“Nursing’s role in providing patient care has expanded in response to increasing patient acuity, technology, evidence-based practice, managed care, and the advancement of the profession. Because of this professional evolution, nurses are in a position of higher accountability” (McConnell & Vaughn, 2010, p. 1). Negligence can be considered as “carelessness, a deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would use in a particular set of circumstances. Negligence may also include doing something that the reasonable and prudent person would not do. “(Guido, 2010, p. 2).
There are some common examples like never turning on an apena monitor, malnutrition, or physical injury as a result of poor nursing care or lack of care at all. ). The Neighborhood Hospital, was deemed to be negligent as a result of amputating the wrong limb from a patient. This article will determine if this is malpractice vs. negligence, and whether the details regarding the case present as negligence or if it can become a malpractice case. When it comes to negligence there are five items that need to meet to prove that it is a valid negligence case: “1.
Duty owed the patient 2. Breach of the duty owed the patient 3. Forseeability 4. Causation 5. Injury 6. Damages” (Guido, 2010, p. 94). There are couple different types of negligence, you can have regular negligence which could be when an individual’s care falls below the standard of care. Then there is gross negligence which is the more serious of the two, and goes beyond just being carelessness. Gross negligence is defined as when an individual deliberately acts in a way that they know would or could cause harm to another individual.
An example would be keeping a child in their crib, without changing their diapers or caring for them. This would cause the child to have breakdown of their skin, from their buttocks due to being left in wet diapers, to bedsores from not being rotated or picked up. When gross negligence is suspected you have to prove that the individual causing the incident acted in a way that was unsafe and violated his/her duty as a person. There must also be proof that the action of the individual suspected of gross negligence caused injury to another individual ant that the injury could have been avoided.
Healthcare workers can be sued for any act of negligence and it may be able to be turned into a malpractice lawsuit. According to Guido (2010) “Courts have continually defined malpractice as any professional misconduct, unreasonable lack of skill, or fidelity in professional or judiciary duties. Moreover, this wrong or injudicious treatment results in injury, unnecessary suffering, or death to the injured party, and proceeds from ignorance, carelessness, want of proper professional skill, disregard of established rules and principles, neglect, or a malicious or criminal intent”(Guido, 2010, p. 3).
This could be easy defined as when a nurse or other healthcare professional does an act that a competent healthcare professional would not have done. To prove a situation is malpractice, the individual must be determined that they were negligent, acted out of their standards of care, and are seen as treating the patient in an reckless way that other healthcare professionals would not do. The case must also provide an “expert” (another nurse, doctor, or equivalent healthcare worker with the same rank) to prove that the standard of care was violated.
This must also prove that the lack harm or injury was caused to the patient as a result of the standards of care not being met. The article in the Neighborhood Newspaper, “Amputation mishap, negligence cited”, describes that an individual named Joseph Benson, was admitted to the hospital to have a leg removed as a result of poor circulation due to diabetes. The negligence happened when the hospital amputated the wrong leg, now leaving Mr. Benson as a double amputee. This outcome will affect his daily living along with his families.
I agree with the negligence verdict as in most hospitals in the United States, they use the “time out procedure” which allows the nurses and physicians to verify that they have the correct limb that is going to be operated on. According to the AAOS, there should be communication and documentation regarding that they have the correct person, procedure, and site to be operated on.
This information should be done pre-operatively, anytime responsibility of the patient is transferred to nother person, doctor needs to come speak to patient and mark site, and then done immediately before starting the scheduled procedure (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons [AAOS], 2012). This hospital staff did not live up to their standards of care as they had a legal obligation to protect the patient from harm. Being that Mr. Benson had the wrong leg amputated, that is negligence on the nurses and physicians as they did not follow the protocol of their hospital, causing gross negligence as they failed to show proper care and disregarded the safety to Mr. Benson.
This injury could have been avoided if they had taken the time to do the “time out” procedure, allowing the correct limb to be identified. If I were the nurse who had to deal with the outcome of this surgery, I would have an ethical and legal obligation to report the incident to the hospital administrator and state board. It is my ethical obligation to tell the truth if asked, meaning that I cannot falsify documentation and must tell the incident as it happened.
If I tried to cover up this gross negligent act, I would not be keeping the pledge fidelity to my patients or any future patients as it could lead to future incidents and would not resolve how this error occurred in the first place. I believe Mr. Benson deserves Justice, which defined by Guido (2010) as giving to each person what he or she deserves. In this situation the patient deserves to have the incident reviewed to determine where there was a break in communication as far as what leg was to be amputated. Mr. Benson deserves to have the truth told, so that no further incidents occur, along with being compensated for the wrong doing of the hospital.
There is a lot of difference between being a single amputee and double, meaning that he would need a wheelchair, medical staff to assist him, and home renovations so that he may continue to live in his home. One ethical principle I would also make sure I follow is nonmaleficence, which is to do no harm to my patient. Documentation is critical in surgery along with any other procedure or hospital stay.
Nurses are held accountable for their documentation and are expected to provide accurate information regarding the assessment, plan of care, interventions, and evaluation phase of care. This documentation will more than likely be used in court to try to figure out where the error took place. I would document the patients assessment when he came into my care, the assessment of the situation, what his bandages or wraps looked like, the time medication was administered, and when the situation was confronted and supervisors were informed of the error, and finally the remarks and actions other professional staff’s handling of the situation.
All this documentation can be used to determine if it was just negligence or if gross negligence was involved and if the case could lead to a malpractice suit. In conclusion, this is a direct sign of negligence in the part of the hospital and will have serious consequences for the patient and impact the hospitals reputation. Negligence is not always done on purpose, but being able to review the documentation and figure out where the error occurred will prevent this incident from happening in the future. There will be no good result for this patient, as his life has been completely altered and will cause him to change his style of living.