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Essay about medical errors
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For most people, medical facilities are considered to be safe and healing centers, where people visit to improve their wellbeing. But it is very unfortunate that lot deaths are caused by errors committed by medical teams in this facilities. Every year, almost 144000 people die as a result of medical errors (The Leapfrog Group2015), which also took the life of an eighteen months old Josie in 2001 at John Hopkins Hospital. Josie’s death is very painful and sad as it is a result of avoidable medical errors. Josie’s death would have been prevented if she was provided with adequate care and close attention while she was exhibiting some changes in her behavior. Also, listening to the concerned mother who knows her daughter better could have also help prevent Josie’s death. and likewise, effective communication among the care providers would have made a great difference in the outcome of Josie’s care. …show more content…
I would take the step of hydrating Josie by obtaining a swallow screen order from the physician to determine how well she can tolerate fluid. I would as well obtain an order from the physician to start Josie on IV fluid if she was unable to receive anything through her mouth. Also, l would listen to Josie’s mother about her concerns, since she knows her daughter better than anyone else, and had stayed with Josie since her admission. In addition to this, I would assess the Josie according to her mother’s report that Josie’s eyes were rolling back, and call the physician for further interventions. It is my responsibility as a nurse to know if a particular medication is safe to be given to my patient and to check with the prescriber of the medication for patient’s
Although I respect and trust nurses and doctors, I always carefully observe what is being done with myself or my family members. After watching Josie’s story and being in the process of becoming a medical assistant, I feel this story has given me an initiative to ensure patients and their families are kept safe. The generation we live in is technological, there are many resources for patients and families to utilize to educate themselves when it comes to medical conditions. Some people like to self-diagnose and it makes it harder for doctors and healthcare workers to work with those patients. This is when communication and active listening becomes especially important to work through what is fact and what is misplaced
Reflect on this week’s case study (Erin’s Dilemma) and the class discussion. Think about the MORAL model. After reviewing your peers’ comments, has your thinking about the issue changed? Why or why not.
She should have not made the assumption that there were no doctors available until 2100 hours. Instead, she should have sought clarifications on whether the Emergency Department (ED) doctor was prevailed on examining the patient. She should’ve escalated concerns to the Clinical Nurse Manager (CNM). She also should’ve not made the assumption that the administration of antibiotic would improve the patient’s condition and “recover” her from the “red zone”. Finally, she should have documented her observations and implement a care
Hospital medical errors can involve medicines (e.g., wrong drug, wrong dose, bad combination), an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis, equipment malfunction, surgical mistakes, or laboratory errors. High medical error rates with serious consequences occurs in intensive care units, operating rooms, and emergency departments; but, serious errors that harmed patients may have prevented or minimized. Understand the nature of the error
There is currently overpowering confirmation that significant amounts of patients are harmed from their health care providers bringing about perpetual harm, expanded length of stay in doctor's facilities and even death (Hellings, J. 2010). We have learnt in the course of the most recent decade that adverse occasions happen not on account of terrible individuals deliberately harm patients but instead that the arrangement of health care today is complex to the point that the effective medication and result for every patient relies on upon an extent of elements, not only the ability of an individual healthcare provider. At the point when such a variety of individuals and diverse sorts of healthcare providers are included this makes it exceptionally troublesome to guarantee safe consideration, unless the arrangement of care is intended to encourage opportune and complete data and considerate by all the health professionals. Patient safety is an issue everywhere that conveys health services, whether they are privately financed or specially made by the government (Singla, A. 2006). Ordering antibiotics without respect for the patient's underlying condition and whether anti-microbial will help the patient, or managing numerous medications without thoughtfulness regarding the potential adverse drug reactions, all have the potential for damage and patient harm. Patients are not just hurt by the misuse of technology, they can also be harmed by poor communication between different healthcare providers or postpones in getting medication (Bates, D. 2013). Patient-physician communication is a necessary some piece of clinical practice. Patients, who comprehend their specialists, are more inclined to recognize health issues, comprehend their medi...
A medical error is not reasonably expected result of normal course of action, unsafe practice of medicine, or an outcome that was not anticipated. Medical errors can happen everywhere in the hospital, here are some examples; a patient on a low-salt diet given a high salt meal, treating the wrong patient, surgical equipment, being left inside the body during surgery, and even wrong site surgery. Errors also happen when doctors and their patients have problems communicating. For example, a recent study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that doctors often do not do enough to help their patients make informed decisions (Saintsing 354). Uninvolved and uninformed patients are less likely to accept the doctor 's choice of treatment and less likely to do what they need to do to make the treatment work (Saintsing 356,357). Errors are all too frequent in medicine, Building a Safer Health System estimated that as many as 98,000 deaths, due to a medical error, occurs in the United States (Laure 770).
The societal taboo associated with death and dying is only worsened when death becomes imminent for an infant or child. Pediatric death and dying is a seldom discussed and often evaded topic in healthcare. This topic, although somber and challenging, is relevant for those nurses who encounter pediatric death and dying first hand. The following discussion will define death and dying in a pediatric population, identify the role of the bedside nurse in support of the dying child and parents of child, the bedside nurse’s role in an interdisciplinary team on a floor where death is a common occurrence, and promotion of nursing self-care to combat compassion fatigue and burnout.
1. What is the difference between a. and a. Which K, S, and A pertain to the care you provided to the patient you have chosen? Why do you need to be a member? K- Describe the limits and boundaries of therapeutic patient-centered care. S- Assess levels of physical and emotional comfort.
“When Doctors Make Mistakes” narrates an event where the author Atul Gawande, a doctor, made a mistake that cost a women her life. He relates that it is hard to talk about the mistakes that occurred with the patient's family lest it be brought up in court. In that instance the family and doctor are either wrong or right, there is no middle ground in a “black-and-white mortality case”(658). Even the most educated doctors make simple mistakes that hold immense consequences but can only speak about them with fellow doctors during a Morbidity and Mortality Conference.
Frederich Nietzsche once wrote, “What are man’s truths ultimately? Merely his irrefutable errors” (2006). The Institute of Medicine defines patient safety as the “freedom from accidental injury due to medical care” and defines medical error as “the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim including problems in practice, products, procedures, and systems” (Kohn). In healthcare, failures like these can be significant, or even fatal. The responsibility falls upon each individual working in the healthcare industry to ensure these errors do not occur-it is everyone’s problem.
In conclusion, healthcare is a complex industry and as such is never without risk. It is essential that protocols are in place to reduce the risk of error occurring and minimise patient harm. Error that do occur need to be investigated, analysed and it is essential that mistakes are learned from and that they don’t happen again.
The health care is extremely important to society because without health care it would not be possible for individuals to remain healthy. The health care administers care, treats, and diagnoses millions of individual’s everyday from newborn to fatal illness patients. The health care consists of hospitals, outpatient care, doctors, employees, and nurses. Within the health care there are always changes occurring because of advance technology and without advance technology the health care would not be as successful as it is today. Technology has played a big role in the health care and will continue in the coming years with new methods and procedures of diagnosis and treatment to help safe lives of the American people. However, with plenty of advance technology the health care still manages to make an excessive amount of medical errors. Health care organizations face many issues and these issues have a negative impact on the health care system. There are different ways medical errors can occur within the health care. Medical errors are mistakes that are made by health care providers with no intention of harming patients. These errors rang from communication error, surgical error, manufacture error, diagnostic error, and wrong medication error. There are hundreds of thousands of patients that die every year due to medical error. With medical errors on the rise it has caused the United States to be the third leading cause of death. (Allen.M, 2013) Throughout the United States there are many issues the he...
It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).
In this substantial report, the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated that in 1999 approximately 98,000 Americans (almost 100,000 Americans!) died in US hospital due to diagnostic errors and nearly one million US patients suffered a preventable medical error, leading to the progression of a disease or death (Andel et al., 2013). In an attempt to paint a clear picture of the severity of medical errors for every one individual that dies in the U.S. due to a drunk driver there are two deaths caused by medical errors. The IOM report concluded that medical errors, mostly resulted as a fault in the system (systematic errors) rather than human errors in the performance of health care delivery by providers (Schulman & Kim, 2000). Why does this matter to those who haven’t experienced an adverse event due to a medical error? It is simply really; it matters because it effects everyone in a few ways, one of which is economically. In 2008 alone America lost $19.5 billion due to diagnostic errors (Andel et al., 2013). As a result, there has been an inflation in medical costs. Some services that accumulated additional cost includes: ancillary services, prescription drug services, and inpatient and outpatient service (Andel et al., 2013). These increased charges equaled roughly $17 billion of the $19.5 billion dollars lost. According to the IOM report, the most common medical care errors occur when administrating drugs and $5,000 is added to every hospital admission just due to drug errors alone (Healey & McGowan, 2010). Ultimately, quality health care is less expensive for citizens and our country in the long run.Medical testing and medications can be costly and at times traumatic. In the last decade, awareness and efforts to understand and resolve the problem of medical errors has
Nursing has been and always will be a profession that is constantly changing. Nurses were once prostitutes, thieves, and women who were forced to practice as a nurse instead of serving jail time. Today, however, nursing is looked at as one of the most respected and well-regarded careers. There were several people who contributed to the change in nursing from years ago to what it is today. Virginia Henderson was one of those people. Called the first lady of nursing by many, Henderson is credited with creating the definition of nursing.