Staff Development
The situation described is entirely unacceptable. Hospital-acquired infections are already a tremendous problem in contemporary clinical care facilities and are responsible for as many as 100,000 patient deaths annually, in addition to adding billions of dollars to the national cost of healthcare unnecessarily (Reid, 2009). In this situation, all health care providers have an obligation to intervene and to do whatever is necessary to protect patients from harm caused by the negligence of health care workers. The ethical obligation to intervene effectively in this scenario arises as a function of the fundamental obligation of health care workers to protect the health and safety of patients and derives from concepts of patients' rights, and more broadly, from altruism and respect for the basic obligations of health care workers to patients and to their employing organizations (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009).
From a staff-development problem, this scenario actually represents more of an issue of the duty to protect patients and...
That is because it is inconceivable that an experienced professional nurse, especially a nurse who sometimes fulfills the responsibility of Charge Nurse, is unaware of the importance of antiseptic protocol. As Director of Staff Development, I would recognize that this is an issue of lackadaisical attitude toward compliance and not an issue that will be solves by simply providing any additional training in the importance of maintaining antisepsis. Unfortunately, experienced health care workers sometimes stop taking fundamental concerns as seriously as they must because they fall into routines of practice for their own convenience (Reid, 2009; Tong, 2007).
I have encountered similar situations and I reported them to my supervisor because I wanted to protect the health of my patients. In the capacity of Staff Development Director, I would take the following steps: First, I would contact the supervisor of the nurse involved and instruct the supervisor to address the…
