, 2017). Proper justice was not given to Methenys as the circuit court had
rejected the outrage of including the doctor and other associated physicians in sharing the
blame of medical malpractice. Hence, this kind of injustice towards the patient and their
parents had insisted me to select this story.
Answer 4) Integrity in Nursing is displayed as being responsible and accountable for one’s
own actions and judgement. Authentic integrity is define as the crucial activity that should be
adapted and followed by each individual nurse. The nurses who abide their nursing practice
using the moral integrity procedure have a strong intelligence of their individual personality
and they act in a more consistent way through which they can understand what is right and
what is wrong in their nursing practice and what should be done according to their nursing
code of ethics (Devine & Chin, 2018).

3NURSING DISCUSSION
References
Devine, C. A., & Chin, E. D. (2018). Integrity in nursing students: A concept analysis. Nurse
education today, 60, 133-138.
Insurance Journal. (2019). Judgment Upheld in Arkansas Brain Surgery Lawsuit. Retrieved
from https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2012/12/17/274239.htm
Sweeney, C. F., LeMahieu, A., & Fryer, G. E. (2017). Nurse practitioner malpractice data:
Informing nursing education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(4), 271-275