Legal Aspects of Nursing. Homework 5 - Case Study Example

These difficulties could have easily resulted in errors in the manual documentation. This hints at problems in the process, rather than a willful act of fraud on the part of the nurses and the nurse under trial in particular. (Case Facts, n.d.) 2. The testimonies of the other nurses are very relevant. They point to difficulties in following the process steps and in being accurate in their accomplishment of the manual documentation for the medications. First the nurses testified that the process prompted them to instances when they were prone to making errors in the manual documentation, because of problems with recall with regard to dosages and to the medicines administered.

This is because the documentation was done towards the end of the shift, or during breaks, and not at the point of the administration. Second, this problem was compounded by the fact that in practice, nurses signed narcotics electronically in anticipation of need, and then threw them away when they were not used, especially with regard to the IV bags. This means that there were additional opportunities to make mistakes in the manual documentation later on (Case Facts, n.d.). 3. . I would have ruled in favor of the nurse ,due to lack of evidence of fraud, and due to the testimony of other nurses that there is a flaw in the process that can understandably result in nurses making mistakes with the manual documentation (Case Facts, n.d.) ANSWERS TO HOMEWORK 5 FORM QUESTIONS (The responses are numbered in order of the appearance of the questions in the assignment form) 1.

Patient safety principles relating to the accuracy of medications administered and in the accuracy and integrity of patient records are at play in this case. That there are mistakes in documentation that are used to keep track of patient progress, and that are used to plan future interventions, means that the well-being of the patients are put at risk. The testimonies by the nurses point to fundamental flaws in the hospital processes that need to be admitted to, as a first step to making changes to correct the discrepancies (Suydam et al., n.d., pp. 361-363; Sharpe, 2003; American Medical Association, 2009; Ohno-Machado et al., 2004) 2. Strictly speaking, the nurses are not negligent in delaying the documentation for the medications that they took.

For one, there are the electronic signings that cover them, and signify their earnestness to follow the rules. For another, they have to prioritize the manual documentation alongside other tasks, such as attending to the patients and helping the doctors in acute care. These are very pressing tasks. If a patient is unable to breathe on his own or has a very dire condition that needs full attention from the nurse, the documentation can fall by the wayside understandably. The issue is not negligence, but that the work flow forces the nurses to prioritize