How the Nursing Management Will Handle the Diverse Interest of the Stakeholders - Case Study Example

Case Study about nursing profession The major problems in this case is the way patients were handled in hospital, nurses was taking longer time to act on the problem which patients was undergoing, for example when Kim (patient) complained of the pain in the top of his foot, the nurse did not respond immediately, instead, she only promised to discuss with another nurse. This was unprofessional because if she knew she could not handle the patient she could have consulted the doctor. The second problem is when the patient asked the second nurse for the drugs for pain relieving. The nurse laughed at the patient instead of treating him, and saying that she thought the patient was a lady. Such cases indicate that the nurse was not handling the patient in a proper manner. It is not the duty for a nurse to know whether the patient is a boy or a girl but should treat all patients equally regardless of the gender (Sherman and Matzo pp 90-94). In addition to this, the same nurse also fails to listen to Kim (patient) when he was explaining how he felt during the time he was discharged and instead she responded rudely to Kim by saying that “people who ride motorbikes have to expect to get hurt”. This was negligence, the nurse was negligent of her duties and as per the contract which is there between her and her profession. All the professional doctors and nurses need to maintain high nursing standards and proper ethics expected of them when handling the patients in the hospitals. The nurse worsened the situation when she told the patient that he was supposed to die in such an accident. From her conversation, it means that the nurse was not ready to offer her services and if she was ready, then it might mean she was not qualified in that profession. This is totally against the expected professional nursing standards for any practicing nurse. This nurse was lacking self discipline and she was not performing her duties accordingly as is evident on how she handles patient in the hospital. The nurse had taken it as if the young boy (Kim) had involved in an accident intentionally, in addition she fails to provide a proper discharge sheet to the patient, claiming that the patient was in a wrong ward. This nurse had breached the legal code of ethics expected from nurses. Furthermore, the patient seems to be under the age of maturity, in some countries the maturity age start at the age of 18 years, and such patients deserve special care because it is believed that they have no capacity to contract, though they would be liable to meet all the expenses because the treatments are for his benefits. If the laws of that country (where the patient came from) regards minors as people who are below the age of 18 years, then the nurse would be accused of mistreating the minor and denying its right as a minor and a patient. All nurses should not breach the contract which exists between them and the patients; they are expected to offer high standards of medical care and services to patients in hospital. The nurse can also be accused of mistreating the patients because the patient was a boy, this can be when she said to sister’s patient that “boys will be boys”. From this statement it shows that she did not care because the patient was a boy and he deserves to be treated badly. The second nurse had seriously breached the five simple fundamental ethical principles; these principles include: respecting others, being fair when dealing with other people, making things better for other people, being compassionate and being harmless. The second nurse had acted without considering these principles; she had handled the patient according to her wishes instead of handling the patient professionally (Megan-Jane and Fry pp 38-39). The patient could approach this problem in a smart way so that he could identify the exact reason why he was treated badly by the nurses. The way to approach such a problem might depend with the nature of the hospital; other hospitals are too large with many patients. These can make the services to be slower when attending the patient. There are also other several reasons which could cause the nurses to act badly like in this case. One of these reasons is that may be the nurses were not motivated in their places of work; it may also be because they are not professionally qualified. This case has clearly depicted some ethical conflict, such conflicts include duty to the patient and also duty to the community. It can also be seen in the event when there was a clash between two ethical duties. These duties include the duty to handle the patient with respect and the duty to offer quality services to serve the benefit of the patient. Another ethical conflict in this case is shown when the nurse was acting in her interest instead of offering services as per the rights of the patient. The most obvious conflict in this case is when the nurse was faced with a challenge to perform her obligation, i.e. to attend one patient for longer time yet there are patient she is supposed to attend, she further claimed that the patient was in a wrong ward (Veatch and Fry pp 47-48). They are various risks which might be caused by the nurses who handle the patients the way this nurse did, first she can be sued for handling the patient unprofessionally. The nurse can be sued for breaching the contract of handling the patient professionally, she can also be sued for assault i.e. laughing at the patient because she thought the patient was a lady and lastly he can ruin the image of the hospital; the hospital can be perceived as having unprofessional nurses and thus loose its reputation. Other possible risks include being sued for damages caused by the delay of the patient in the hospital because she fails to offer proper medical care and attendance to the patients whenever the need arises. We have been told that the patient would not get the sick leave because he was still new in his place of work; this means that the nurse should have done anything possible to help the patient recover in the shortest time possible. Such problems can be avoided by ensuring that long serving nurses are taken for refresher courses on fields of customer care, how to handle patients with respect and how to maintained nursing standards. These problems can also be solved by ensuring that the top management in the hospital maintained good relationship with its employees. The human resource manager should ensure that nurses are motivated by rewarding those who are performing well in their work. Such nurses can be identified by carrying out work appraisal. Lastly the hospital could rectify the problem by ensuring that the management of the hospital employs only professional nurses in their hospital. The family of the patient and the patient himself were not honestly informed of the real disease which the patient was suffering from, even though the patient was initially involved in an accident, they patient ended up with an ulcer in his ankle. This means that the disease had been detected by the nurses when the patient was complaining of the pain in the top of his foot but the he was not informed. The patient and his family had every reason to know the kind of the disease which the patient was suffering from. Furthermore, the nurses could have informed the patient’s sister about this and advised her on how they could deal with the disease so that it could prolong the life of the patient because ulcer is believed that it cannot be cured ( Gallo and Hudak p 67) The nurses in the hospital had failed to follow the expected standard of care; every hospital should hire employees who meet the required knowledge and skills. It is very important for every hospital to maintain the required standards when providing health services for following reasons. By maintaining the standards, it help in creating a better relationship and interaction for the different and corresponding duties that nurses has been allocated to. It also encourages, direct and act as a guide for proficient nursing practice recommended for self appraisal. The second nurse had breached the above standards when she was assigned to attend the patient (Kim). This nurse had handled the patient carelessly i.e. by laughing at him instead of treating him. She is also believed to have mistreated the patient because he (patient) was still under the age of maturity and because of the fact that the patient was a boy. These are the issues which a professional nurse should not commit. When these problems are looked at from another perspective, it might suggest that the nurse was not expert enough and she did not know how to handle patient. The nurse had created negative image of the hospital on patients, the patient will automatically perceive the hospital has an institution with unqualified nurse who do not maintained a single nursing standards (Chiarella p 57). The entire stakeholders of this hospital include the nurses, patients, doctors and shareholders. These stakeholders have an interest in the hospital though their interest varies. For example the patients expect to get high quality of services in the hospital; nurses on the hand expect to be promoted according to their level of qualifications and experiences. It is quite challenging when balancing the interests of these groups. However, the interest of these groups will be lost if the hospital will not provide high standards of medical services to meet the needs and wants of the customers (Barker 41-42) Stakeholders of any institutions differ on urgency, for example the shareholders may be paid lastly incase of winding up a company because they are the owners while other stakeholders like creditors are not part of the owners and therefore they are paid urgently. Many companies have rules and laws governing stakeholders, the procedures of paying them in the event of closure of the company or incase of dissolution. In many cases there are conflicts among stakeholders, for instance, shareholders need to be paid higher interests and at the same time the customers expect to be offered lower prices. These issues have been challenging in part of the management because it is not possible to cater for all the needs of these groups at the same time. Other parts of stakeholders include the community who expect to get services from the company like building shades in stages, financing community social work and participating in corporate social responsibility, such issues may not be parallel with the company’s objective especially if the objective of the company is to make profit (Sherman and Matzo pp p126). The management can handle such issues by balancing all the interest of all stakeholders; this will ensure that every party is satisfied. For instance, the management will make sure that employees are paid fairly, offering fair prices to customers and at the same time paying the shareholders a reasonable interest. They should also pay other parties such as creditors in a timely manner. Such decisions should be communicated in a manner which will make the parties to understand the laws governing an institution (Sherman and Matzo pp p129). In conclusion, the management needs to have a proper guideline on how they will handle the diverse interest of the stakeholders. They should create a policy which shows the last group to be compensated in the event of the dissolution or when repaying the stakeholders. They should also have the policy governing other factors which may affect the stakeholders for example the issue of new shares and the bonuses. References Sherman, D. W. & Matzo, M. 2006. Palliative care nursing. Springer publishing company. (3) pp 79-136 Veatch, R. M. & Fry. S. T. 2006. Case studies in nursing ethics. Jones &Bartlett Publishers (5) pp 46-49 Chiarella, S. 2007. Nursing and the law. Elsevier Australia. (6) pp 55-57 Megan-Jane J. & Fry, S. T. 2002. Ethics in nursing practice: A guide to ethical decision making. Wiley-Blackwell (2) pp36-40 Gallo, M. B. & Hudak, C. M. 2003. Critical care nursing. Lippincott (3) pp 66-68 Barker, J. P. 1999. The philosophy and practice of psychiatric nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences (2) pp 40-43 Read More