Beneficence or Maleficence: The Impaired Nurse Today, nursing schools instill names like Florence Nightingale who vastly improved the nursing profession by creating ideal environments for promotion of health and healing while also being an advocate. Along with prominent figures nursing school also introduces students to words like beneficence and nonmaleficence to promote ethical and moral professionals. In turn, we are given role models to emulate and are taught how to withstand moral and ethical standards; however, impaired nurses can potential cause more harm than good. Typically “impaired nurses” are often thought of as people that are acting with their nursing license and are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This statement is
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Studies that will be elaborated on have shown that a nurse that is fatigued is just as likely if not more probable to commit a costly work related incident. Findings from a groundbreaking 2004 study of 393 nurses over more than 5,300 shifts – the first in a series of studies of nurse fatigue and patient safety – showed that nurses who work shifts of 12.5 hours or longer are three times more likely to make an error in patient care Rodgers, Hwang, Scott, Aiken, and Dinges (2004). Therefore, it is just as imperative as a leader, manger, or coworker to be able to identify signs and symptoms of nurse fatigue as it is to be able to classify an intoxicated or drug impaired coworker. Sleep deprivation or nurse fatigue is often overlooked as a norm related to the industry standard of three twelve hour work shifts a week and overtime nevertheless it could have immense ethical and moral consequences. Could potential negative outcomes outweigh the perceived advantages of the 12 hour nurse shift? Furthermore, being able to isolate the cause of nurse fatigue can also assist leaders and management to resolve the problem at hand. With every problem needs a solution therefore this paper will too discuss primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions to combat the
Studies that will be elaborated on have shown that a nurse that is fatigued is just as likely if not more probable to commit a costly work related incident. Findings from a groundbreaking 2004 study of 393 nurses over more than 5,300 shifts – the first in a series of studies of nurse fatigue and patient safety – showed that nurses who work shifts of 12.5 hours or longer are three times more likely to make an error in patient care Rodgers, Hwang, Scott, Aiken, and Dinges (2004). Therefore, it is just as imperative as a leader, manger, or coworker to be able to identify signs and symptoms of nurse fatigue as it is to be able to classify an intoxicated or drug impaired coworker. Sleep deprivation or nurse fatigue is often overlooked as a norm related to the industry standard of three twelve hour work shifts a week and overtime nevertheless it could have immense ethical and moral consequences. Could potential negative outcomes outweigh the perceived advantages of the 12 hour nurse shift? Furthermore, being able to isolate the cause of nurse fatigue can also assist leaders and management to resolve the problem at hand. With every problem needs a solution therefore this paper will too discuss primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions to combat the