09.24.07
Apportioning blame
I received a report today which has made me think of the difference between the way nurses are treated in the UK for making a mistake as against that made by a doctor. I won’t go into specifics for very obvious reasons but let me introduce a hypothetical incident for you here.
A patient presents in the emergency department and is assessed by a relatively junior doctor as requiring a particular drug. The doctor tells the nurse to administer the drug to the patient and that nurse does so. Error number one is that there is no written order and as a nurse you should not take a verbal instruction for a drug. However perhaps as a doctor you should not actually try to give one. Error number two is that the dose is inappropriate (perhaps the drug is inappropriate too but that is another story). The nurse gives that wrong dose, with serious results (thankfully not fatal). The nurse ends up being suspended from duty, and the doctor is ’spoken to’.
It has been my experience that many doctors do not know that a nurse is responsible for their own actions and omissions. But should they also be responsible for the actions and omissions of the doctor? If a mistake is made by two professionals, should one be dealt with more severely than the other?
I’d be interested in people’s views on this issue!
