Codes of Ethics for an Emergency Room Nurse - Term Paper Example

? s of ethics for an ER nurse Lecturer Introduction Professional nursing is an important practice in hospitals. Anecdotally, nurses have understanding of patient conditions and patient and interaction than the attending physician. Nurses help to improve patient care together with doctors. There is always a need for nurses to support to patients and provide quality care (Danasu, 2007). This paper seeks to discuss a professional nursing role of an emergency room nurse. In so doing, the paper will examine the educational qualification of the role (if any), and detail how nursing professional standards applies to the work of this particular nursing role. Nursing is an independent profession that involves helping and providing services that contribute to the promotion or preservation of health of people. Therefore there are three essential components of a professional nursing role: cure, care, and co-ordination. The nursing professional standards apply to these components to ensure the promotion of the highest level of quality nursing care. Generally, good professional nursing practice is an indication of sound ethical standards. The professional duties or an emergency room nurse varies considerably. This is because patients bring different new challenges every day every hour. But generally, an emergency room nurse is responsible for: prioritizing patient care based on severity, monitoring and evaluating patient flow in the emergency care system, assessing and evaluating the major patient complaints, assisting emergency room doctors, and recording initial patient vital signs before examination. Due to the mentioned duties, a medical error is likely to occur, and therefore as an emergency room nurse, it is your professional nursing role to prevent medication errors. This is the professional role that this paper will focus on (Casey et al., 2004). Prevention of medication error is a professional nursing role because it involves emergency patient care which is a duty of an emergency room nurse. Medication error occurs generally when a health care provider chose the right solution of medical care but incorrectly executes it, or selects an inappropriate method of care. In order to execute this professional nursing role, an emergency room nurse needs to observe the 5 medical administration rights; the right patient, the right dosage, the right drug, the right time, and the right route. As noted by the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP), medication error is any preventable occurrence or event that may lead to or cause patient harm or inappropriate medication use, while the medication is under the control of a health care provider, consumer, or patient (Danasu, 2007). Medication errors hamper pharmacotherapeutic outcomes, and may result into death or serious illness. In addition, medication errors can lead to litigation against health care agency, physician, or an emergency room nurse. The rates of medication errors in hospitals, communities, and homes are on the increase in spite of extensive efforts on the part of health care professionals. Generally, medication errors are caused by various factors ranging from: omission of one of the drug administration rights, to failure to note the patient variables like hepatic functions or changes in renal functions into account, to failure to perform with agency a system check for appropriateness and accuracy, to giving medication based on illegal or incomplete order, where a an emergency room nurse is not sure of the right dosage or method of administration, and to giving medication based on orders made verbally or on phone (Andersson et al., 2007). Inadequate or total lack of knowledge concerning medication causes medication errors; it is very significant that an emergency room nurses remain in the current pharmacotherapeutics. An emergency room nurses should therefore not administer any medication with which they are not familiar because this is considered unsafe medical practice. Nursing education is necessary to aid emergency nurses in preventing medication errors. Apart from the normal educational nurse qualifications, there are various other avenues through which an emergency room nurses may obtain medication updates and knowledge in order to prevent medication errors. Current references on drugs should be available on all nursing units, and other sources and medication references are available in nursing journals in the internet. It is therefore recommended that an emergency room nurses familiarize their memories with researches on medication errors and the preventive measures (Casey et al., 2004). In most cases, there is a hesitation in having all medication errors reported in the nursing profession. This is because majority of an emergency room nurses are afraid of humiliation from their peers as well as their superiors when reporting medical errors, even though it is a legal and ethical responsibility of an emergency room nurses to document and report such events. Unreported medication errors can affect patient health and result into legal ramifications for the emergency room nurse in charge. In most severe cases, adverse reactions resulting from medical errors demand initiation of lifesaving interventions for the patients. An emergency room nurses should therefore take the ethical responsibility to report and act on medication errors promptly in order to avoid further patient health complications (Danasu, 2007). This is because after a medication error, the patient may need additional treatments and intense supervision failure of which the patient may resultantly lose his or her life. This leads us to an obvious question on what an emergency room nurses need to do to prevent medication errors, an emergency room nurse’s responsibility in preventing medication errors. In a clinical setting, an emergency room nurses have the responsibility to prevent medical errors. An emergency room nurses should take some basic steps in order to avoid such situations leading to medical errors (Casey et al., 2004). For example, an emergency room nurse needs to do the following in order to prevent a medication error: assessment, ask the patient concerning allergies to medications or food, current health status, and use of herbal supplements. A an emergency room nurse should ensure that he or she observes all the medical administration rights as discussed in the first paragraph; planning, an emergency room nurses should ensure the patients state the outcome of the medication prescribed, including the right dose and the right time to take medication; implementation, an emergency room nurses should advise the patients to take their medicines as prescribed and ask any questions if their medication look different in size or color; and evaluation, an emergency room nurses need to assess whether pharmacotherapy outcomes have been accomplished and whether there are adverse reactions encountered by the patient (Andersson et al., 2007). Conclusion Action of an emergency room nurse in her job plays a very important role in medical administration and therefore should be responsible for the medication process. An emergency room nurses should accurately and safely administer medications in order to prevent medication errors. Medication error may happen at any medication stage, therefore prevention measures are of essence. An emergency room nurses need to prepare medications for one patient at a time, double check all drug doses, and finally involve the patient when administering the drugs (Andersson et al., 2007). This will help an emergency room nurses to prevent medication errors that originate from confusion of which patient for what drug and dose. An emergency room nurses can also take a risk reduction and more prospective approach to medical errors. Hospitals and medical facilities should adopt appropriate technologies that are blended with a confidential system of error reporting which protects an emergency room nurse’s professional interests. This will be very effective in preventing, detecting and correcting medication errors (Casey et al., 2004). The standards of nursing practice provide a guide to skills, knowledge, attitudes, and judgment that are needed to practice safely. These standards reflect an achievable and desired level of performance against which comparison of actual performance can be done. Their main purpose is to guide, promote, and direct professional nursing practice (Danasu, 2007). Preventing medical errors in an emergency room demands the application of professional nursing standards such as: quality of practice, evaluation of professional practice, education, collegiality, collaboration, ethics, among other standard requirements. Prevention of medical errors demands an effective use of nursing process, and hence in order to effectively prevent medication error, an emergency room nurse will need to act within the standards of nursing such as: executing professional responsibilities, and effective use of nursing process (Casey et al., 2004). References Andersson N, et al. (2007). Professional roles and research utilization in paediatric care: newly graduated nurses experiences. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 30(1) Casey K, et al. (2004). Graduate nurses' experiences of interactions with professional nursing staff during transition to the professional role. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 32(1) Danasu R. (2007). Standard nursing care: An Asset. The Nursing Journal of America.  VOL. XCVIII No. 6. Read More