The Ethical Issues in Healthcare Research
Abstract
The ethical issue related to the refusal of nurses to report about the errors occurred is a very complicated. A nurse may fear to report, or lack knowledge about the errors definition, or may be unaware of the reporting steps. He/she also doubts whether the issue is significant or not. However, the health of the patient is endangered and any error should be reported. It is important to implement a clear procedure of errors reporting by the nurses to assure properly and accurately reporting. Senior management of the hospital should establish a mechanism how to improve working environment, nurses’ job security and open communication to facilitate timely reporting of the errors occurred. The emphasis should be not on the blame or finding the culprits but on finding the reasons and avoid repetition of similar situation in the future.
Week 3 Assignment 2
This paper investigates the topic of refusal to report the errors by the nursing staff. This issue is a very acute topic in the healthcare field. A nurse who refused to report about the errors either due to fear, thinking of low importance of the error or poor awareness about the necessity to report about the issue can seriously harm patient’s well-being.
The ethical issue
The ethical issue involved in the field of refusal of nurses to report about the errors made by them is related to the most important in healthcare – the health of the patient. If a nurse does not report about the error happened on time, the consequences may be irreversible. The fear to be punished or lose his/her position will result in much serious outcomes with the legal consequences. Naturally, one may argue that human being can make error. However, the price of this error in the healthcare field is too high. Therefore, the code of ethics of the medical entity should not only highlight keeping patient interests as the priority but to point out that it is nurses’ obligation to be the safeguard of these interest. In particular, it is carried out by timely reporting on the errors occurred.
The major stakeholders and respective roles.
The major stakeholders that can be impacted by the refusal of the nurse to confirm that he/she acted wrongly are the patient, the nurse himself/herself, line and general hospital management, insurance companies and government bodies.
If a nurse made an error either in medication administration or other clinical procedures, the patient will suffer. The harm made by the nurse can and should be prevented to reach the catastrophic scale – serious worsening of the patient’s health state. Senior nurse is responsible for his/her subordinates, whether they perform their duties according to the professional standards. Refusal to report on the errors made is the violation of the nursing professional duties. Senior nurse should implement such practices for his/her subordinates that will facilitate honest communication even for the incidents happened.
General hospital management is responsible for the safety of the patients that receive treatment in the medical entity. It is their duty …
