A clinical experience that was troubling to me was when a nurse, with whom I worked with, failed to respond to a patient in a timely manner. Later, this nurse was charged with malpractice because the patient passed away

Learning Goal: I’m working on a nursing discussion question and need support to help me learn.

A clinical experience that was troubling to me was when a nurse, with whom I worked with, failed to respond to a patient in a timely manner. Later, this nurse was charged with malpractice because the patient passed away. Malpractice is professional negligence; you must have a license to commit malpractice in order to be held liable for malpractice. In malpractice an individual must fail to do something that s/he is supposed to do (or did something that s/he isn’t supposed to do).

The individual involved must be a member of a licensed profession, and the must only occur in professional practice. In nursing specifically, malpractice is “one type of negligence, often referred to as professional negligence. When nursing care falls below a standard of care, nursing malpractice results. To establish nursing malpractice, there are certain criteria” that must be proved: nurse owed duty to the client, nurse did not carry out that duty, client was injured, the nurse’s failure to perform the duty is what caused the injury (Iyer, Aken & Condon, 2016).

What I would have differently was to maybe speak to the clinical manager. Even though I was not aware of the incidence, I was in the shift that night and I could have been more vigilant of everyone’s patients. I know it was not my responsibility, but I felt really bad that the patient suffered, and eventually perished. According to recent research, managers should demonstrate strong leadership skills, problem-solving skills, and a strong sense of resolving inconsistencies to prevent stress from negatively affecting wellbeing at work.

References

Iyer, P. W., Aken, J., & Condon, K. W. (2016). Business principles for legal nurse consultants. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Peterson, A. M., & Kopishke, L. (2018). Malpractice in nursing practice (3rd ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

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