Legal Malpractice or Negligence Case Fact Pattern
Order Instructions:
Application of Standards of Care and the Nurse Practice Act to Advance Practice Nurses Involved in a Legal Action
Before completing this paper , it is important that the write understand very well the Nurse Practice Act that’s is use in the U.S because it will be discuss base on the fact that it happened hear in the U.S . It is critical to discuss every details that’s mentioned in this case hear and also use case laws and pear review articles to supports the facts.
Describe the case below and discuss the standard of care that the parties will be held to in this case. How will the standards of care and the Nurse Practice Act be applied in a court of law if the case is sued?
Hear below is the case to be use for this paper . let the writer take time to look at it and respond to the above questions according using case laws to support his augments.
Case Study 1: Malpractice Action Brought by Yolanda Pinnelas
People Involved in Case:
Yolanda Pinnelas-patient
Betty DePalma, RN, MS-nursing supervisor
Elizabeth Adelman, RN, recovery room nurse
William Brady, M.D., plastic surgeon
Mary Jones, RN-IV insertion
Carol Price, LPN
Jeffery Chambers, RN-staff nurse
Patricia Peters, PharmD-pharmacy
Diana Smith, RN
Susan Post, JD-Risk Manager
Amy Green-Quality Assurance
Michael Parks, RN, MS, CNS-Education coordinator
SAFE-INFUSE-pump
Brand X infusion pump
Caring Memorial Hospital
Facts:
The patient, Yolanda Pinellas is a 21-year-old female admitted to Caring Memorial Hospital for chemotherapy. Caring Memorial is a hospital in Upstate New York. Yolanda was a student at Ithaca College and studying to be a music conductor.
Yolanda was diagnosed with anal cancer and was to receive Mitomycin for her chemotherapy. Mary Jones, RN inserted the IV on the day shift around 1300, and the patient, Yolanda, was to have Mitomycin administered through the IV. An infusion machine was used for the delivery. The Mitomycin was hung by Jeffrey Chambers, RN and he was assigned to Yolanda. The unit had several very sick patients and was short staffed. Jeffery had worked a double shift the day before and had to double back to cover the evening shift. He was able to go home between shift and had about 6 hours of sleep before returning. The pharmacy was late in delivering the drug so it was not hung until the evening shift. Patricia Peters, PharmD brought the chemotherapy to the unit.
On the evening shift, Carol Price, LPN heard the infusion pump beep several times. She had ignored it as she thought someone else was caring for the patient. Diana Smith, RN was also working the shift and had heard the pump beep several times. She mentioned it to Jeffery. She did not go into the room until about forty-five minutes later. The patient testified that a nurse Updated: June 2014 MN506- Unit 9 Page 3 of 5
came in and pressed some buttons and the pump stopped beeping. She was groggy and not sure who the nurse was or what was done.
Diana Smith responded to the patient’s call bell and found the IV had dislodged for the patient’s vein. There was no evidence that the Mitomycin had gone into the patient’s tissue. Diana immediately stopped the IV, notified the physician, and provided care to the hand. The documentation in the medical record indicates that there was an infiltration to the IV.
The hospital was testing a new IV Infusion pump called SAFE-INFUSE. The supervisory nurse was Betty DePalma, RN. Betty took the pump off the unit. No one made note of the pump’s serial number as there were 6 in the hospital being used. There was also another brand of pumps being used in the hospital. It was called Brand X infusion pump. Betty did not note the name of the pump or serial number. The pump was not isolated or sent to maintenance and eventually the hospital decided not to use SAFE-INFUSE so the loaners were sent back to the company.
Betty and Dr. William Brady are the only ones that carry malpractice insurance. The hospital also has malpractice insurance.
Two weeks after the event, the patient developed necrosis of the hand and required multiple surgical procedures, skin grafting, and reconstruction. She had permanent loss of function and deformity in her third, fourth, and fifth fingers. The Claimant is alleging that, because of this, she is no longer able to perform as a conductor, for which she was studying.
During the procedure for the skin grafting, the plastic surgeon, Dr. William Brady, used a dermatome that resulted in uneven harvesting of tissue and further scarring in the patient’s thigh area where the skin was harvested.
The Risk Manger is Susan Post, J.D. who works in collaboration with the Quality Assurance director Amy Green. Amy had noted when doing chart reviews over the last three months prior to this incident that there were issues of short staffing and that many nurses were working double shifts, evenings and nights then coming back and working the evening shift. She was in the process of collecting data from the different units on this observation. She also noted a pattern of using float nurses to several units. Prior to this incident the clinical nurse specialist, Michael Parks, RN, MS, CNS, was consulting with Susan Post and Amy Green about the status of staff education on this unit and what types of resources and training was needed.
Resources
Hunt, J. A., & Hutchings, M. (2014). Innovative group-facilitated peer and educator assessment of nursing students’ group presentations. Health Science Journal, 8(1), 22–31.
Essentials of Nursing Law and Ethics
Chapter 2: “Regulation of Nursing Practice”
Chapter 4: “Standards of Care”
Chapter 33: “Contracts”
Chapter 48: “Social Media and Online Professionalism”
Chapter 50: “Maternal and Fetal Rights”
SAMPLE ANSWER
Legal Malpractice or Negligence Case Fact Pattern
Introduction
Medical practitioners in their line of duty engage in legal malpractices or even neglect their role in provision of quality services to their patients. Upon performing these malpractices and acts of negligence, a patient can sue the nurse in a court of law (Yonda- Wise, 2014). The nurse can be charged for violating the Nurse Practice Act and negligence of the Standards of Care. The following discussion describes a certain case and how standards of care will be held in this case. The paper also indulges to argue how Standard of Care and Nurse Practice Act can be applied in a court of law if the case is sued.
Description of the Case
The case involves a 21-year-old female, Yolanda Pinnelas, who is admitted for chemotherapy at Caring Memorial Hospital. Mary Jones inserted the recommended Mitomycin using IV and it was hanged on using an infusion machine. The situation at the hospital was that there were limited staff, and the pharmacy delayed in delivering the drug on time so that it was not hung until evening by Jeffrey. In the evening, Carol Price heard the infusion pump beeping severally and ignored. Diana Smith, still on the shift, heard of the beeping and informed the RN in charge, but did not go into the patient’s room until about forty-five minutes later. The patient was not informed of what had happened. It was reported of Infiltration on the IV after it was stopped. During this time, the hospital was trying a new ‘safe infuse’ device. When putting it into practice, the supervisor, Betty DePalma, did not take note of the name and serial number of the pump. The pump was neither isolated nor maintained and eventually led to its dismissal. After all this malpractices and negligence, Yolanda, develops necrosis of the hand. During harvesting of the skin to remedy the problem, Dr. William Brady caused further scarring of Yolanda’s skin.
Standard of care violated in the case above
The main element of violating standard of care in this case is negligence. In the case above, Patricia Peters neglected his role in providing drug on time (Lilley, Collins, Snyder & Savoca, 2014). Jeffrey in charged did not hang the infusion at the appropriate time (Carol, 2011). Mary Jones was first to hear the beeping of the infusion machine, but did not bother about. Although Diana smith heard the beeping and informed the RN in charge, he did not go into the room immediately (Masters, 2014). In addition, the RNs did not take the initiative to inform the patient about her treatment process. Betty DePalma depicts some elements of negligence when he could not take note of the name of the devise and its serial number when testing it.
Legal implications of the malpractices and negligence
This scenario will be judged in rhyme with case law of ‘Monk vs. Doctor’s hospital’ where the facility and the physician were found negligent when an application of a surgery resulted in a patient burn (Wojcieszak & Houk, 2006). Another case law that can be applied to the case above is ‘Llyod Noland Hospital vs. Durham’. In this case law, the court ruled that the staff failed to administer a standing order of preoperative antibiotics to a patient (Wojcieszak & Houk, 2006). All the cases relate to Yolanda’s case where negligence of the hospital staff led to her developing necrosis of hand. The implication will be that Yolanda will be compensated while the medical practitioners involved in the negligence will either be suspended, fired, or their licenses revoked.
Conclusion
In summary, malpractices and negligence in provision of services in hospital can lead to legal implications. RNs stand chances of being sued for the failure to observe and perfect standard of care. This is because the society expects services from them to be ideal. Susan Post is likely to be fired on sleeping on her job. William, Army, and Michael can be sued for complicating the health of Yolanda.
References
.Carol B. Liebman, (2011). Medical Malpractice Mediation: Benefits Gained, Opportunities. Journal for legal and contemporary problems in nursing
Lilley, L. L., Collins, S. R., Snyder, J. S., & Savoca, D. (2014). Pharmacology and the nursing process. St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier/Mosby.
Masters, K. (2014). Role development in professional nursing practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Whitehead, D. K., Weiss, S. A., & Tappen, R. M. (2009). Essentials of Nursing Leadership and Management. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
Wojcieszak, D & Houk, C. (2006). The sorry works! Coalition; making the case for full disclosure. Journal on Quality and patient Safety.
Yonda- Wise, P. (2014). Leading and managing nursing. St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier Mosby.
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