Case study analysis of Children's Hospital and Clinics - Essay Example

A Case Study Analysis of Children Hospitals and Clinics A Non-partisan approach was taken on the evaluation of thiscase. Listening to the case being in support of either the parents or medical staff would cause biasness, impair my judgment, and prevent open discussion (Cottam et al, 2010). The case study on first glance had placed the view that the hospital were guilty of negligence and were simply in a show of solidarity banding up together to protect their own however as the study progresses certain things become clear.

From the parents point of view the staff were negligent of their duties and this resulted in an overdose of morphine. As is common in many parts of the world, the nurses feel looked down upon (Raghavachari, 1990) and that there is a tendency for physicians and upper management to shift blame from themselves to their group and so feel obliged to defend one another especially a newcomer. The individual concerned in the overdosing of Matthew are Patrick O’Reily and Molly Chen however, neither party is to be blamed for the accident that happened as it was not out of negligence that the accident occurred.

It must be emphasized that the mistake that happened is not out of negligence by either party instead, certain factors that did lead to the accident occurred. The medical facility rarely required the use of an electronic pump to deliver medication at a timed rate and therefore few of the staff was accustomed to operating it enough to say that they were competent in its operations. Patrick O’reily was on his a newly hired graduate and therefore had only been shown how to operate it once while in Campus he decided to seek help acknowledging his lack of experience.

None of the nurses who knew how to program the machine were available when it was time to administer the drugs although Nurse Molly Chen who had more experience in the hospital did volunteer to help him. The label on the medication showing the concentration was also blocked and so they could not have read the concentration level of the medication. All these factors led to the overdosing of Matthew and one person cannot be held responsible (Planalp, 1999). No party is to be blamed for the accident.

The factors that contributed to the overdosing were beyond a reasonable nurses’ control. The alternative that they are talking about would have been for Patrick to wait for a nurse who new the machinery’s operation well enough to configure it and by then they boys condition might have become worse shifting blame will not help the situation (Furnham, 2012). These same doctors should continue to treat Matthew as they have not shown any medical incompetence. Had they seen the label showing the concentration of Heroin this accident would not have happened in programming the amount of to inject into the boy.

No action should be taken against them as the boy is still alive and it might make medical staff fear to treat people due to the risk of legal action (Herring, 2012). The main course of action to be recommended is to increase the communication between different staff (Wieland and Leigh, 1971). Had Nurse Ginny Swenson first consulted Patrick on his knowledge of operating the infusion pump before assigning the duty to him she would have found out that he was not adept at programming it. This would have made her either show him herself how to operate it or ensure that there was a member of staff available who knew its operations when the time came for administering the medicine.

The second course of action would have been to have regular training sessions among workers to ensure that even machinery that is rarely in operation is operable by everyone. The main problems faced in the case are a lack of communication between members of the nurse faculty, and a lack of care by the doctors. The doctors are not concerned with how the administration of the drugs will happen and leave the operations to the nurses. A solution to this is to have them participate more in the administration of drugs.

The nurses also need to be able to engage one another of their ignorance without fear of punishment or being labeled as ignorant. The problem of the nurses not having knowledge of operation of the machine can only be solved by having short refresher sessions perhaps weekly to ensure that all of them are able to operate all the machinery without assistance. This would mean that a newcomer such as Patrick would have a lot of assistance available if he asked for help (Joint Comission Resources Mission, 2002).

References Cottam, M. L., Beth, D. U., Elena M., & Thomas, P. (2010). Introduction to political psychology: 2nd edition. East Sussex: Psychology Press. Furnham A. (2012). The engaging manager: The joy of management and being managed. London: Macmillan. Herring, J. (2012). Medical Law and Ethics. Oxford: Oxford. Joint Comission Resources Mission. (2002). Assessing hospital staff competence. Washington DC: JCR. Top of FormBottom of Form Planalp, S. (1999). Communicating emotion: Social, moral, and cultural processes.

New York : Cambridge Raghavachari, R. (1990). Conflicts and adjustments: Indian nurses in an urban milieu. New Delhi. Comprint. Wieland, G., & Leigh, H. (1971). Changing hospitals: A report on the hospital internal communications project. London: Tavistock. Top of Form Bottom of Form