In the Pregnancy Accommodation Working Group (PAWG) table created by the Center for WorkLife Law (WLL), fatigue, for example, is an underlying pregnancy condition which may also be presented in people with conditions such as anemia, congestive heart failure, Lyme disease, and cancer. Therefore, the suggested reasonable accommodations an employer should provide include, light duty to avoid strenuous activity, flexible or reduced hours, and/or exemption from mandatory overtime (Zlatnik, n.d.). As the attorney for the nurse, these will be used in the arguments for wrongful termination of the nurse as a guide to support for pregnancy-related conditions that qualified the nurse to be given reasonable accommodations (Zlatnik, n.d.). The argument …show more content…
While the seriousness of a patient’s death should be investigated, the hospital failed to act promptly and investigate the supervisor’s or human resource (HR) department’s denial of reasonable accommodations or the previous errors made by the nurse. Therefore, the wrongful termination seems more likely to have been the case in this situation. The defense will show that rather than terminating her employment earlier the hospital waited until something catastrophic happened. The nurse took appropriate action discussing her health condition diagnosed by her physician that precludes her from working in the ER at full capacity with her supervisor. The nurse should have been given alternative assignments as appropriate or disability leave if no other alternative was available and should not have been terminated wrongfully after the incident (Pozgar, …show more content…
Any reasonable organization would be able to predict or expect that the ER nurses condition needed to be addressed by the hospital as it would ultimately lead to harmful result if they didn’t act upon the physician’s recommendation and the previous history of errors (Pozgar, 2012). The hospital failed to supervise or establish appropriate policies to provide reasonable accommodations for the pregnant ER nurse. While not directly at fault for the negligence by the nurse under the borrowed servant doctrine the hospital would be liable for the acts of their agents and in the least contributed to the negligence (Pozgar, 2012 and “Comparative and Contributory Negligence”,
A nurse attending stated “during the morning’s second surgery, he actually dozed off. The nurse took him aside and recommended that he take a break, but he refused and returned to the operation.” The nurse here was in fault in more ways than one. This nurse should never allowed the doctor return back to operate on the patient, he should have been removed from the operating room immediately. The nurse should have
Dr. Burditts argument is that he is not paid by the hospital but because he does not receive payment from the hospital when he treats patients there, he should not be required to abide by this law (Lewin, 1991, para 12). Unfortunately, he cannot select which patients that require the emergency care of an obstetrician to treat and those to transfer while working at this hospital. It was determined that the patient’s vitals and her active labor put her at a serious risk and that “transfer to another hospital “in an uncontrolled environment of an ambulance” increased the risk” (Lewin, 1991, para
In the Code of Ethics for Nurses provision 4 states “The nurse has authority, accountability, and responsibility for nursing practice; makes decisions; and takes action consistent with the obligation to promote health and to provide optimal care.” This was not done, there was no regard for human life. The patients in the hospital were treated as a burden. A meeting was held where the doctors agreed that
The plaintiff in Ard v. East Jefferson General Hospital, stated on 20 May, she had rang the nurses station to inform the nursing staff that her husband was experiencing symptoms of nausea, pain, and shortness of breathe. After ringing the call button for several times her spouse received his medication. Mrs. Ard noticed that her husband continued to have difficulty breathing and ringing from side to side, the patient spouse rang the nursing station for approximately an hour and twenty-five minutes until the defendant (Ms. Florscheim) enter the room and initiated a code blue, which Mr. Ard didn’t recover. The expert witness testified that the defendant failed to provide the standard of care concerning the decease and should have read the physician’s progress notes stating patient is high risk upon assessment and observation. The defendant testified she checked on the patient but no documentation was noted. The defendant expert witness disagrees with breech of duty, which upon cross-examination the expert witness agrees with the breech of duty. The district judge, upon judgment, the defendant failed to provide the standard of care (Pozgar, 2012, p. 215-216) and award the plaintiff for damages from $50,000 to $150,000 (Pozgar, 2012, p. 242).
The negligence of this incident had a negative impact on the patient’s family members. Approximately 25% of cases involving medical negligence involve poor nursing care. Another negative aspect was patient’s family follow up was poor resulting in lack of importance highlighted on the pressure wounds. Ashley (2003) states nurses can be sued for malpractice, this means he or she is being sued for “negligence”. Furthermore, the nursing health professionals can lose its credibility among a community as they failed to provide a holistic care for the patient. However, a positive outcome was nurses were able to reflect among this evidence based practice to assist in better quality in patient
As a nurse it has happened to be an essential need to be conscious of the legal aspects associated with caring and serving people in the health industry today. Unfortunately, only fewer people want to get into the health care field fearing the legal aspects and the predictable law suits. The Tort Law is one of the legal aspects of the law that most nurses is more familiar with. This is the law that involved misconduct and negligence cases, which many nurses take the time to study in depth. This is one of the most universal and well-known laws, something that nurses and doctors must be familiar with, to maintain their care resourcefully.
In the 25th week of her pregnancy, the mother was advised by the nurse to remain on bed rest to avoid further complications and potentially hurting her unborn baby. The mother continued to work from the hospital placing additional stress on the baby despite the nurse’s appeal that such stress can cause the baby harm. Attempts to stop premature delivery were made but failed, the mother asked the medical team not to take any extraordinary measure to save the baby. The premature baby lived but the mother showed little interest in his health and wellness. The nurse tried to the best of her ability to spark
The State of Tennessee Board of Nursing’s Rules and Regulations of Registered Nurses, Rule # 1000-01-.13-1r states that unprofessional conduct is defined in part by "failing to take appropriate action in safeguarding the patient from incompetent health care practices" (State of Tennessee, 2011). There are a number of arguments in this case study that incompetent health care practices are being performed, from the decision to place a patient on a ventilator for an oxygen saturation of 88%, circumventing the patient’s written and verbal advanced directives, utilizing an unauthorized family member to get consent for
If the defendant would have adhered to the numerous safeguards for nurses, it could have prevented the alleged wrongdoing. According to the American Nurses Association’s Code of Ethics for Nurses, nurses must advocate for proper assistance for coworkers when indicated. This supports nurses in early recovery when they return to work (O’Neil, 2015). If the coworkers of the defendant would have recognized her issue and spoken up prior to December 9th. 2015, than this hearing could have been prevented. It is the nurse’s ethical responsibility to safeguard the patient, the public, and the profession from prospective harm when a nurse appears to be impaired. This can be
The civil and common laws to protect the client´s rights are calls Torts: A Tort is a civil wrong made against a person or property and this are classified as Intentional Torts when violate another´s right such as false imprisonment and assault battery; Quasi-Intentional torts that is when lacking but volitional action and direct causation occur such as invasion of privacy and deformation of character Unintentional torts with includes Negligence and Malpractice. The improper act that she performed is a Quasi-Intentional tort. In to avoid legal and ethic problems the nurse must always follow the Standard of
After the incident, Jones inquired for medical care multiple times. Here, admittedly, the Prosecution was right about one thing. Nurse Robin Rodgers did not meet the standard of care. But, they were wrong about another. Nurse Robin Rodgers was not reckless, but rather, she was negligent. Contrary to being reckless, negligence is acting without the knowledge of the consequences and risks.
The Plaintiffs felt that since the hospital was licensed and accredited that they should be held responsible for their employees and their actions. It states in the regulations that any infraction of the bylaws imposes liability for the injury. At any time if Dr. Alexander had questions or concerns he could have reached out to an expert in this field to consult
I am Myrna Montoya, a registered nurse from New Jersey and currently taking the RN-BSN online program at Notre Dame College, South Euclid, Ohio. In our course on Health Care Policy in Complex Adaptive System, the students were given the opportunity to review the 2002 case of Finnerty v. the Board of Registered Nursing. As was ruled by the Court of Appeal, Ellen Hughes Finnerty, a registered nurse, was found guilty of gross negligence and incompetence.
“The definition of a health professional is a person who works to protect and improve people’s health by the diagnosis and treatment of illness to bring about a complete recovery from mental, physical and social perspectives, either directly or indirectly (Kurban, 2010, pg. 760).” Nurses in the community today have acquired an increasing responsibility to intervene with medical decisions. In the past, there were clear differences between nurses and doctors. It was more common for a nurse to be supervised directly under the physician. They are not just performing Doctor’s orders anymore. The nurse role in patient care has been widely expanded. Allegations against someone can be one of the most stressful moments of their careers. Negligence
Ethical principals are the seed of which nursing flourishes from. Many ethical principals were involved and dishonored in this case such as, justice, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, confidentiality and fidelity (Burkhardt et al., 2014). I believe justice was the main principal involved as the entire ethical predicament was revolved around unjust behavior and treatment of the residents. The residents were treated poorly and given unequal rights as a causation of their illnesses. Autonomy, an essential piece of human rights was also being violated in this ethical dilemma. The residents did not have any choice or independence in their care or how they were being treated. Beneficence and non-maleficence are significant dynamics of this ethical situation, as the health care providers needed to reflect on how they can have the maximum benefit while diminishing possible damage to the residents (Burkhardt et al., 2014). Our actions as nurses should always be beneficent and non maleficent, continuously being kind, compassionate and doing what is in their best interest as well a removing and preventing harm. Confidentiality is a key component of nursing and it was blatantly being violated as the health care