Globally, medical errors have been on the rise in the recent past. According to Sorrel (2017), more than 250,000 patients die per year due to medical errors, which ranks medical mistakes as the third leading cause of death among patients. This paper will elucidate whether the prosecution of nurses for fatal errors will make hospitals safer.
Prosecution of nurses for making a fatal mistake will not make health care safer. Gordon (2019) draws the sentiments from American Nurses Association stating that when a nurse is prosecuted for an error, it reduces the safety in hospitals because other nurses will be hesitant and unwilling to report medical mistakes. Nurses are the primary healthcare providers to patients, and therefore, improvement of patient care is dependent on an open as well as honest transparency by nurses (Marx, 2019). The hospital needs to create a comfortable environment for nurses to discuss the factors that lead to medical errors, which creates solution and prevention of medical errors. Nurses need to report medical mistakes without the fear of prosecution, which is an effective method of enhancing patient care.
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The fact that a fatal mistake is non-intentional and does not involve any malicious intent eliminates the need for prosecution (Gordon, 2019). According to the case study of Tennessee star, the nurse was presented with two close options of drugs, which ultimately led to the wrong choice of drugs, which makes the error non-intentional (Butler, 2019). The central responsibility of a nurse is to provide quality care to the patients if an error occurs in the process, it is not the fault of the nurse, and therefore the nurse does not deserve to be prosecuted. According to experts, the prosecution of nurses does not improve safety at hospitals. Nurses are humans who are prone to errors, and therefore, the is the need for systematic improvement of hospital protocols to enhance the safety of patients.
References
Butler, C. (2019). TBI agents arrest former Vanderbilt nurse, charged her with the reckless homicide of patient. Tennessee star . Retrieved on 26 July 2019 from https://tennesseestar.com/2019/02/05/tbi-agents-arrest-vanderbilt-nurse-charge-her-with-reckless-homicide-of-patient/
Gordon, M. (2019). When A Nurse Is Prosecuted for a Fatal Medical Mistake, Does It Make Medicine Safer? American University Radio . Retrieved on 26 July 2019 from https://wamu.org/story/19/04/10/when-a-nurse-is-prosecuted-for-a-fatal-medical-mistake-does-it-make-medicine-safer/
Marx, D. (2019). Vanderbilt Homicide Just Culture Analysis. Outcome Ingenuity . Retrieved On 26 July 2019 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UQYl8uwE1o&noapp=1&client=mv-google&app=desktop
Sorrell, J. M. (2017). Ethics: Ethical issues with medical errors: Shaping a culture of safety in healthcare. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing , 22 (2).
