Question

The patient, a 60-year-old patient hospitalized for hypertension, congestive heart failure, and angina, filed a lawsuit alleging that the nurse failed to assess her blood pressure as ordered, missing the fact that her systolic blood pressure dropped from 132 to 86 during the night shift, failing to notify the physician of this lower blood pressure and causing her to develop permanent kidney damage from this insufficient perfusion. Nursing guidelines at the hospital require a nurse to contact the patient’s physician any time the patient’s systolic blood pressure dropped below 90.

The guidelines at the institution also required that six nurses were need on this particular unit if the patient census was 34 or higher. On the night when this occurrence happened there were five nurses assigned to the 34 patients on the unit, resulting in a patient assignment of seven patients per nurse rather than the usual six patients per nurse assignment. The nurse manager stated in her affidavit that staffing decisions for that night were completely appropriate, based on the acuity level of all the patients assigned to the patient’s nurse.

How should the court decide this case? Is the actual ration of patients per nurse more or equally important as the safe staffing concern for patient acuity and appropriateness of staffing assignments? If the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act had been implemented, would it have impacted this case?

Answer 1

The court can decide this as Hospital negligence of improper staffing of going against the guidelines and causing over exertion or over work load to the nurses on duty leading to the unintentional nursing negligence .

when there is right distribution of nurse patient ratio there will be proper delivery of the quality care offered to the patient.Hence it is important of having acuity and appropriate staffing assignments.

The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act could have been implemented here.This will provide safe care to the patients and manage the cost.