Negligence Paper
Maria Gutierrez
HCS/478
August 5, 2015
Carol Mack

Negligence Paper
The health provider or a nurse has the responsibility to provide the best care possible for the patients. In this paper, I will discuss about neglect and the different between negligence, gross negligence and malpractice. I will also cover my opinion about the situation, agreement or disagreement deciding whether it was a mishap or negligence, the importance of documentation, the ethical principles that serve as a guide for nursing.
Negligence is not being diligent. It is one of the legal issues that all healthcare provider are prone to participate unintentionally. Guido (2010 stated, “Negligence denotes conduct lacking in due care. Negligence include doing something that the reasonable and prudent person would not do” (p. 92). Negligence can occur anytime and in any areas of the healthcare environment. However, negligence most likely happens with old people in health care setting, for example, nursing home, hospitals and boarding care facilities. Some of the common negligence examples include failure to provide adequate nutrition, medication error, physical injury, and failure to turn patient that lead to a poor skin integrity.
Gross negligence is more serious than negligence. The difference between the two of them is the degree of carelessness or inattention. Negligence is when a person fails with the standard of care not intentionally and gross negligence is a complete reckless conduct. Convalescent Services Inc. V. Schultz ( as cited in Guido, 2010) said, that the gross negligence is when the care giver is aware of the risk involved, but proceeded in conscious indifference to the rights and safety of the patient (p. 511). This action cause a severe injury or harm to the patient.
Guido (2010) stated, that “malpractice referred to as professional negligence, is a more specific term that addresses a professional standard of care as well as the professional status of the caregiver. When an action is performed by a professional person, the acts form the basis for malpractice” (P.93). Malpractice refers to a negligence or misconduct by a professional person that could be a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist or even an accountant. Malpractice may occur when an injury happen through a negligent act or omission. This could be a result of an error when giving the diagnosis, treatment care and after care or even in the health management.
In the neighborhood news under session 3 episode 7 the article is about an amputation mishap. Mr. Joseph Benson, a 62 years old who suffer from poor circulation for the last five years. Mr. Joseph was hospitalized at the neighborhood hospital. Who was going for an amputation of his right leg just below the knee and suffered a complication, the left leg was amputated.
In My opinion the incident happened because the neighborhood staff is going through a severe stress, due to the shortage of nurses, union problem and complaints of poor treatment. The staff seem to be working and not thinking properly this incident falls under a negligence category. I don’t agree with the statements presented in the article of the neighborhood news amputation mishap information.
The article information is trying to cover the negligence from all staff when it mention that the hospital has experienced an assortment of problems lately, including the shortness of nurses and union problem, but patients should not be affected by those problems I don’t agree, because there is no excuse for all the staff to be negligent. The staff is also ignoring the patient’s feeling and not promoting the beneficence for the patient. When the article mention that the hospital did not make a comment on the case.
The surgeon and all the staff involved in the surgery fail to perform the standard of care. The surgeon amputated the wrong leg. Now the patient have to go through the same process again. Griffith Stengnah declare (as cited in Wilson, 2012) that, “when a mishap occurs in the treatment, it is the healthcare professional’s duty of care to inform the patient immediately of the mishap” (para. 16).
This incident could be prevented if the healthcare team follow the protocol and procedure standard, such as; completing the checklist before surgery, double checking of signed informed consent, check or mark the site for surgery, time out and communicate. According to Wilson (2012), the adverse event that happen from surgical intervention are more likely related to errors occurring before or after the procedure. “These include the breakdown in communication within and amongst surgical team, delay in diagnosis or failure to diagnose; and delay in treatment or failure to treat” (para. 2). Because of the negligence of the surgical team Mr. Benson has to live the rest of his life with no legs. The nurse fail the responsibility to advocate for the patient and keep them safe.
Documentation is very important in the nursing field. If there is no documentation there is no proof that the job is done. As part of the healthcare provider, we know that failure to document in a timely manner is unsafe, and it means irresponsibility of nursing care; this could put the patient at risk for getting a wrong treatment, may be getting a double dose of medications, or discontinue of medical treatment. (Ward, 2012). The proper documentation should start with a good communication among the health care team providers. With the proper documentation gives a full picture of the patient’s history and his/ her needs (Esquibel, 2011, para. 4). If the nurses and the rest of the staff involved wrote the right, concise and clear documentation done, this incident might not happen. Doing the proper documentation the healthcare provider will be able to defense in court. For instance, when an incident happens, such as medication error, nurses need to document exactly what happened. The documentation need to have the nurse full name, date, time, staff involved in the care, and what are the next plans or nursing intervention to prevent another incident to happen.
The Ethical principal that should be a guide in this situation is beneficence, which is to promote good and non-maleficence that means not to do harm. In this case the benefice did not occur because; the healthcare team fail to verify the patient surgical site, surgery checklist, etc. As a result of the negligence, the patient lost his good leg and his right were violated.
The hospital is negligence because of failure to employee the right staff. The surgical team performed a gross negligence. Negligence, gross negligence and malpractice is a result of not providing a good care for Mr. Benson by losing his both legs. The standard of care was not followed. The standards of care were designed to provide patient safety. Documentation, verification of the process, marking the site of the surgery and time out are part of the proper practice care. If the proper ethical and legal practice would have been followed. Mr. Benson would have his good leg and not end as a handicap with no legs. By following the ethical principle will promote to provide safe and effective care for the patients.

References
Esquibel, L. (2011). Proper documentation is good for patients and staff... Anne Casey and Alison Wallis's art & science article on effective communication (April 13). Nursing Standard, 25(36), 33. Guido, G. W. (2010). Legal and Ethical Issues in Nursing (5th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc. Stahel, P. F., Mauffrey, C., & Butler, N. (2014). Current challenges and future perspectives for patient safety in surgery. Patient Safety In Surgery, 8(1), 9. doi:10.1186/1754-9493-8-9 Ward, K (20120. The important of Documentation in Nursing. Nursing Article. Retrieved from:http://www.nursingexminer.com/in nursing article/documentation-in-nursing/
Wilson, R. (2012). Legal, ethical and professional concepts within the operating department. The Journal of Perioperative Practice, 22(3), 81-5. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1009746828?accountid=35812