Ethical and Legal implications
You are a family nurse practitioner working in an outpatient primary care office of a large hospital system. The practice has been operating for over 15 years, and many of the administrative and clinical staff were hired when the practice opened. You have been in the practice for less than 3 months. In that short amount of time, you have witnessed several of the clinical staff engaging in heated arguments with each other, sometimes in patient areas. You overhear an argument occurring today between two staff. You pick up a patient’s chart and notice a very low blood pressure that the medical assistant failed to notify you about. When you confront the MA, she states that she was going to report the vital signs to you when she became engaged in the heated argument you overheard and forgot to notify you.
Unfortunately, this pattern of behavior is not unusual in this practice. Working with staff who cannot cooperate effectively can negatively influence your ability to spend time with patients, can impede the flow of patients through the office, and could impact patient safety.
Case Study Responses:
Analyze the case study for potential issues for members of the healthcare team from office conflict. Contrast the potential effects for each member of the healthcare team based upon the required readings from the week. Discuss the potential ethical and legal implications for each of the following practice members:
Medical assistant
Nurse Practitioner
Medical Director
Practice
What strategies would you implement to prevent further episodes of potentially dangerous patient outcomes?
What leadership qualities would you apply to effect positive change in the practice? Focus on the culture of the practice.
A scholarly resource must be used for EACH discussion question each week less than 5 years old.
Provides relevant evidence of scholarly inquiry of the potential ethical and legal implications for each of the practice members. Uses valid, relevant, and reliable outside sources to contribute to the threaded discussion. Provides relevant evidence of scholarly inquiry of strategies to implement to prevent further episodes of potentially dangerous patient outcomes. Uses valid, relevant, and reliable outside sources to contribute to the threaded discussion. Provides relevant evidence of scholarly inquiry of leadership qualities to apply to effect a positive change in the practice. Uses valid, relevant, and reliable outside sources to contribute to the threaded discussion.
Sample Paper
Ethical and Legal Implications
Medical errors are common in the healthcare field (Melnyk et al., 2018). Approximately 1.3 million Americans are highly injured every year following adverse events concerning medical errors. These errors, in one way, can be avoided through the organization and its leaders recognizing the need to adopt a culture of safety. The case provided can be an excellent example of how medical errors occur. This is because, as an FNP, the medical assistant failed to notify on the patient’s very low blood pressure following a heated argument she overheard and forgot to notify.
Analyzing the Case Study
As presented, this type of scenario often occurs not just in the medical offices but across the health care field. FNPs and other liable care providers have an essential duty to set an example of exemplary behaviour and also lead as an example. In this case, the medical assistant (MA) and other staff members were not required to be having heated arguments in patient care area. This is because any complaints, issues or concerns need to be addressed away from non-patient care area after their duties are accomplished.
It was inappropriate for MA to engage in this form of confrontation in patient care area, and also, it was wrong for her to delay a life-threatening treatment potentially. There would have been a severe error and eventually patient harm and repercussions for delaying the patient care. This would have led to an adverse event or irreversible damage to this patient. Nurse Practitioners have a duty to care for the patient first and address their concerns on time to prevent more issues from occurring to the patient (CARE.,2020). The medical director will require made aware of problems and concerns Nurse Practitioner has concerning the practice like patient safety, work environment, inner-office communication, and consistent workflow. These concerns usually affect practice, i.e., loss of patient safety and reduced patient satisfaction, loss of productivity and revenue for the practice. All these affect practice negatively. If not fixed and addressed, the practice and patients continue suffering.
Strategies I Would Implement to Prevent More Episodes of Possibly Dangerous
Patient Outcomes
As leaders, it is good first to recognize a problem so that it can be addressed. Once the issues are identified, the management and leadership should establish a united workplace. Opportunities on inner office behaviour require to be discussed with the staff. Thus, one strategy I would implement is setting behaviour standards in the workplace and writing and enforcing a new policy. Another strategy would be inviting informal correspondence between the staff and leadership, encouraging them to understand that there are no consequences of discussing concerns or feelings with the leadership. Besides, having an open-door policy between the staff and leadership could also be an intervention worth implementing to help present caring and open connections in practice (Wei et al.,2019). This definitely can help prevent more events of possibly dangerous patient outcomes.
Leadership Qualities I Would Apply to Effect a Positive Change in Practice
One leadership quality I would apply in this case would be an effective communication (Murray, Sundin & Cope.,2018). This would address the lack of communication with healthcare providers concerning patients dangerous low blood pressure. Another quality would be time management. I would apply and enlighten on the importance of managing time for patient’s safety and healthcare, which would prevent errors. I would also use the quality of conflict resolution. I would have open conversations with the staff, setting regulations and rules on managing conflict constructively and healthily imperative to practice. Besides, I would apply integrity, i.e., handling the situation with authority and professionalism setting an example for others.
References
CARE, D. T. (2020). Conflicting duties and reciprocal obligations during a pandemic. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 15(5), 285. https://cdn.mdedge.com/files/s3fs-public/issues/articles/jhm01505284.pdf
Melnyk, B. M., Orsolini, L., Tan, A., Arslanian-Engoren, C., Melkus, G. D. E., Dunbar-Jacob, J., … & Lewis, L. M. (2018). A national study links nurses’ physical and mental health to medical errors and perceived worksite wellness. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 60(2), 126-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2018.05.014
Murray, M., Sundin, D., & Cope, V. (2018). The nexus of nursing leadership and a culture of safer patient care. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(5-6), 1287-1293. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13980
Wei, H., Roberts, P., Strickler, J., & Corbett, R. W. (2019). Nurse leaders’ strategies to foster nurse resilience. Journal of nursing management, 27(4), 681-687. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12736
