Case Study: 53 Year-Old Family Nurse Practitioner

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Kathy Block is a 53 year-old Family Nurse Practitioner, certified in Wound and Ostomy Care, and employed by a private practice of an independent living community. She is a typical nurse in the sense that “most NPs choose a specialty area such as adult, family, or pediatric health care” (Black, 2014, p. 18). Also, her certification was through ANCC, the largest certification body among nurses (p. 145). Karen Paker is a 41 year-old Cardiovascular Critical Care Nurse in San Diego. According to Munro and Savel (2015), “specializing in one of the most sought after nursing specialties” (p. 372) makes Karen more than your average nurse. She has been practicing for over 15 years and loves her new position working in an open-heart unit because “it is …show more content…
According to the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, “eighty percent of medical errors are actually caused by communication and coordination problems amongst medical team members” (Munro & Savel, 2015, p. 372). One of the biggest challenges for registered nurse, Karen, was learning how to communicate in a high stress, face-paced cardiovascular intensive care unit. The CVICU, according to Karen, “attracts strong personalities; whom which are confident and pushy especially when you are starting out and do not know much,” (personal communication, October 1, 2015). Sometimes their intentions can be misinterpreted or come off mean, but they are just being themselves and that’s the environment these people are attracted to. For Karen, a line had to be drawn when her preceptor humiliated her in front of a patient and the patient’s family. Being shamed for not knowing the right answer is a type of bullying in the workplace among co-workers termed lateral violence. According to Potter (2013), lateral violence “has an adverse effect on the work environment, leading to job satisfaction, poor retention of qualified nurses, nurses leaving the profession, and poor teamwork” (p. 316). Lateral violence in the workplace affects patient care because it “decreases the likelihood that a nurse will report a near-miss, question an order, or take action to improve the quality of patient care” (Potter, 2013, p. 316). In order for a patient to receive the best outcome, healthcare providers need to learn how to respect each other and brainstorm more efficient ways to communicate as a

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