Nurses in Chicago often work long shifts and are responsible for caring for many different patients who have a variety of needs. This type of work can become very stressful, and when nurses are feeling stressed or fatigued, they may end up making dangerous mistakes while caring for their patients.
In order to avoid hospital nursing errors, hospitals need to make sure they have enough nurses working each shift, and hospitals also need to make sure that nurses are properly monitored and trained. Nurses may also avoid making errors by focusing on their patients’ needs, even when their work environments may be hostile.
Nursing mistakes may be very harmful, and these mistakes may also harm more than one patient at a time. For example, more than 230 patients were notified earlier this year by a hospital in New York that they may have been harmed by one of its nurse’s mistakes. The hospital informed patients who had been treated by the nurse that the nurse may have mistakenly exposed them to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.
According to reports, it was discovered that one of the hospital’s nurses had been reusing single-use saline syringes before and after patients were administered medications intravenously. The nurse allegedly reused the syringes when treating patients between October 2012 and January 2013. Syringes should not be reused because doing so may expose patients to dangerous infections.
The hospital reported that the nurse is no longer employed at the facility. The hospital also reported that it has notified all former patients who may have been harmed by the nurse’s negligence.
The affected patients are extremely concerned about their health. They now need to undergo medical tests in order to make sure they have not become infected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV. A lawsuit was filed last month against the hospital over the nurse’s error. At least 14 patients who were treated by the nurse and affected by the nurse’s mistake are involved with filing the medical negligence lawsuit. They hope to recover damages for their emotional anguish and medical testing expenses.
Source: Star-Gazette, “14 sue Corning Hospital, Guthrie over tainted syringes,” G. Jeffrey Aaron, March 25, 2013
