Deciding on Disciplinary Action

Internal Nursing Disciplinary Case

Dealing with internal issues of nursing misconduct is notably a challenging task for nurse supervisors (Lindell, 2019). However, dealing with an internal case of misconduct requires applying organizational disciplinary procedure, nursing code of conduct, and rational judgment skills so that all parties involved do not feel aggrieved. In the case of Nurse Caldwell, admittedly, her action of taping a neurological patient with a piece of adhesive tape is misconduct. It endangered the patient’s life considering his chest and questionable abdominal status, thus calling for disciplinary actions. As previously stated, Nurse Caldwell has never been admonished, which may be utilized to reevaluate as a ground for judgments. The best possible courses of action will be:

• Disciplinary activities such as revocation from service for a few weeks — maybe foisted, during which time she will be needed to undergo educational meetings or a re-orientation initiative regarding the institution’s objective, vision, ideology, and goals. This will help the individual who is concentrating on enhancing her understanding and abilities to recognize her obligations not just for herself but also for the institution and the clients who will be provided.
• Suspension from service for a couple of quarters, followed by another probationary period in service for a couple of weeks. This will help the individual engaged in processing the repercussions of her deeds and ensuring her readiness to come back to service before going back to the system (Kunyk & Deschenes, 2019).
• She will be allowed to remain on duty because this is her 1st serious offense, but she will be positioned on probation for a few weeks. She will be required to operate under the oversight of unit personnel. This is about emphasizing her potential prospective efforts to the institution, as she may recognize the chance offered to her notwithstanding her incapability to serve competently.
• Nurse Caldwell will be permitted to operate, but she will be required to notify the unit supervisor on each activity she completes, which will then be supervised and analyzed. She will be subjected to rigorous assessments for several months till her effectiveness of obligations is confirmed to be in conformance with the institution’s objective and aspiration in providing services. Maintaining her in the facility offers her an opportunity to verify that she merits being in this facility. Her expertise and individual development will persist as a result of what transpired, and she will gain knowledge from the perceived failures (Papinaho, Häggman & Kangasniemi, 2021).
• Since nurse Caldwell has never been reprimanded before and has displayed excellent nursing behaviors apart from her occasional judgmental character, termination and suspension are not options (Calleja et al., 2016). However, a formal disciplinary meeting will enlighten her of the dire consequences of such an action on the patient, the organization, and her nursing career. This meeting will be held in the presence of at least one administrator for formality purposes. Furthermore, as an emotionally supportive supervisory action, I will refer her to a senior nurse for counseling on dealing with highly demanding neurological patients. This is in response to her display of occasionally being judgmental.

References

Calleja, P., Harvey, T., Fox, A., & Carmichael, M. (2016). Feedback and clinical practice improvement: A tool to assist workplace supervisors and students. Nurse Education In Practice, 17, 167-173. doi: 10.1016/j.nepr.2015.11.009

Diane Kunyk, & Sadie Deschenes. (2019). Disciplinary decisions regarding professional nurses: Exploring regulatory decisions in a western Canadian province. ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(19)30145-

Lindell, D. (2019). The disciplinary perspective of nursing. Advances In Nursing Science, 42(1), 83-84. doi: 10.1097/ans.0000000000000254

Papinaho, O., Häggman-Laitila, A., & Kangasniemi, M. (2021). Unprofessional conduct by nurses: A document analysis of disciplinary decisions. Nursing ethics, 09697330211015289.