I keep re-reading this article, and the cause and effect analogies are overly simplistic and insulting.
A typical nurse can execute tens of thousands of positive, selfless accomplishments during a career that has spanned the course of many years. Nonetheless, all it takes is one grave mistake or sentinel event. A seasoned nurse who ignores assessment findings of increased edema and wet, gurgling lung sounds will be remembered the most for that mistake if the patient ends up coding and dying before the end of the shift. Thus, a nurse could have helped save the lives of thousands of other patients, but the single negative incidence of failure to rescue is what will stand out in the minds of his peers.
The key word is ignores, they recognized a life threatening event but chooses to ignore it. Yes, a Nurse who ignores gross changes in patient status deserves professional and personal condemnation. Why should any patient be worthy of basic nursing care.
There has also been a recent increase in the number of inquiries about the possibility of appealing dismissals from nursing programs for failing a couple of courses, or submitting an appeal after badly failing a final exam, or even challenging professors because of the perception that the test was 'horrible.' The excuses that these inquirers make for the substandard performance possess some notable variances: "I was working a job with long hours that consumed all my time while going to school," or "My sibling died," or "That professor does not know how to teach a class."
I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault, I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault, I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault, I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault
The harsh, brutal reality is that people are expected to perform without excuses. Nobody, other than perhaps our family members and closest friends, really gives a rat's butt about what we are feeling when it is time to perform. Society is a coldly efficient bureaucracy filled with members who do not care all that much about our personal lives or what we might be feeling inside at any given moment. When it is time to render services in this society in which we live, no one really cares that the cardiothoracic surgeon's husband died while serving in Afghanistan three months ago if a heart transplantation procedure needs to be performed now. When it is time to serve meals in the hospital or nursing home, people couldn't care less that the depressed dietary aide became homeless last year and has been temporarily living in a shelter with his wife and three children.
Yes Nurses/Doctor/ whomever are not responsible for their actions, I am so sorry I let your family die because my feelings distracted me. I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault, I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault.
A person's value to society as a whole is partially established by his or her usefulness to others. Hence, people who have been determined to be too cumbersome (read: not stepping up to the place to be terribly useful) are tossed aside and disposed of like garbage. If a person fails to perform, or performs in a substandard manner, negativity bias will plague the person, and people will most certainly move onto whomever can fulfill their needs and provide services.
Yes, YOU should be able to provide sub-standard care and do harm to your patients because. I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault, I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault.
As difficult as this sounds, we are all very much replaceable in bureaucratic entities such as schools and businesses. A student whose performance is not up to par can and will be replaced. A healthcare professional whose performance is not up to par can also be replaced. The nursing professors and administrative personnel at schools of nursing truly will not care about the student's 1,000+ good grades on previous assignments and tests; rather, their focus is on the couple of failed courses. The state board of nursing does not care about the nurse's 2,500+ successful shifts in the cardiovascular intensive care unit if one patient died due to omission of care. People focus on the here and now.
Everyone gets a free pass because omission of care kills someone. Everyone gets a nursing License because they FEEL they deserve it.
Negative bias = I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault, I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault, I am a VICTIM, it's not my fault.
