Being a Professional Nurse

Question: Discuss about the Being a Professional Nurse. Answer: This case study is related to the incorrect administration of blood transfusion to the patient. The incompletely labeled fresh frozen plasma (FFP) unit allocated for another patient was collected by the medical officer (MO) from the laboratory without matching the product details. There was no communication between the nurse and MO related to the request for transfusion. No paperwork accompanied the FFP. There was lack of communication between the patient services assistant (PSA) and lab staff. The lab staff also did not check for the unit in the fridge or register earlier. The medical and nursing staff lacked knowledge regarding the fact that O is not the universal group for FFP unlike red blood cells. Moreover, no consent was taken from the patient before starting the procedure. This case describes how the medical team has been responsible for the adverse reaction and delay of treatment of the patient. Though the MO and lab staff is also responsible for the incident, the nurse could have prevented the incident with her knowledge, communication skills, and professional attitude. This makes the nurse an unprofessional practitioner. As a result the main treatment for which the patient had to be operated had to be delayed and the adverse effects of the wrong transfusion had to be treated. The nurse lacked communication and critical thinking skills and was unable to make correct clinical decisions for providing safe and effective care to the patients. Thus, this case is an exemplary learning scenario for the nursing students. If the nurse would have shown a proficient, safe and thoughtful behavior, she would have been capable of avoiding the adverse event and preventing the long hospital stay and complications the patient had to suffer. Nursing and Midwifery Boar d of Australia (NMBA, 2010a, 2) the nurse is accountable and responsible for her actions. It is the part of the health centers responsibilities to provide education and provision to nurses for addressing the emergencies in daily practice. It is important to manage discipline and monitor any unprincipled or unapt nursing behavior before it comes to the fore and to apply legitimate activities. According to Chang and Daly (2016), developing an insightful practice, maintaining standard records and paperwork, updating knowledge about health-related, legal and ethical professional protocols, training and upgrading the team about the latest quality and skills for providing therapeutic and safe care judgment are needed to avoid risk to the nursing practice. In this incident, the nurse has breached the NMBA standards and protocols due to her unethical nursing practice and her inability to carry out her duty of care in multiple ways. First of all, the nurse had to ethically check whether the patients consent has been taken or not. Then it was the duty of the nurse to confirm the product details and transfusion instructions adequately from the MO. In the absence of paperwork, as per the (NMBA, 2006a, 1.3), the nurse should communicate records in accordance with the legal and professional guidelines and should not have administered the FFP to the patient till paperwork was ascertained and product details were confirmed. The nurse should confirm herself instead of sending the PSA to the lab staff for checking for the paperwork to avoid communication gap. Also, the nurses need to upgrade their knowledge and skills periodically to be updated with all information. The nurse failed to be updated on the information about the use of FFP and used t he group O unit on the patient with blood group A, making the transfusion incompatible and leading to complications. Updating the nurses in regards to the current knowledge and organizational policies and guidelines (NMBA, 2006a, 2.2) and their responsibility to accomplish their patients safe and effective care (NMBA, 2006b, 1.2) has been greatly highlighted. For this certain standards have been recognized and the nurses are expected to apply these interventions accordingly. Nurses are supposed to work in a harmless and skilled manner (NMBA, 2008a, 1). In this case, the nurse did not check that the label of FFP was incomplete and transfused it. The responsibility and accountability of the nurses for providing quality care, taking suitable legal and moral actions have been emphasized (NMBA, 2008b, 1). As nurses are always accountable for the safety of the patients, organizations do not encourage making any blunders or errors due to negligence. The indifference or disregard that could hamper the patients health has been referred to as under involvement by NMBA (2010b). In this case, the nurse lacked clinical knowledge on pharmaceuticals/ medication and was reluctant to go and confirm the paperwork or ask the lab staff to check the fridge storage which resulted in the adverse event. Moreover, it has been stated in (NMBA, 2006c, 2.5) that nurses should improve their own scope and obtain clarifications related to any doubts, unclear, or incomplete information. If a similar situation arises in my nursing care setting, I would try to keep myself updated as the NMBA (2016) has stressed on the need of incorporating the latest knowledge related to the guidelines and policies of the organizations that are apt standards for the professional practice. The NMBA (2016) standards reinforce us to consider the safety of patients as our priority and carry out the related activities considering them as our duty of care. The code of professional conduct (NMBA, 2008a, 1) tries to draw our attention towards making nursing practice more safe and proficient. For this I will make continuous efforts for continuing professional growth programs and research programs to enhance my knowledge, skills and attitudes in relation to the nursing practice. The under involvement of nurses may have negative effects on the clinical practice as stated in the nurse's guide to professional boundaries. I will try to follow professional standards and practices continuously by elu ding any disinterested and careless actions. I would abide by the NBRA standard 2 to improve my communication skills. I will also follow the NBRA standard 6 for providing safe and appropriate practice. The NBRA code of ethics (2008a, 1) mentions the legal and moral role and responsibility of the nurses in making quality nursing care available for all the patients. The NBRA (2006b, 2.5) has addressed the issue of acknowledging our own scope of practice. Hence, I will seek knowledge from clinical experts to overcome my lack of knowledge, skills and unclear information about any procedures or care involved in the nursing practice. References Chang, E., Daly, J. (Eds.). (2016). Transitions in nursing: Preparing for professional practice (4th ed.). Chatswood, Australia: Elsevier. Nursing Midwifery Board of Australia. (2010). A nurses' guide to professional boundaries. Canberra, Australia: ANMC Nursing Midwifery Board of Australia. (2010). National framework for the development of decision-making tools for Nursing and Midwifery Practice, 2007. Canberra, Australia: ANMC Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2008). Code of ethics for midwives in Australia. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2008). Code of professional conduct for nurses in Australia. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2006). National competency standards for the midwife. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2006). National competency standards for the registered nurse (4th ed.). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2016). Registered nurse standards for practice.