The nursing profession is very productive and vital in the healthcare sector. Despite that, a nurse’s job in a medical institution can be demanding. And where you find yourself at the risk of losing your license, contact California Nursing License Defense Attorney
Nurses, among other health personnel, deal with human life. Any act of incompetence or carelessness can threaten the life of a patient.
To be on the safe side, This article points out the various acts of negligence to avoid.
What Is Negligence In Nursing?
Negligence in nursing entails the failure of a nurse to perform expected duties according to medical standards in the hospital. This ranges from taking records of patients’ improvement to administering the wrong medication.
Is Incompetence The Same As Negligence?
The two terms are interchanged while describing the poor behavioral ethics of nurses, but in the real sense, they are not the same.
Negligence in nursing describes the inability of a nurse to abide by ethical and medical standards in the hospital.
Incompetence is the lack of knowledge or the right judgment of the job description of nurses.
A nurse can be tagged incompetent if they do not possess any skill that can help in their field.
5 Acts Of Negligence
1. Failure To Administer Medication
Patients are kept under the jurisdiction of a nurse. Hence there are prescribed treatment that needs to be given at specific periods.
Negligence occurs when a nurse fails to give the right medication without any just reason. It can also mean the refusal obey a physician’s prescription or order.
2. Failure To Document
Proper documentation of patient records is the duty of every nurse. The documentation gives a heads up on the patient’s improvement and the drugs administered.
Anything not documented was not done. This is a common belief in the healthcare sector. Also, if a patient’s information is documented wrongly, it can lead to an issue, especially when you’re on a shift.
For instance, if a patient is expected to take a painkiller drug every 8 hours, Nurse Ana administers the drug at noon without documentation.
After a shift, the patient requests medication for pain, and the next nurse checks the chart and cannot find any initial record of the first dose, and she administers the drug. The patient will react to the effects of an overdose. This is an act of negligence by the first nurse.
3. Abandoning Patient
The act of overlooking a patient in one’s care is an act of negligence. This could lead to injuries or health complications. Every nurse must watch each patient closely, meet their needs, and stand as a caregiver.
Contact your leader and request permission if there is a genuine reason to leave a patient under your care so that another nurse can be assigned to your post.
4. Administering The Wrong Drug
One of the duties of every nurse is to administer treatment to patients. The physician prescribes the drugs, and the nurse is expected to verify the order.
A careless attitude of not being cautious when administering drugs is an act of negligence. The pharmacist can make a mistake when selecting the drugs. The nurse has to make sure that every prescription is in order.
5. Injuring A Patient With A Medical Tool
Every nurse is expected to deal with caution when treating a patient. Accidents can happen, but if it does, a nurse should put forth a genuine reason for such an act.
Looking to work as a nurse, you should get acquainted with the organization’s conduct and standards.
