Medical Ethics Case Study: We Ve Got You Covered

This case study considers the ethical implications of the actions of nurses, that cased several near miss medical events and one medical mistake that could have been fatal. It addresses the actual issue raised by the case and how the issues are of ethical concern based on the principles of medical ethics and professional code of ethics. It reveals how various medical code of ethics guides the healthcare administrator response to the ethical issue. Case Study: We’ve Got You Covered
Healthcare administrators have a duty to provide quality care to patients and to maximize the patient experience. One of the most important ways this can be accomplished is by following ethical standards. There will be many opportunities for health care administrator …show more content…
al., 2000). Because the other nurses liked Justin, they had gotten into the habit of checking behind and covering for Justin, and if need, the next shift dispensed the medicines Justine failed to give the patients. Finally, Justin missed giving a patient who was in atrial fibrillation her medicine. There is two issues raised here by this mistake. The first issue deals with the fact that Justine continued to not complete his required duties. There are one out of two reasons for his actions, he is either incompetent or he was negligent in his duties. Incompetent is defined as “not having or showing the necessary skills to do something successfully” and negligent is “failure to take the care that a cautious person usually takes” (Dictionary.com, 2017). Justin had years of previous experience, therefore, it reasonable to assume that he was not incompetent. However, it is possible that other nurses covered for him at his previous job also. Either way, both, incompetence and negligence are issues that raises ethical concerns. The other issue that is at work in this case involves the other nurses’ actions. They continue to cover for Justin, which also contributed to the problem of the patient suffering from atrial fibrillation longer than necessary, which could have resulted in the …show more content…
The challenge is determining the best course of action to take. There are several guiding ethical principles that can be applied to this case. There are three issues that need to be address. First, there is the incident with the patient who continued to be in atrial fibrillation. As aptly stated by Wolf & Hughes, “the ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence are violated when errors are not reported or disclosed” (n.d.). The healthcare administrator’s first priority is to report the error according to the organization’s policy and in compliance with the ACHE Code of Ethics, which states that administrators must disclose mistakes (ACHE Code of Ethics, 2016). Although the patient did not receive the incorrect medication, a medical error did occur when the nurse failed to give the medicine ordered by the doctor. The next step would be for the administrative to investigate the cause of the mistake. In addition to disclosing errors, administrative must also effectively address the issue. According to the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (ANA, 2015) there must be a process in place to “investigate causes of errors or near misses and to address system factors that may have been contributory…disciplinary action taken only if warranted” (ANA, 2015). In addition, the ACHA Code of Ethics