Archives for February, 2015

NURSING ASSESSMENTS: FILL-IN-THE-BLANK, NARRATIVE, ACCURACY

The nursing assessment is an important tool not only for the nurse performing the assessment but as I tool to determine progress or lack of progress of a patient.  As a Legal Nurse Consultant reviewing the nursing record of a patient you also need to determine the accuracy of the assessments.  One might suggest that […]

Nursing Care: Responsibility and Potential Liability

Legally where does the responsibility of the nurse begin and end?  If an order that a physician writes causes harm to the patient and the nurse that followed through with the order had the knowledge and experience to know that the order could/would cause harm to the patient, does that nurse not bear some responsibility […]

JOINT COMMISSION: STROKE CORE MEASURES

The Joint Commissions Core Measures serve as a standardized assessment measure for care given in specific areas.  Despite widespread dissemination of the core measures, safety goals, and related quality guidelines, there is significant variation in their application across hospitals.  The reasons for this are varied but include differences in guideline familiarity, provider training, and tools […]