MEDICAL ERRORS

Medicine and Health

Medicine and Health

Introduction

According to the guidelines of World Health Organisation, all medical procedures must be lead by certain safety measures. These safety measures or general guidelines are documented in the World Health Organisation's publication 'Surgical Safety Checklist'. Since the guideline is general, it is applicable to all procedures involving medicine that requires anaesthesia, skin incision and operating facility. The safety measures are formulated keeping in view many of the surgery associated risks such as haemorrhage, airway block and anti biotic prophylaxis. These measures are applicable to any health settings or health environment (WHO 2008). This assignment first provides a brief overview of the checklist and then critically appraises the pros and cons of the safety measures related to orthopaedics. The experts in patient safety encourage the creation of a customized list of verification of a surgical safety to meet the unique needs of the surgical discipline and practice setting. It is expected that the team will be trained, have access to support and will undergo continuous assessment. The roles and responsibilities of each team member should be clear in regard to communication and use of the checklist.

Patient Safety

The safety of patients is a vital element of healthcare policies and standards throughout the world. Sadly, however, many hospitals do not hold on to a patient safety environment, even in the developed countries (Bell, 2005). Since, this subject is of prime importance to the profession of medicine and nursing, it is necessary to understand the importance of patient safety. To this end, this assignment will be of immense importance to students and teachers of nursing and medicine, as well as, healthcare policy makers in assessing why hospitals do not adhere to the culture of patient safety, despite its necessity, in different regions of the world. Furthermore, this assignment will be important for future assignments to refer to and to take aid for their future assignments, and make improvements to the current assignment, to add to the body of knowledge as well (Blow et.al, 2009).

The Scenario

This incident took place in 2008, at a hospital in Singapore. The name of the patient was Michael (pseudo name for the purpose of the scenario). A total of 5 nurses were on active duty; however in order to keep their privacy prime concern, their names are not being disclosed. As the ward was large is size, therefore it need three nurses to be on the operational duty, while one was a trainee and another was deputed on writing the medical reports. One of the three nurses, who were on operational duties, was responsible for the administration of the medicine, while other two were acting as the runners. Michael was a 21 year old boy, who was having very high fever and supposedly the bacterial infection. For the initial treatment, doctor has prescribed the broad spectrum antibiotic, i.e. Gentamycin, which a wide spectrum and highly dangerous anti-biotic. The most severe side effects of this antibiotic is usually in a form of kidney malfunctioning or/and nerve damage...