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Nursing Article Case Study

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Code and Name

Professor’s Name

Due Date
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Nursing Article Case Study

After reading the nursing legal case on failure to report nursing changes, I have decided

to be on the prosecution's side. The nurse on shift has failed to report appropriately on the patient

changes to the relevant ICU practitioner. In the first incidence, the nurse admits to noting

changes in the patient hemoglobin and hematocrit, however, he/she fails to inform the ICU

practitioner in the assumption that he was returning to access the patient's condition (Failure to

report changes in the patient’s medical condition | NSO, 2012). Again, after the delay of the

ordered blood, the nurse did not bother to call the relevant authorities for the blood location and

at the same time, he/she does not report to the ICU practitioner on the delay. In this case, the

attendance nurse reports to the ICU practitioner when the patient goes into respiratory distress.

However, if I was the nurse on shift I would ensure that I embrace responsibility and

accountability in monitoring the patient's health condition (Failure to report changes in the

patient’s medical condition | NSO, 2012). This would involve the relevant recording of the

patient changes and immediate reporting to the ICU practitioner. This would ensure that

immediate measures are put in place to ensure the patient's health is restored and that she

responds positively toward her recovery process.

About the nurse's code of ethics, provision 4 demands nurses bear the primary

responsibility for their nursing practices. Also, the provision requires nurses to adhere to the

scope and the standards of practice. This provision demands nurses take responsibility for the

good and poor decisions they make in service delivery (American Nurses Association, 2015). In

this case study, the nurse failed to accept the responsibility and accountability required in his/her

nursing job and therefore should be held responsible for the death of the patient.
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References

Failure to report changes in the patient’s medical condition | NSO. (2012). Nso.com.

https://www.nso.com/Learning/Artifacts/Legal-Cases/Failure-to-report-changes-in-the-

patients-medical-condition-to-practitioner

American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements.

American Nurses Association. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-

excellence/ethics/code-of-ethics-for-nurses/coe-view-only/