During an Intensive Care Unit hospitalization, a client undergoes an emergency surgery to repair an aneurysm.
The nurses caring for the client postoperatively repeatedly report changes in vital signs, indicating deterioration, but the care provider does not evaluate the client for 3 hours. The client's brain herniates, and the client dies. The family files a lawsuit against the nurses, the care provider, and the hospital. Given that the physician and the nurses are employees of the hospital, who is at risk of being found guilty of negligence? Select all that apply.
1. The care provider on call at the time the nurses reported vital sign changes
2. The hospital, because of the employee/employer relationship
3. The nurses assigned to the client during the hospitalization
4. The administrators employed by the hospital
5. Only the nurse on duty at the time the client herniated
Question 2
A client is receiving home health care to complete intravenous antibiotics. The nurse is scheduled to visit every other day to check the site and make sure the client's wife is administering the medications safely and correctly.
Both the client and his wife verbalize understanding of the symptoms of an infiltration, and the importance of reporting it immediately. With a scheduled visit 2 days later, the nurse finds the site red and swollen and the client's arm tender. There is no indication that the client or his wife notified the nurse or home health agency. The lack of which condition will make it difficult to prove negligence on the nurse's part?
1. The nurse owed a duty to the client.
2. The standard of care was not met.
3. The action or inaction of the nurse directly caused the injury.
4. Failure to act would cause harm to the client.