Manfred Mortell RN*

Department of School of Nursing and Allied Health Professions, University of the Bahamas, Bahamas

*Corresponding Author: Manfred Mortell RN, Department of School of Nursing and Allied Health Professions, University of the Bahamas, Bahamas.

Received: February 24, 2023; Published: March 30, 2023

Abstract

“Failure to Rescue” is a foreboding concern that compromises patient safety and encourages morbidity and mortality from iatrogenic interrelated medical errors. The enquiry with the presentation of a case study, addressed in this short communication is, “why are patients “failing to be rescued” by healthcare providers (HCP)?” “Failure to Rescue” is a measure of quality of care and postulates that, while obstacles may replicate both the seriousness of the patient illness and the associated health care dynamics. The capacity to “rescue” patients once harm occurs is closely associated with the quality of health care provided. Sub-standard care, and risk incidents are often coupled with “Failure to Rescue” settings. One such “Failure to Rescue” and safety occurrence links to non-compliance by HCP when verifying and documenting correct and truthful inspections on “crash carts”. Failure to do so not only compromises patient safety, but also constructs the potential to injure patients, due to a failure of crash cart readiness. Research into the causes of “Failure to Rescue “reveals the complexity of the dilemma, with comparisons that reflect expertise into contextual factors such as organisational failure, deficit knowledge and skills, a dearth of supervision and inadequate staffing levels which in combination with excessive workloads creates time management burdens for HCP making it problematicfor them to prioritise their responsibilities. However, despite these contextual aspects it is the author's belief, that “Failure to Rescue” related to untruthful checking and documentation on “crash carts” correspondingly involves a “failure in ethics.” That failure being a deficit in an HCP obligation to their duty of care which safeguards patients and protects them from harm if advanced life support is required. The author assumes there is a predicament with ethics where theory and practice integrate, and consequently, malfeasance. We as HCP are forsaking our duty as patient advocates.

 Keywords: Emergency Trolley; Ethics; Failure to Rescue; Practice; Theory

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Citation

Citation: Manfred Mortell RN. ““Failure to Rescue” A Life Support Case Presentation Dilemma". Acta Scientific Women's Health 5.4 (2023): 72-82.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Manfred Mortell RN. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.