A Patient Advocate Testimony in Heath Care

Patient Advocate Testimony
Nurses are not immune to medical malpractice claims. Such claims can be asserted against any healthcare practitioner. For providers’ licenses to be protected and lawsuits and heavy penalties to be avoided, nurses have no option but to do what is right, even if it can involve a juggling act. For healthcare administrators, doing what is right involves putting the patients’ needs first. Thus, administrators will be expected to confront physicians and nurses whenever they comply with the organizational standard and policies. Below is a patient advocate testimony, which almost risked a lawsuit. It involves a nurse working in an emergency department (ED).
An 80-year-old man was transferred by ambulance to the emergency department (ED) for intervention after encountering an unnoticed fall in a local nursing home. The patient, who was residing at the nursing home, had a medical history of severe dementia osteoporosis. They took him to the ED without family or staff from the local nursing home. After triaged by the nursing staff upon arrival at the ED, “NSO Learning Center” (2021) reports that the triage record indicated that his vital signs were in perfect condition, and he was a poor historian who complained of “hurting all over.” Hence, they drove him to a bed in the ED treatment area, located approximately 20 feet from the nurse’s station. However, the bed was not in direct view of the station.
According to “NSO Learning Center” (2021), an insured registered nurse was assigned the 80-year-old patient. The nurse recorded that the older man was confused, uncooperative, and incontinent. After the nursing assessment was done, it was documented that the patient is an elderly male who is at risk for falls. The specific interventions that were conducted to implement the fall interventions included side rails up, place call bell within reach of the patient, maintain the bed in a low position, and consider patient placement close to the nursing station.
After two hours, the ED practitioner evaluated the patient and noted that the older man was restless. The practitioner ordered a sedation medication to prepare diagnostic tests, especially a CT scan of the head and imaging assessments of the knee, pelvis, and ribs (“NSO Learning Center,” 2021). The insured nurse assigned to the patient administered the ordered sedative. The tests were done in the diagnostic imaging department. And the older man was allowed back to his bed in the ED treatment section. When the results of the diagnostic tests were out, they reported negative.
Upon returning to the ED, “NSO Learning Center” (2021) notes that the nurse helped the patient to the bathroom. She noted his ability to walk on his own, only that he had an unsteady gait. After assisting the patient returning to his bed, the nurse placed the side rails up and the call bell within the patient’s reach and left. An obvious question you could be asking right now, as I did, is: why did the nurse leave? Another possible question you may have forgotten to ask is: did the staff consider all the fall interventions, especially transferring the patient to a bed closer to the nursing station?
Half an hour later, the housekeeping worker found the older man yelling, lying on the floor on his right side, next to his bed. When staff responded immediately, the patient was reassessed by the ED practitioner. According to the ED protocol reported by “NSO Learning Center” (2021), staff applied a cervical collar to the patient’s neck, lay him on the backboard, and lifted him to a stretcher. When he complained of pain in his right hip, the staff noted his right leg to be shortened and internally rotated. They subjected him to additional diagnostic tests, and the hip imaging results confirmed a fractured right hip. Upon returning from the x-ray, the staff resorted to transferring the patient to a bed closer to the nursing station.
Later the 80-year-old was admitted and assessed by an orthopedic surgeon the following morning. The surgeon recommended surgical intervention for the hip fracture, the patient’s son provided consent for the procedure. The patient underwent an open reduction and internal fixation of his right hip. After the surgery, the older man developed pneumonia that required antibiotic therapy, which lengthened his hospitalization. Finally, he was discharged to the nursing home (“NSO Learning Center,” 2021). The patient managed to ambulate before the hospitalization despite having the diagnosis of dementia. However, his activity level is now limited to a wheelchair.
Subsequent events included a letter of intent to file a lawsuit sent to the hospital and the nurse by the attorney representing the patient. An investigation of the issue, which involved an interview with the nurse and obtaining a nurse expert report, followed. Negotiations between the involved parties in the allegations were pursued (“NSO Learning Center,” 2021). Before a lawsuit was filed, a settlement was arrived at, where payment on behalf of the nurse was reached 45 percent of the total settlement. As stated by the state law, the insured nurse was reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). NPDB is a database that contains medical malpractice, payments, and adverse action reports on healthcare professionals.
What went wrong in this medical intervention? The patient’s expectations were not close to his activity level are limited to a wheelchair. It is time to fill in the noticed and unnoticed gaps. First, it was later reported that before the 80-year-old man arrived at the department, the insured registered nurse had been already assigned two other patients that needed close monitoring. The nurse presented her concerns; regarding not providing sufficient attention to the third patient to the nursing supervisor. The supervisor, however, told her that no additional staffing was available at that time, leaving the patient’s safety at risk. According to the “NSO Learning Center” (2021), the insured nurse managed to implement all the fall interventions per the ED requirements except one. She did not manage to move the patient closer to the nursing station until after the falling incident.
Could the insured nurse have been overwhelmed by the monitoring of three patients alone? The nursing assessment done in the ED started well since it perfectly determined the patient as a high risk for falls. Hence, nursing fall interventions were to be implemented to help minimize the probability of a fall. However, the patient’s determination was confused and uncooperative, and her efforts to prevent a fall were never backed up with additional monitoring. To warrant a reduced risk of a fall and keep the patient safe, the supervisor had to find means to ensure additional monitoring is available.
Therefore, as an administrator on duty, I would have first found an alternative nurse to maintain thorough, accurate, and timely patient assessment and monitoring. Secondly, I would remind the nurse of the organization’s policies and procedures related to clinical practices, documentation, and the ED protocol, especially the fall interventions. Thirdly, I would implement fall prevention interventions per the department protocols for patients assessed as a fall-risk. Fourthly, I would have empowered the nurse to invoke the chain of command when necessary to focus on the patient’s status. Since a nurse is a patient’s advocate, invoking the chain of command on emergency cases provides patients with appropriate care when needed. Finally, after the incident has occurred, to avoid a lawsuit, heavy penults, and revocation of the hospital’s or the nurse’s license, I would contact that risk or legal management department regarding patient or practice issues.

Get Professional Assignment Help Cheaply

Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason may is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Our essay writers are graduates with diplomas, bachelor’s, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college diploma. When assigning your order, we match the paper subject with the area of specialization of the writer.
Why Choose Our Academic Writing Service?

Plagiarism free papers
Timely delivery
Any deadline
Skilled, Experienced Native English Writers
Subject-relevant academic writer
Adherence to paper instructions
Ability to tackle bulk assignments
Reasonable prices
24/7 Customer Support
Get superb grades consistently

How It Works
1.      Place an order
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
2.      Pay for the order
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
3.      Track the progress
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
4.      Download the paper
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.

PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH ESSAY SCORES TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT