NRS 430 Outline the concept of professional accountability as it pertains to nursing

Re: Topic 4 DQ 2

Professional accountability is not only holding oneself accountable in the nursing profession, but also holding others accountable professionally. Maintaining professional accountability is staying honest, trustworthy, operating within the nurse’s scope of practice, maintaining patient confidentiality, and upholding the code of “doing no harm” (Green, 2018). I have been practicing at bedside for the past two years and I have encountered a few situations where I had to hold myself professionally accountable, as well as other fellow nurses. An instance that comes to my mind most recently is, after receiving report from a less experienced nurse who is notorious for cutting corners and leaving work left behind for the second nurse to do, had given me spotty report and neglected to inform me that the patient was on a continuous Heparin drip. As this patient’s labs were scheduled to be drawn at 6am, the patient was a difficult stick and the labs were attempted but not collected. Heparin drips require Q6 blood draws and careful monitoring to ensure the patient stays within the therapeutic range, and the Heparin levels do not become critically high. The nurse giving me report quickly raced through giving me report and grabbed his bag and ran out of the building, without going to bedside with me to evaluate a patient with an oncoming nurse. I entered the patient’s room directly after the report and found that the Heparin bag was indeed completely empty, and the patient’s labs had not been collected in over 8 hours. I attempted to collect the lab myself to avoid any longer a delay in adjusting Heparin drip and I was unsuccessful myself. I currently work on an organ transplant floor, and I have between 5-6 transplant patients with 20-30 medications per patient, that are all due by 9am and passing these medications is very time sensitive and consuming. I brought this situation to the attention of my charge nurse, who accelerated it to my nurse manager. At this time the Heparin draw was 10 hours past due and had to be drawn by the nurse manager to avoid any further delay in the process. The doctors had to be contacted regarding the situation as well as the pharmacist who stressed the importance of these critical labs being drawn on time. I had to document the situation in depth to protect my license and I also had to write a patient safety report about the nurse who had given me report and failed to complete his list of tasks to keep the patient safe. I wouldn’t ever want to get my coworkers in trouble, but this situation could have become dangerous if I didn’t catch the error made by the other nurse, so I had to protect myself and the patient by doing a thorough documentation. Situations such as these often arise in the nursing profession where a nurse has to hold their fellow nurses professionally accountable when it pertains to patient safety. I was told in nursing school over and over to protect your license because it was so hard to obtain that degree in the first place. Some situations occur in the nursing field that can become uncomfortable for a nurse to hold another nurse or interdisciplinary team member accountable but looking back on the oath taken to “do no harm,” we as the patient primary care giver and advocate, must make those difficult decisions to keep our patients safe.

References

Green, S. (2018). Advancing professional standards. (2nd ed.) Dynamics in Nursing: Art and Science of Professional Practice. Grand Canyon University.