Case Analysis Archives - Page 2 of 4

Critical Care Nursing and Team Communication

Collaboration and communication form the cornerstone of effective care. Critical care nursing exemplifies this principle. The involvement and interaction of critical care personnel have a critical impact on the outcome of critical illness. The outcome is influenced by the degree of interaction and communication between nurses and physicians. Critical care nursing and team communication are…

Critical Care Nursing – High Risk Practice

Critical care nurses take care of some of our sickest patients. They practice in a high risk environment – both clinically and in terms of litigation. We take critical care nursing for granted, but they were not always among us. Critical care nursing in the United States began with the recognition that specialty nursing was…

Nursing Standard of Care: Just following orders? Part 2

In part 1 of this blog, I shared facts to analyze the standard of care. I described a case of a man seen in the ER. The patient had a significant change in his condition on discharge, yet was sent home anyway and subsequently died. Did the ER nurse meet the nursing standard of care?…

Nursing Standard of Care: Just following orders? Part 1

I have had the questioned posed to me by an attorney in a deposition (on more than one occasion), “So you think you know more than the doctor”? The nurses’ responsibility does not end with blindly following a physician’s order. I have personally testified at 3 depositions and was asked this question at 2 of…

Four Steps to Create an LNC Sample Work Product Part 1

As a Legal Nurse Consultant (LNC), it’s important that you show potential clients or employers samples of your work product. LNC sample work product includes medical chronologies, medical summaries, timelines, calendars, and other written reports. Work product samples are particularly important for new LNCs, because attorneys want to know if you’re capable of analyzing medical…

Air Embolism – Deadly Result of Patient Abandonment

This is a case of an air embolism. Twenty-three year old Natalie B. was born physically and mentally handicapped. One afternoon, an employee of defendant MedLink of Ohio, a home healthcare company, took Natalie to the defendant Uni¬versity Hospitals of Cleveland for dialysis treatment. The employee then left while Natalie had the treatment. During the…

Expert Witness Discredited

An expert witness’ secret had a devastating effect on a case; the result – a discredited expert witness. Sally Signal was a retired head nurse of an operating room. She was used to being in charge and had a headstrong personality. She went into the hospital for signs of a possible stroke. She had a…

Emergency Medical Services: Was There a Duty to a Person Not a Patient?

An attorney client asked me about the emergency medical services’ liability. The mobile intensive care unit staffed by an EMT and nurse was called to the home of Loretta and her daughter, Erin. The daughter had a seizure at home. The ambulance driver encouraged Loretta to come along in the ambulance to the hospital. Loretta…

Medical Scribes

Recently I reviewed an emergency department record which included the name of the scribe. Then I read an article in the Dome, a publication of Johns Hopkins, about the benefits of using medical scribes in the Emergency Department. The medical record I reviewed was handwritten by a medical scribe. Johns Hopkins’ scribes enter data into…

Traumatic brain injury: the impact of delays

head injury, critical care of head injury

An attorney asks you to review a case involving a 40-year-old man who fell on a sidewalk and sustained a traumatic brain injury. His CT Scan showed a small right-sided subdural hematoma. He was taken to the ICU and given supportive care including serial neurologic exams. You receive the records and note that the patient…