Ethical - Nursing

br MANAGEMENT OF MEDICATION OR

TREATMENT ERRORS

SUBMITTED BY

MANAGEMENT OF MEDICATION OR TREATMENT ERRORS INTRODUCTION

Changes occurring in Health care delivery and Medicine are the result of social , economical , technological , scientific forces that have evolved in the 21st century . Among the most significant changes are shift in disease patterns , advanced technology , increased consumer expectations and high costs of health care . These factors have redefined nursing practices to fit into the changing health delivery system . Thus nursing profession is `accountable ' to the society . i .e , obliged to the

laws regulating the professional activity . This `accountability ' is usually spelt out in Patient Care Documents ' established by hospital associations and medical associations or councils of every country (Suzanne , 2004 . In addition , the nursing profession has defined its standards of accountability through a formal code of ethics

Patient 's perceptions of health care , particularly disagreements and researches of various kinds with medical professionals have caught the attention of every one since 1980s . These disagreements have turned often into legal complaints (Ellen Annandale 1998 . These disagreements turned legal complaints lead to long medical litigations

An interdisciplinary study of medical-litigations shows that such adverse medical events are due to negligent patient care . Seventy percent of the negligence based adverse medical events results in disability lasting for about six months , 2 .6 percent resulted in permanent disabilities and 13 .6 percent lead to death (Brennan .T 1991 Thus , most of the adverse medical events are due to medical mismanagement and substandard care . These adverse medical events vary based on the disability suffered by the patient and the physician 's involvement in the event . Very often , the judgments on such medical-litigations are based on the gravity of the adverse medical event

An adverse medical event is an injury caused due to medical treatment rather than the disease for which the patient is treated . This adverse medical event prolongs the hospitalization process causing disabilities , either permanent or temporary . An adverse medical event due to negligence thus is an injury proved to be due to the sub-standard medical care not expected of a health care professional . An adverse medical event can be a temporary disability or even death due to injury Although in most of the medical litigations , the severity of the patient disability has been predictive in judgments in favor of the patients negligence does have an impact on importance of high-quality medical care and professional accountability in adverse medical events

In such events , the Court usually award three types of damages

Compensatory damages - for an injured plaintiff 's economic losses , costs of health care and lost wages

Compensatory damages - for non-economic losses including pain , suffering associated to injury and

Punitive damages - in cases where a defendant (here , a doctor ) has been found to have acted in a willful fashion , demonstrating negligence with no regard for the patient 's well being . Thus , punitive damages aim to punish the defendants and are very damaging to the professionals

Medical malpractice law is part of tort , or personal injury law . The standard...