Law and ethics in health

Law and ethics in health Assignment 2 - Case study analysis - Assignment brief Case study: You are a nursing student working on a busy surgical ward and it is 10.ooam. One of your patients, Frank, is a 68 year old retired barrister who has undergone a Iaparotomy for acute bowel obstruction. He is first day post-op and his recovery so far has been uneventful; his vital signs have all been within normal limits. This morning, however, his vital signs have altered somewhat; his heart rate has increased to 92bpm, his blood pressure has decreased to 105/70; his temperature is 379%, although he looks a little pale; also he has not passed urine since midnight although he has an IV infusion in situ and is receiving adequate hydration. When you are carrying out his vital sign monitoring, he seems rather confused and disorientated and this is quite marked because you helped Frank wash himself less than an hour ago and he seemed fine then. He also becomes a little aggressive towards you and tells you to ‘go away’. You go to tell your preceptor of your findings because you feel a little unhappy with his condition and she asks you to return to Frank and repeat his observations. En route to Frank, you are held up by a patient who desperately needs a bedpan, so you organise this and as soon as you have removed the bedpan, the man in the next bed, asks for a urine bottle, so you comply. Then you are called help to turn a patient with another nurse and are then asked to undertake another couple of urgent tasks. Once you have completed these actions, you return to Frank; about 25 minutes have passed. As you approach Frank, you see that he has thrown off the bed covers, he is naked, he has also soiled the bed, removed the dressing from his wound and is smearing faeces across his abdomen and onto his surgical wound. Additionally, he has pulled out his IV cannula and is bleeding from the insertion site. You immediately pull the curtains around him to give him some privacy and return to your preceptor to ask for assistance. She tells you to go and clean him up, while she calls the doctor to come to resite the IV cannula. You return with the items you need to attend to Frank’s hygiene needs and inform Frank that you need to give him a wash, he aggressively tells you that he does not want a wash and is verbally abusive towards you.