should you be sacked for mistakes
- Thread starter billyo
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so then we are all in agreement,that you should be able to make a mistake 
but if it involves loss of life you should pay with your job. so Doc, or captin ,or sargent, or gaffer it could be your fault :the shi# is waiting to hit your fan , now then who wants to be in charge
but if it involves loss of life you should pay with your job. so Doc, or captin ,or sargent, or gaffer it could be your fault :the shi# is waiting to hit your fan , now then who wants to be in charge
S
Shutpa
so then we are all in agreement,that you should be able to make a mistake
There was a case recently where a newly qualified nurse was responsible for the death of a child by inadvertantly overdosing the childs medication. I believe that the nurse has lost her career but I may be wrong. My point is that as far as I know, no one called for the resignation of any senior member of staff or for that matter, the Minister of Health.
glad to see that the post has in the main kept away from ian blair and has shown that the mistake game is in all walks of life, & that we all see people loose ther jobs who could have kept them, and been a wiser person who would not make the same mistake again if giving a 2nd chance
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bolo said:
Whose job was it to check the dose?
I don't agree.billyo said:so then we are all in agreement,that you should be able to make a mistake
A mistake leading to death may, or may not, involve some punitive action, depending on the manner of negligence and the personal culpability.
Loss of job is necessary only when there is insufficient confidence that the person guilty of the mistake can be trusted not to do it again.
So there's no point in sacking a badly trained and badly monitored nurse, because the system is at fault, not the nurse.
However, Ian Blair has lost most, if not all, of his credibility with the public, therefore he should go.
S
Shutpa
bolo said:
Whose job was it to check the dose?
As far as I can remember the nurse needed a doctors go-ahead before administering an injection. This permission had not been given. Instead of injecting a sedative she injected a muscle stimulent which led to the death of the child. My use of the term 'overdosing' was therefore wrong.
PS Is the spell check up to speed duty mod? Missed out an 's' in permission which was picked up by the spell check but no alternative was offered.
bolo said:
Fair enough. The system won't work if people bypass it. Her only remaining defence would be that nobody told her the rules. I can't believe that at all.
How, if the system allows a nurse to obtain drugs that cannot be administered without a doctor's permission, can it be the nurse's fault, unless he/she dishonestly obtained access to them for the purpose of administering them without permission?
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I put my thumb through a radiant on a gas fire today. Cost me a tenner to replace. Don't know if I'm going to sack me but I'll probably have a meeting with myself in the morning and give myself a severe dressing down. I'll probably just toss it off for the rest of the day in revenge for me telling myself off.
I don't understand the nurse thing. Usually a nurse trundles a drugs trolley round and hands out or administers the drugs in accordance with prescriptions/notes with no doctor to be seen. So if s/he picked up the wrong one, perhaps because the name or packaging was similar, what would a doctor have to do with it?
Softus said:
I thought about that. The idea would be that the pharmacy wouldn't hand out the drugs without evidence of permission to administer them. It's a good idea in principle and for all I know it might be standard practice but it isn't perfect. Every day I pass a trolley loaded with medical equipment and with a drawer clearly marked "EMERGENCY DRUGS". There's also a big notice on it: "WARNING! Removing anything from this trolley could cost a life." There are times when nurses have to act instantly and the delay involved in finding a doctor then running off to the pharmacy would be totally unacceptable.
No, my thoughts don't involve any pharmacy at all. I don't think a ward could operate reasonably without access to a different, and controlled, store of drugs for the patients on that ward. But this is how I imagine a ward works, not based on how it actually works.Space cat said:
...which tends to support my hypothesis that no pharmacy visit is needed for those drugs.
This is the idea that I particularly don't align with - if a patient's condition is really that critical, then a doctor would be available to authorise, supervise, and, if necessary, administer treatment.
I just can't envisage that a system of checks would put a novice/trainee nurse in the position of having access to a drug, and having the opportunity to administer the drug, without control and supervision. If the system does allow this to happen, then the system is at fault, not the honest (but naive) nurse.
S
Shutpa
You are correct Softus. The nurse in question was not a trainee but an experienced nurse. I have obviously confused this case which happened in Liverpool 6 or 7 years ago with a similar one involving a trainee nurse, which took place earlier this year. I am now not certain what happened in the latter, but in the former the nurse simply picked up the wrong syringe and so injected the wrong drug. She was charged with manslaughter but cleared.
PS Having been hospitalized on several occasions in recent years I seem to remember that drugs used in a ward are supplied on a daily basis from the hospital pharmacy.
PS Having been hospitalized on several occasions in recent years I seem to remember that drugs used in a ward are supplied on a daily basis from the hospital pharmacy.
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