subject: Family Receives $4.4 Million For Death Of Baby When Nurse Trainee Misses Signs Of Fetal Distress [print this page] When treated by a physicians or by a nurse people typically have an expectation that the physician or nurse either (1) has the knowledge and experience to make a correct diagnosis of anything that is wrong with their health and to recommend appropriate treatment or (2) is being supervised by a more experienced physician or nurse who does.
Under the second possibility, they can learn while treating actual patients as their mistakes are caught and rectified so that patients are not harmed. After all, they attend school, study, and spend many, many hours learning practical knowledge through actual experience. But until they reach an appropriate level of experience they are likely to make mistakes. And going back to expectations people want to be sure that any such mistake will not harm them.
Physicians and nurses who are still in training need to understand that there are limits to their knowledge and ability. The more senior physicians and nurses who supervise those who are in training must also understand that those in training have not yet fully developed the knowledge and skills necessary to act on their own. During this time the mistakes that these new physicians and nurses inevitably make will not harm patients as they are caught and rectified by the more experienced physicians and nurses.
Recently a case was reported that described how a pregnant woman went to the hospital with complaints of nausea and vomiting. On admission a nurse trainee examined the woman and monitored her condition. It was the nurse trainee, rather than a registered nurse or a physician who interpreted the strip from the fetal heart rate monitor. Interpreting the strip as normal and concluding that there was no danger to the unborn baby, the nurse trainee discharged the expectant mother. In reality, the baby's oxygen supply was severely blocked.
Three days later the baby was delivered as scheduled. She needed therapy. She could not eat on her own and so needed to be fed with a feeding tube. For four yours she had to live with seizures. And she died from complications of the cerebral palsy. She was survived by her father and mother and by her 11 and 16 year old brothers. One was eleven and the other was sixteen. The law firm that filed a lawsuit on their behalf reported that the case was tried and that at the end of the trial the jury returned a verdict in favor of the parents for $4,400,000.
This case is an example of what can happen if a physician or nurse who is still in training is allowed to treat patients on their own before having completely developing the necessary skills. Although an experienced physician or nurse can make a mistake and misread the results of a fetal heart rate monitor, it is much more likely that a nurse trainee will make that kind of a mistake. An experience physician or nurse, even though still capable of making such a mistake, is much less likely to do so.
by: Joseph Hernandez
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