Question

Unit 2 Issues in plu At a hospital in Washington State, a client with a recent leg partialy sedated after surgery. The nurse assigned to his caaputation from the room and failed to raise the bed rails. The cliel Nurse Malpractice in Client Fall oud ed. s ownpi cies and procedures manual, the client's lawyer pointed out the r satisfactory precautions be bed, fell, and was inju The client sued the hospital for negligence. taken to restrain disabled or sedated ciente was following the physician's standing orders to allow the client to a postoperatively to hasten recovery and prevent complications. The nurse's lawyer based the defense on the argument that the nurse had an the clent's obligation, based on the hospital's policy and procedures, to assess t physical and mental condition. The court agreed with the client and concluded that the Nurses have an obligation not to leave unattended in an unsafe bed configuration. All lawsuits alleging health-care provider negligence require expert wit- ness testimony. Without this, courts will almost always dismiss a negligence case decided by a lay jury, even when it is as obvious as a fall from bed. In this case the expert testimony not only supported the lawyer's contention that the hospitas poloy and procedures upheld the suit but also emphasized the point that clients recently returned from surgery are disoriented from anesthesia and should never be left alone unless the bed rails are raised to their full upright position. When the case was appealed, the court of appeals wrote the ollowing ruling CC A lawsuit against a hospital for negligence does not necessarily have to involve medical malpractice committed by a phystcu A hospital's nurses have their own independent legal duties in assessing and caring for their patients. A hospital is not relieved of its own legal liability for negligence ahosp cause the hosptai's staff nurses followed the physician's orders. That is a tal's nursing staff patient to be up and out of bed and leave the bed rails down. be- cannot necessarily rely on a physician's standing orders to A patient freshly out for a tions must be evaluated continualy by the staff. The patient's pr and mental state is all that matters. The nurses may have to di cian's standing orders and instead follow the hospital's policies for a restraint in the form of raised bed rails when necessary to insure patient's safety of surgery who is taking pain and sedative necessary to insure the and procedures

ans questions:

make sure to clearly identifes and defends position on the jurys decision

Answer 1

● It makes the scenario difficult to agree because according to vicarious liability a negligence, malpractice committed by its is staff are legally liable towards the action.Though the mistake lies in the nurse ,the hospital should have formulated a very strict policy in regards to prevention of fall in general.

●The nurse can ignore a physician order in the following cases

• When a patient is allergic to a specified treatment (drug allergy,food allergy, etc.,)
• When the vitals are below normal and carrying out the particular standing order can detoriate a patients conditions and lead to adverse effects
• In simple when there is safety issue for q patient, the nurses ignore to follow physician order

● Under the legal principle of Medical Negligence the hospital can be held liable for the nurses action.

●The other measure which the nurse could have done to prevent fall are

• Encouraging one relative or an attender to be with patient all time
• Should have assessed the mental status of the patient
• Having a thorough knowledge on the action of the medication and how adverse events to be prevented.