Nursing codes of Practice/Conduct/Ethics
What are they?
How does the nursing codes of practice/code of conduct/code of ethics relate to the case study?
Australian Charter of Health Care Rights
How does the Charter of Health Care Rights relate to the case study?
Duty of Care
Define this concept
How is duty of care relevant to the case study?
The concept of Reasonable Standard of Care
Define this concept.
How is “reasonable standard of care” relevant to the case study?
Medical Negligence
Define this concept.
Outline the three elements of medical negligence, in relation to the case study.
Coroner
Why was this case referred to the coroner?
Can you describe which circumstances may have contributed to the outcome?
Summary
Who do you think is responsible for the outcome? Why?
References
Show the resources you used at the end of your video applying APA referencing style.
(Minimum of six references in total,)
Case Study
Peter Sutcliffe, years old and a marathon runner, was admitted to Sunny Days Private Hospital for elective surgery for repair of a rotator cuff injury.
Peter was on no regular medication and was otherwise healthy. Peter underwent his surgery at and the procedure was uneventful. Peter was transferred to the Recovery area at. On arrival, Peter's oxygen saturation was. The nurse did not notify the anaesthetist of this low reading. Peter was transferred to the ward and a handover was given to the ward nurses. No mention was made of Peter's low oxygen reading in the handover. The ward nurse looking after Peter completed his observations, noted his oxygen saturation was administered facial oxygen and did not check his oxygen saturation again. During the evening Peter remained sleepy and difficult to rouse.
The two night duty nurses (one Registered Nurse and one Enrolled nurse) came on shift at 1030 pm and checked the patients in the ward. The Enrolled Nurse completed Peter's observations and noted that his oxygen saturation was and he was difficult to rouse. She documented these findings in Peter's medical record but did not notify the Registered Nurse. Shortly after coming on shift, the Registered Nurse told the Enrolled Nurse that he was going to sleep in a spare patient bed and did not want to be interrupted.
The Enrolled Nurse was left with monitoring and caring for all 40 patients in the ward. As she could not complete all the patient care including the observations, she made some up (including Peters) and wrote them in the patients' medical records without actually assessing each patient. At when she went into Peters' room she could not hear him breathing and he was not rousable. She rang the emergency call bell and the Registered Nurse came to the room, commenced CPR and called for additional staff to assist. Peter was transferred to a nearby public hospital for continued care but was pronounced dead on arrival. The case was referred to the coroner.
