Nurse Case Study: ICU Charge Nurse allegedly failed to
\nmonitor a critical patient and escalate treatment<\/b><\/p>\n
Medical malpractice claims may be asserted against any
\nhealthcare practitioner, including nurses. This case involves a registered
\nnurse working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as a Charge Nurse.<\/p>\n
A 50-year-old male was recently in reasonably good health,
\nalthough he had recently received a diagnosis of thyroid cancer. He was
\ndivorced and shared custody of his teenage son. He had a very active lifestyle
\nand social life.<\/p>\n
On October 19th, he underwent a total thyroidectomy and neck
\ndissection. The surgery was uncomplicated, and he was discharged home on
\nOctober 21st. On October 22nd at 12:45 a.m. the patient presented to a local
\nmedical center\u2019s emergency department (ED). He reported that he had heard a
\n\u201cpop\u201d in his neck about 40 minutes earlier, following which he developed neck
\nswelling and began to experience difficulty breathing.<\/p>\n
At the time of the patient\u2019s arrival, the hospital was
\nexperiencing a high volume of patients. In fact, due to the volume of patients
\nthe hospital was using locum tenens physicians and agency staff nurses to help
\ncover the overload.<\/p>\n
The patient was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
\ndue to the risk of suffering from a post-thyroidectomy hematoma. The patient
\nwas admitted by his surgeon but requested the ICU hospitalist oversee the
\npatient care for the night. An agency nurse (co-defendant) was assigned to the
\npatient. The hospitalist (co-defendant) was with the patient from 1:01 a.m.
\nuntil 1:21 a.m.<\/p>\n
After assessing the patient, the hospitalist left the ICU
\nand went to the on-call room to take a nap. Shortly after the hospitalist left,
\nthe patient\u2019s nurse spoke to the ICU Charge Nurse (insured) relaying her
\nconcerns about the patient\u2019s care. She felt the hospitalist should be doing
\nmore for the patient instead of taking a \u201cwait and see\u201d approach. Over the next
\n20-25 minutes the patient became increasingly anxious and short of breath.<\/p>\n
The patient\u2019s nurse contacted the hospitalist and let him
\nknow that the patient appeared to be decompensating, was having difficulty
\nbreathing and becoming extremely anxious. The hospitalist gave an order for
\nintravenous lorazepam (1:36 a.m.) and monitor the patient\u2019s response. The nurse
\ndid not feel comfortable with the order, so she again relayed her concerns to
\nthe Charge Nurse.<\/p>\n
The Charge Nurse instructed the nurse to proceed with the
\nlorazepam and she would contact the hospitalist and tell him to come see the
\npatient. The Charge Nurse called the hospitalist and told him that he should
\ncome see the patient. The hospitalist voiced frustration with the call and
\nstated that the patient was having an anxiety attack and the lorazepam would
\nhelp. The Charge Nurse disagreed with the hospitalist. She told him that if he
\ndidn\u2019t come see the patient, she would call the ED physician. According to the
\nCharge Nurse\u2019s deposition, the hospitalist told her that the ICU staff were
\nincompetent and to \u201cknock herself out\u201d and call the ED. A few moments after the
\nlorazepam was administered, it became readily apparent that the patient was
\nheaded toward respiratory distress.<\/p>\n
The patient\u2019s nurse called the Charge Nurse for assistance.
\nThe Charge Nurse instructed the ICU secretary to call the ED and get an ED
\ndoctor to come see the patient STAT. Within several minutes the
\nanesthesiologist and surgeon were both at the patient\u2019s bedside. The
\nanesthesiologist was not able to intubate but bagged the patient while the
\nsurgeon evacuated the hematoma in the patient\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n
Once the hematoma was evacuated, the anesthesiologist was
\nable to intubate the patient. The patient was emergently (via helicopter)
\ntransferred to a higher acuity hospital for further treatment. He ultimately
\nsuffered anoxic encephalopathy during his time in the ICU when he was in
\nrespiratory arrest.<\/p>\n
The patient can\u2019t use utensils, so he can\u2019t feed herself,
\ncan\u2019t groom or perform any of his ADLs. He is able to walk short distances with
\na walker but must have assistance. Because he has not being able to voluntarily
\nmove his arms, he cannot propel a wheelchair. He can\u2019t even use a wheelchair
\nwith a joystick because that also requires voluntary upper extremity movement.
\nHe currently lives in an assistive living facility near his son and friends. He
\nsuffers from cortical blindness, has complete upper extremity loss of
\nproprioception and loss of balance and coordination. The patient continues to
\nmake improvements, but his recovery is slow.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What point could the nurse have done something <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Explain the importance of Chain of Command at the Nurse Case Study: ICU Charge Nurse allegedly failed to monitor a critical patient and escalate treatment Medical malpractice claims may be asserted against any healthcare practitioner, including nurses. This case involves a registered nurse working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as a Charge Nurse. A 50-year-old male was recently in reasonably good health, although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"disciplines":[13],"paper_types":[],"tagged":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/38713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/questions"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/38713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=38713"},{"taxonomy":"paper_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper_types?post=38713"},{"taxonomy":"tagged","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tagged?post=38713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ndifferently? (Response needs to be 150 words). <\/b><\/p>\n
\nbedside. Was the Nurse and Charge Nurse right in the actions that they took? (Response
\nneeds to be 150 words). <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"