After shift report, Mr. Jones calls Nurse Laura into the room. Mrs. Jones is still …show more content…
The nurses involved realized that anyone pressing the PCA button other than the patient was not legal; however, this was not sufficiently expressed to the patient’s family members. Upon suspicion that the patient herself may not be able to press the PCA button due to her upper extremity weakness, the nurses had an ethical obligation to present this problem to the patient’s doctor. “When nurses become aware of inappropriate or questionable practice, the concern must be expressed to the person involved, focusing on the patient’s best interest as well as on the integrity of nursing practice,” (American Nurses Association, 2015). The economic factor could include the nurse-patient ratio, which does affect how much time the nurse has to spend at the patient’s bedside educating the patient and family on the PCA and how much time the nurse has to spend at the patient’s bedside assessing the patient’s pain. Had the nurses involved been able to be at the patient’s bedside more, a nurse may have been able to observe the daughter pressing the PCA button for the