Nursing Essay: Analysis of Nursing Incident using NSQHS

Question

Task: The aim of this nursing essay is for students to describe, and reflect on, a nursing related event reported in the media and using the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) standards developed by ACSQHC (Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare) identify what nurses might do to improve their practice and reduce the risk of a similar error.

Answer

Introduction & background of incident selected in the nursing essay
The infamous incident where nursing professionals of the private hospital of West Australian town of Bunburyadministered extra doses of morphine to the mother of the baby boy, who as a result died at the hospital has been evaluated here for improving practice and reduce similar risks of error. Later the mother of the baby boy – Sarah Hassan and her husband Sunny Alamprovided details and said that Sarah was provided with 100 milligrams of morphine during her labour instead of 10 milligrams of morphine which was to be administered. This incident is an example of the breach of the duties laid down under the NSQHSwhich has been analyzed in this discussion (Asman, &Tabak, 2017). This reflective essayanalyses the devastating incident and tries to provide the rules and regulations that were breached as a consequences such that similar practices and errors can be avoided to accommodate safe practice (Arganata, 2021). As a consequence a nursing intense care plan to improve the role of the nursing practitioners in such devastating circumstances has been undertaken.

Nursing incident description and nurse’srole
In the above mentioned devastating incident the mother of the newly born baby was administered an overdose of morphine as a result of which the baby boy died. The major role in this particular incident was played by the nursing professional who administered an overdose of morphine to the mother during her time of labour. The nursing professional failed to comply with the rules of National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards which are laid down by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (Dubey, &Bakhshi, 2019). The nursing professional is responsible for complying with the duty of medication safety to the patients admitted in the hospital and complies with the administration for delivery of safe and effective nursing practice (Steeleet al., 2020). This code of safety conduct ensures that medication safety is provided to the patients during their treatment and that it is the sole duty of the nursing professionals to provide such safety.

Consequences of the incident for the nurse and health consumer
This particular incident has a two-fold consequence which is one from the role of the nursing profession and the other from the role of the health consumer which here is the patient. As a result of this incident, the nursing profession can be held accountable and liable for the health conditions of Sarah, as safe and effective care has not been rendered. Further, there may be separate charges framed for the death of the baby boy who died as a result of this medical negligence of the nursing profession. The nurse is liable under the Torts Law and the Nursing Safety and Quality Health Care (Gasior, 2020). . On the other hand, the patient has a right to receive intense care during her treatment and is entitled to receive compensation from the authority under the prevailing laws. The prevailing laws are to ensure that medication safety is provided to the patients at the time of their treatment and intense duty of care is also administered to them during their treatment.

Nursing Action Plan
In this segment, a nursing action plan has been identified that demonstrates how the nursing professionals may improve such conditions and prevent incidents from recurring(Johnson, & Smith, 2018). In such circumstances what can usually be done to prevent such incidents is that there must be a governing authority to analyze and look after the activities of the nursing professionals to regulate such incidences. The higher authority will be in charge of such circumstances and will ensure that the nursing professionals are abiding by the rules and are stating the major consequences of the actions.

Moreover, in case of any issue that may occur during such execution of the actions by the nursing professionals then such nursing professionals will concentrate on providing solutions to their problems and thereafter preventing any such bigger incident from occurring (da Silva, & de Freitas, 2018). Higher authorities along with the nursing leaderneed to prepare a action plan for the patient in advance based on the assessment that was done and make an action plan of the medications that are to be provided and the approximate time for each medication. Therefore, it is clear that such an action plan will help the nursing professional to carry out their actions and perform their tasks regularly to help them to prevent any incident of medication errors (Grant, 2017). Nurses need to regularly reflect on their actions and ensure adherence to the NSQHS Standards for providing best possible care to their patients. Such an action plan will help in the negotiation of such devastating circumstances and in the execution of such duty of care to the respective patients.

Developing an action plan to be followed by the nursing professionals will also help the nursing professionals to know and understand the situations and then administer medications accordingly.

Reflection of the incident
This segment primarily includes the reflection model of the entire incident based on Rolfe’s reflection model. (What) This incident has invoked feelings of being disgust and carefulness at the same time. (So what) Such an incident has helped me to figure out that the nursing professional’s play an important role in the life of thepatient and therefore the patient needs to be careful about each action step they assume (Griffith, 2020). (Now what) This incident also helped me to become more aware of the main facts regarding incidents which may occur during the execution of the duty and there must not be any kind of negligence involved in the process. Hence nurses need to regularly revisit the standards of practice such as ACSQHC, NMBA and NSQHS and comply with them.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this incident reflects the inappropriate actions of the nurse and how the nurse carried out such a devastating task which caused problems for the health consumer leading to the present condition. Such an action of the nurse was incorrect and immoral and therefore it is likely to affect the career of the nursing professional in the future. Further, the nursing profession must have applied her knowledge and analysed the present condition of the pregnant lady. This would have prevented such medical negligence and ended up in administering the right amount of morphine to the pregnant lady during her labour which would have not attracted any liabilities.

References
Arganata, R. (2021). The Nurses’ Negligence on Patients. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 18(1-2), 100-104. https://doi.org/10.1166/jctn.2021.9479

Asman, O., &Tabak, N. (2017). Professional standards expected of nurses from an Israeli legal perspective. Med. & L., 36, 53.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499956/

da Silva, E. C., & de Freitas, G. F. (2018). Professional negligence: analysis of the ethical lawsuits of nursing professionals judged by COREN-SP (2001-2010). Nursing essayMUNDO DA SAUDE, 42(4), 873-882.https://repositorio.usp.br/directbitstream/64d96540-329f-40ed-8e31-6bcfdd49c1d6/FREITAS%2C%20G%20F%20de%20doc%20150e.PDF

Dubey, C., &Bakhshi, P. (2019). Substance abuse: Trends, primary care and sustainable transformation. Journal of Health Management, 21(4), 582-600. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972063419884398

Gasior, J. A. (2020). Drug Use Harm Reduction Programs: Assessing Quality and Accessibility for Individuals Who Identify as Female (Doctoral dissertation, Georgetown University). http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1059731

Grant, P. D. (2017). Nursing Malpractice/Negligence and Liability. Law for Nurse Leaders, 51.https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Law_for_Nurse_Leaders_Second_Edition/RXQkDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Grant,+P.+D.+(2017).+Nursing+Malpractice/Negligence+and+Liability.+Law+for+Nurse+ Leaders,+51.+&pg=PA51&printsec=frontcover

Griffith, R. (2020). The elements of negligence liability in nursing. British Journal of Nursing, 29(3), 176-177. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2020.29.3.176

Johnson, C. S., & Smith, C. M. (2018).Preparing Nurse Leaders in Nursing Professional Development: Legal and Ethical Issues for Nursing Professional Development Leaders. Journal for nurses in professional development, 34(4), 226-227.doi: 10.1097/NND.0000000000000442

Steele, S., Osorio, R., & Page, L. M. (2020).Substance misuse in pregnancy. Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Reproductive Medicine.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ogrm.2020.09.002