NUR 112 Legal Issues Case Study 1 - Case Study 6. Latest

Document Content and Description Below

NUR 112 Legal Issues Case Study 1 - Case Study 6. Latest.Legal Issues Case Study (1) You are in your final clinical rotations of nursing school. The clinical instructor assigns each student to two... patients. Although you accept your assignment, you feel uneasy about providing care for two patients, especially since both have congestive heart failure. You are extremely cautious as you check the prescribed medications in your reference book, check each patient's name band, check the medications with the staff nurse, and administer the doses. To save time, you take both patients' medications into the room at the same time. You document every nursing action, including the education on medications given to patients. When the instructor asks how things are going, you feel confident in stating that you are handling two patients very well. You further explain how you took the initiative to educate one of your patients on the side effects of a new blood pressure pill when the patient stated he never took the medication before. The instructor asks to see the order for the drug, but when you look for the physician's order, you are unable to find it! You suddenly realize that you switched the patients' medications and wrongly dosed both patients. Later in the shift, one patient's blood pressure drops to the point of requiring a transfer to ICU and the other goes into renal failure, requiring dialysis. 1. Who is liable for the actions of the student nurse—you (because you gave the medications), the staff nurse (who checked the medications), or the instructor (who was supervising)? The student nurse is liable for the actions because they actually handled the medication administration. As far as liability, the student nurse is held to the same standards as an RN for the tasks they perform. Even if the student nurse felt like she could handle two patients, she should have communicated with her instructor to add an additional ‘check’ before administering the medications. Also, she should not have taken both patients’ medications into the room. She should only have taken the corresponding, single patient’s medication first, then after administration and documentation, she could have gone into the second patient’s room with his medication. Also, when the patient stated that he had never take the blood pressure medication, the student should have stopped administration and rechecked the medication order, possibly with an instructor. 2. Did the instructor meet the standards for supervisory liability? Yes, the instructor does meet the standards for supervisory liability. The medication administration was assigned to a competent ‘worker’ as the student is in the final clinical rotation of nursing school. The instructor did provide adequate supervision, and could not have known that the student felt uneasy since the student didn’t mention it. The instructor provided appropriate follow-up and evaluation of the delegated task. However, the instructor should have questioned the student about the medications before the administration, which could have eliminated the medication error. Also, the instructor should have followed-up with the student directly after administration, not after a while by asking how things are going. [Show More]

Last updated: 1 year ago

Preview 1 out of 9 pages