Professional accountability to me means that I am someone the patient and family look to for help. They trust me, not only to treat the patient but to also take accountability for my actions whether they are right or wrong. Professional accountability means I am reliable, responsive, and am going to advocate for the patient’s safety, and overall health and well being while they are under my care.
Health professionals demonstrate a feeling of accountability for the reliability of the system in which they work by taking their time with patients, and using the nursing process along with critical thinking. Health professionals demonstrate accountability for the reliability of their system by following the rules and regulations at their work environment.I think health professionals demonstrate a lack of accountability for the reliability of the system in which they work by not being assertive and advocating for their patients’ needs regardless of the system. If a patient’s needs do not fit the norm of most patients seen in a setting, the severity of symptoms may be distorted by health professionals to mold the patient into the norm of what they see. This may mean that while the patient needs one intervention, a different intervention is being done. This can be cause for concern when the patient’s overall health and safety is not being considered.
In my experience, the nurses I have worked with and shadowed have all been really good at looking at the patient as a whole and listening to their concerns, and addressing them as soon as possible. I have not experienced a nurse who does not constantly check on their patients, trend their labs and vitals, and looks at them as a whole rather than focused on task completion.
In my current health care setting, if someone is involved in an error, it is protocol that it be reported and an incident report is filled out. Luckily, I have not witnessed an error so I have not seen this protocol put into place, but we have learned about it throughout school.
There were many errors involved in Lewis’ case. Lewis had a medical decline with symptoms that none of the healthcare team caught including, 24 hours of no urine output, and 4 hours of undetectable blood pressure. Cardiac resuscitation intervention was delayed and chaotic. The rescue plan was not put into action by the health care team. While the patient’s vital signs were taken around the clock, no one really looked at them and trended them. The provider was also requested by the family on multiple occasions and no one from the healthcare team had tried to get in contact with them.
The error I would describe as a “system” error would be when she mentioned the cardiac resuscitation intervention was delayed and chaotic. Cardiac resuscitation is time sensitive and needs to be done by a team who works together and communicates. I do not know what protocols are in place at the hospital Lewis was at, but knowing what I know from Maine Med, there is a code team that comes and runs all the codes. This team works as a well oiled machine since they have special training and work together in these scenarios all the time. If this was not something done at the hospital Lewis was at, I would consider that a system error. I think it is wise that code teams are in place for this very reason.
