PROFESSIONAL REGULATION AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY

Professional Regulation And Criminal Liability

Professional Regulation And Criminal Liability

COMPLAINT PROCESS FOR PATIENTS

Based on the informal hearing, the panel can take actions ranging from dismissal of the complaint to a reprimand of the nurse's license or a reprimand with conditions. For example, the nurse may have to take a medication administration course in cases involving medication errors. In many cases the board panel will then send the decision to the full board for agreement with the decision and action. (Attorney General Opinion 2007)

The act of suspension or revocation of a nurse's license usually requires a formal hearing that is recorded for the record and produces a transcript in case the nurse decides to appeal the board's decision. In a formal hearing, the nurse has the right to cross-examine the state's witnesses and to present his/her own witnesses. The hearing must be before a proper and authorized board that makes its decisions in a fair manner based on the evidence presented. The rise in attendances of Accident & Emergency department (A & E) Departments combined with political change has challenged A&E Departments and forced them to evolve in recent years. (Booth & Carruth 2001:35)

Services have been modernised, and as a result of these organisational changes, one of the biggest challenges that continues to be faced is the workforce. The European Working Time Directive has underlined the need for a review of the medical workforce. With the reduction of Junior Doctors hours. The author works in a trust in west London. There is a rapid turnover of medical staff every 4 months. The only consistency of staff in the department are the middle Grades which have recently been cut down from 11 to 4 and the A&E consultants are having to fill the gaps. The nursing staff too help the maintenance of a stable workforce. (Brent 2001)There is a need for a designated NP's service within A&E.

Each year there is increasing numbers of patients attending A&E according to the Audit commission (2001) there was a rise to over 15 million attend A&E in England and Wales during 2001. In the past Trusts have had to look at new ways of working and models of care, staff roles as to improve the patients journey through A&E ( Dealey 2002). The author asserts that NP's are capable of carrying out the initial treatment and assessments thus reducing the waiting time of patients.

However evidence suggests that several aspects of waiting times to consider, one both patients and staff desire is the time through A&E to be as short as possible. However patients do not like to feel rushed when seeing a health care professional( Dealey 2002). This has an impact on patients satisfaction throughout the whole process . Although controversial the replacement of doctors by nurses has proved an interesting option by allowing highly skilled nurses to become the initial point of contact (Haidar 2008). The time has come to reflect on the traditional roles of nurses and doctors ...