While it may not be just to hold an organization liable, absolutely, for every instance of employee negligence, there is a rationale for imposing such liability in many cases. For example, many types of industries entail potential danger to others that are inherent to the industry.
Individual workers are not likely to be capable of compensating victims of their negligence, but the employer benefits and profits financially by engaging in the particular industry. Therefore, the employer should not necessarily escape liability for compensating all harm caused by their activities, regardless of fault in particular instances.
10.A nurse is responsible for making an inquiry if there is uncertainty about the accuracy of a physician's medication order in a patient's record. Explain the process a nurse should use to evaluate whether or not to make an inquiry into the accuracy of the physician's medication order.
Like other highly trained professionals, experienced nurses develop a familiarity with routine procedures as well as with non-routine procedures with which they are very familiar by virtue of their prior experience. Since patient health, safety, and welfare are of paramount importance, nurses should err on the safe side and inquire into the accuracy of physicians' medical orders anytime those orders apparently contradict normal protocol or the nurse's prior experience. As part of the process, the nurse should, where appropriate, also solicit the advice of more senior colleagues and supervisors to resolve apparent deviations that may have justified explanations.
11.The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) forbids Medicare-participating hospitals from dumping patients out of emergency departments. If hospitals are required to treat any and all patients at the emergency room, why is this law necessary?
The rationale for requiring hospitals to treat any and all emergency room patients is a matter of public policy for the benefit of the community. It is not supposed to be a mechanism for some hospitals to shift the cost of doing so to other institutions. More specifically, Medicare-participating hospitals receive funding and many other benefits partly as a negotiated compensation for their anticipated expenses in providing...
Should the impropriety be handled solely in the institution, rather than the courts? Explain your rationale.
Many forms of sexual impropriety are criminal acts regardless of where they occur within the
jurisdiction of state and
federal law. Sexual impropriety perpetrated by trusted healthcare practitioners within a medical setting are even more damaging to the victim because they compound the
trauma of the act with the additional violation of
trust by an individual with unusually intimate access to private information. Likewise, the fundamental nature of medical settings provides greater opportunity for situations conducive to sexually abusive situations.
In view of the seriousness of the
consequences to the victims, as well as a deterrent to potential perpetrators, sexual impropriety committed by
healthcare providers against their patients should be treated as a more serious
crime, rather than as a less serious crime, than similar acts perpetrated by non-healthcare practitioners (or, for that matter, by healthcare practitioners against non-patients outside the medical setting).
References
Abrams, N., Buckner, M.D. (1989)
Medical Ethics: A Clinical Textbook and Reference for the
Health Care Professionals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Caplan, a.L., Engelhardt, H.T., McCartney, J.J. Eds. (1981) Concepts of Health and Disease: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
Starr, P. (1984) the Social Transformation of American Medicine.
New York: Basic Books
United States Department of Health and
Human Services Public Website (2007), retrieved January 13, 2008, at http://www.hhs.gov
