Ethics and Law Discussion Paper

A new graduate nurse is working in the pediatric intensive care unit. She has been employed a total of 5 months, three of which were spent in orientation. Her patient, a child with a cardiac defect and pneumonia, has a very unstable condition and has needed an increasing amount of supplemental oxygen during the night. This is the most complex and unstable case the new nurse has cared for. The physician has been called four times during the night with reports of deterioration in the child’s status. Telephone orders have been issued each time but have not resulted in the patient’s improvement. The nurse has kept her charge nurse apprised of the child’s changing condition and the physician’s orders. The charge nurse advises her, “Try to get the doctor in here a little earlier this morning and make sure he sees your patient first; she’s not looking good.” Twenty minutes later, the child has cardiac arrest and cannot be resuscitated.

What are the four elements that must be proved to uphold a claim of negligence?
Can the child’s family assert a claim of negligence against a new graduate with very limited experience and seniority?
What duty, if any, did the charge nurse have to the child?
Would the physician’s knowledge of the child’s condition serve as a defense against a claim of nursing negligence, particularly because the new graduate had spoken to the physician four times? Ethics and Law Discussion Paper
Discuss, in a narrative format the answers to the questions posed in the assignment. Submit as a Word Document in APA format

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Ethics and Law

What are the four elements that must be proved to uphold a claim of negligence?

There are four legal elements that must be proven to uphold a claim of negligence. The first element is duty of care. This refers to the established professional relationship between a nurse and patient in which the nurse has a legal obligation to possess a reasonable degree of skill and knowledge that is ordinarily possible by other specialty nurses under similar circumstance. The second element is breach of duty that becomes relevant when the patient is injured. This is established when the nurse neglects to meet the appropriate care standard in which a reasonably prudent nurse of similar training and experience would do under similar conditions and circumstances. The standard of care must be established and identified to determine whether duty has been breached, with the standard acting as a foundation of professional actions by nurses while setting the criteria for clinical competence and proficiency. The third element is the causal injury/damage resultant from breach of duty. Causation must be proven as a consequence of the breach of duty for this element to hold. The final element is the element of proximal cause, in which the patient must suffer damages or/and injuries resultant from the breach of duty by the nurse (McEwen & Wills, 2018).

Can the child’s family assert a claim of negligence against a new graduate with very limited experience and seniority?

The child’s family cannot assert a claim of negligence against a new graduate with very limited experience and seniority. Firstly, the nurse had a duty of care and she acted in accordance with the duty by presenting updates on the patient’s condition and ensuring that the relevant medical personnel were informed of any changes in a timely manner. Secondly, the nurse adhered to the standard of care set for the nursing profession at her level of practice. She monitored the patient as required and informed her superiors about worrying changes in the patient’s condition while following their advice on how to act. Thirdly, there was measurable harm to the patient, however, the harm cannot be attributed to the new nurse as she acted as expected for her level of practice. Finally, there was no element of proximal cause between the actions of the new graduate nurse and the harm to the patient. The nurse did not depart from the standard procedure, thus making it difficult to attribute the harm suffered by the patient to any inaction on the part of the nurse (McEwen & Wills, 2018).

What duty, if any, did the charge nurse have to the child?

The charge nurse had a duty of care to the child. Although the patient was receiving care from the new graduate nurse, the charge nurse had a responsibility of ensuring that the appropriate care is not omitted. This is especially so when it is considered that the new graduate nurse provided regular updates indicating that the patient’s condition was worsening. She understood that the new graduate nurse was not appropriately qualified to act in an emergency situation and did not intervene by ensuring that an appropriately qualified nurse was available to provide care. This implies that she did not act in the best interest of the patient (Raingruber, 2017).

Would the physician’s knowledge of the child’s condition serve as a defense against a claim of nursing negligence, particularly because the new graduate had spoken to the physician four times?

The physician’s knowledge of the child’s condition cannot serve as defense against a claim of nursing negligence on the part of the new graduate nurse. That is because she adhered to the standard of care set by the nursing profession and did not depart from the specific duty owed to the patient. The new graduate nurse acted reasonably under the circumstances (Raingruber, 2017).

References

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. (2018). Theoretical Basis for Nursing (5^th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Raingruber, B. (2017). Contemporary Health Promotion in Nursing Practice (2^nd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.  Ethics and Law Discussion Paper