Need Help With This Assignment?

Let Our Team of Professional Writers Write a PLAGIARISM-FREE Paper for You!

SUBMIT YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Essay, Nursing, Pages: 2

NUR 4327 – TERCAP Proposal

NUR 4327 – TERCAP Proposal

Table 4. Look at your state’s nursing board. Describe your reasoning for what action would you recommend (warning, probation, revocation of license) if you were on the disciplinary committee of your State’s Board of Nursing. For example, If you live in Florida, you would look on the Florida Board of Nursing for Information: NUR 4327 – TERCAP Proposal.

Recommended Action Description To support your recommendation
Probation The nurse’s failure to adhere to established policies and standards of care—including neglecting to perform the required hourly rounding and patient assessment post-pain medication administration—constitutes negligence (Minnesota Board of Nursing, 2024). However, considering the context of the incident (e.g., high workload, staffing shortages, and the nurse’s relative inexperience and condition during pregnancy), the act does not rise to the level of intentional malpractice.

Probation would provide the nurse with an opportunity to address deficiencies through mandatory continuing education, mentorship, and regular performance evaluations, aligning with a rehabilitative approach while ensuring patient safety (Waterfield & Barnason, 2022). This decision aligns with standards outlined by the Minnesota Board of Nursing (2024), emphasizing both accountability and education to prevent future errors.

 Table 5. Explains how the level of nursing behavior relates to your proposed recommendation on licensure.

Nursing Behavior Level  
The nursing behavior level, in this case, reflects a “Lack of adherence to established protocols and standards of care” based on the TERCAP framework. The nurse demonstrated unintentional negligence due to failing to:

1.     Conduct required assessments post-administration of pain medication.

2.     Perform hourly rounding to evaluate the patient’s needs.

3.     Ensure proper documentation of nursing assessments and patient interactions.

 

 Probation is recommended as it provides a structured opportunity for the nurse to address deficiencies while maintaining public safety. Under probation, the nurse should be required to complete targeted continuing education programs focusing on patient safety, effective pain management, and adherence to protocols (Mersha et al., 2023). Additionally, a mentorship program should be implemented to provide guidance, and periodic performance evaluations should monitor improvement.

This decision acknowledges systemic challenges such as staffing shortages while holding the nurse accountable for their role in the adverse event. Probation aligns with the Board of Nursing’s rehabilitative approach and ensures the nurse receives the support needed to prevent similar incidents in the future (Rinaldo et al., 2022). Overall, probation balances accountability and professional development to protect patients and improve nursing practice.

Part Three – Continuing Education

A well-designed continuing education program is essential to address the deficiencies identified in the TERCAP report and mitigate future legal risks. The proposed program focuses on five key areas, each critical for improving nursing practices and ensuring compliance with patient safety standards.

Patient Safety and Fall Prevention

This topic offers approaches to performing anticipatory fall evaluations in addition to ways to secure mobility restrictions and enforce hourly rounding. Nurses will learn how to address challenges such as medication-related grogginess and ensure patients understand the importance of seeking assistance.

Effective Pain Management and Assessment

This topic will focus on how to manage pain medication, how to observe patient reactions, and how to document such properly. Nurses will enhance their ability to provide safe and effective pain relief while monitoring for potential complications.

Critical Communication and Handoff Processes

This module emphasizes clear and thorough communication during shift handoffs. Techniques for repeating patient-specific precautions and using bedside shift reports will ensure continuity of care and reduce errors caused by miscommunication (Mlambo et al., 2021).

Stress and Fatigue Management for Nurses

Addressing nurse well-being is crucial. This topic focuses on recognizing burnout and fatigue, introducing strategies for self-care, and managing workload effectively during long shifts. The module highlights the impact of fatigue on patient safety and provides actionable tools for stress management.

Adherence to Nursing Protocols and Documentation Standards

The driving of this topic regards the policy requirements of different institutions, especially on the documentation processes to be followed. Examples of such violations will be presented to explain the outcomes of incomplete documentation and to explain why it is crucial for patient safety and healthcare practitioners.

In these areas, the education program prepares the nurses so that they understand and can avoid or reduce legal claims, follow standard measures, and promote patient safety in the organization.

References

Mersha, A., Abera, A., Tesfaye, T., Abera, T., Belay, A., Melaku, T., Shiferaw, M., Shitaye Shibiru, Wubshet Estifanos, & Senahara Korsa Wake. (2023). Therapeutic communication and its associated factors among nurses working in public hospitals of Gamo zone, southern Ethiopia: Application of Hildegard Peplau’s nursing theory of interpersonal relations. BMC Nursing, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01526-z

Minnesota Board of Nursing. (2024). Minnesota nursing board / Minnesota board of nursing. Minnesota Board of Nursing. https://mn.gov/boards/nursing/

Mlambo, M., Silén, C., & McGrath, C. (2021). Lifelong learning and nurses’ continuing professional development, a meta-synthesis of the literature. BMC Nursing, 20(62), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00579-2

Rinaldo, J. G., Baumgardner, R., Tilton, T., & Brailoff, V. (2022). Mentorship respect study: A nurse mentorship program’s impact on the transition to practice and the decision to remain in nursing for newly graduated nurses. Nurse Leader, 21(2), 262–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2022.07.003

Waterfield, D., & Barnason, S. (2022). The integration of care ethics and nursing workload: A qualitative systematic review. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(7). https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13723

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

Question

Scenario
The Board of Nursing in your state has decided to utilize a tool developed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing called the Taxonomy of Error, Root Cause Analysis Practice- Responsibility (TERCAP). Your nurse manager has provided you with a summary of the completed TERCAP report by your Board of Nursing’s Disciplinary Action Committee. She has asked you to review this summary and to develop a proposal of suggestions for continuing education topics on ways to minimize legal risks for your hospital’s practicing nurses. The nurse educators will develop an education series based on your recommendations.

Instructions
Prepare a proposal based on the summary of the TERCAP with recommendations and suggestions on minimizing legal risks that:Part One – Review the summary of the completed TERCAP report below.
A patient, aged 54, was admitted for back surgery secondary to compressed vertebrae and intense pain. The difficulty with pain management has caused the patient some depression and insomnia over the last month. During her first post-operative day, the patient fell, attempting to go from the bed to the bathroom without assistance. Her injury was serious and involved significant harm, requiring two additional days of hospitalization and an additional six weeks of physical therapy.A review of the case determined that her assigned nurse on the night shift was an RN (age 24) with nine months of experience in this unit. This was her third 12-hour shift in a row, and she was 29 weeks pregnant. There were 28 beds with only two RNs and one patient technician due to one vacancy and a call-in for illness. This community facility has experienced a turnover rate of 12% in the last year (community average of 4.5%) and has many new graduates working on medical-surgical units, particularly on the 7 pm- 7 am shift.

A review of the chart showed that the patient had been advised by the out-going nurse, who admitted her to the unit post-operatively, that she needed to ask for assistance with toileting for at least the next 24 hours due to the extensive back surgery and post-anesthesia response and pain medication. The RN coming on shift received the bedside shift report at 7 pm and noted that the patient was sleeping, so the issue of patient assistance was not repeated. She checked on her again at 8 pm and administered the requested prn medication (morphine) for pain. She was busy with other patients and did not see the patient again until the patient fell at 9:51 pm.

The patient reported that she did not recall having been instructed to ask for assistance, as she was very groggy from the anesthesia. She said she had pushed the nurse call button for assistance, and “no one came.” There was no clerical support at the nursing station, and the three staff members were very busy with patients, so this statement could not be substantiated.

The risk manager found that the RN had not followed the nursing policy for patient assessment 20 minutes after receiving pain medication and had not done the recommended hourly rounding on the patient to assess the need for elimination, pain, and patient comfort. The note in the chart indicated only that the patient requested pain medication but did not provide specific nursing assessment details or comment that the patient had received the same dosage of morphine two hours earlier.

NUR 4327 – TERCAP Proposal

NUR 4327 – TERCAP Proposal

Part Two – Factors and Actions

  • Discusses the factors that contributed to the event and how these factors could be addressed to minimize legal risks.
    • Situational factors
    • Nursing factors
    • Human factors
    • Organizational factors
  • Explains whether the nurse was negligent or whether her actions reached the level of malpractice and support your reasoning with research.
  • Determines what options the nursing board had regarding this nurse’s license to practice nursing.
  • Describe your reasoning for what action you would recommend (warning, probation, revocation of license) if you were on the disciplinary committee of your Board of Nursing.
  • Explain how the nursing behavior level relates to your proposed recommendation on licensure.

Part Three – Continuing Education
Summarizes a list of topics to be provided to the education department based on the summary of the TERCAP report.
Provides stated ideas with professional language and attribution for credible sources with correct APA citation*, spelling, and grammar in the proposal.

Resources

Course Textbook: