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An Analysis Of Julie's 'Chasing Zero'

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An Analysis Of Julie's 'Chasing Zero'
According to the documentary Chasing Zero, on the 4th of July weekend, Julie was working a double shift. After completing her first shift she took a nap in a patient room because she had not finished her paper work until around 0100 and was too tired to drive home. Around 0900 she met her patient, a 16-year old girl who was getting ready to deliver. The plan was to break the young girls water and start Pitocin so she could deliver. Julie followed her units protocol to prep the patient’s epidural at the same time she was preparing to administer and IV antibiotic. She entered the patients room with the patient’s IV antibiotic and epidural. Both the IV antibiotic and the epidural had identical tubing and similar packaging. Julie hung what she …show more content…
Those directly involved in the incident could agree or highly disagree with the inferences I have drawn. The hospital may believe that the nurse was negligent, while she believes she performed a mistake that any nurse could have in this situation. Do to the fact that this mistake had cost someone their life, it is difficult to comprehend all the participating parties thoughts. The family of the patient sees someone who made a mistake that cost their loved one their life and the hospital sees a mistake that cost them their reputation. More importantly the nurse will now how to live with the mistake that she made for the rest of her life. From the nursing perspective Julie had made an honest error that she was forever sorry for, and she was left out to dry for her …show more content…
We are taught to always preserve a patient’s autonomy. However, was Julie’s preserved? She was stripped of her nursing license and charged with a misdemeanor for an accident. Although Julie did not spend any time in jail, she now had a criminal background. As a result, her career as nurse was forever lost and her name forever tarnished on any application she ever filled out. If this was to happen to Julie, does it happen to all nurses when they make an error. The ethical and legal ramifications of this event caused an innocent woman to have her life completely derailed by an event that could have happened to any nurse at any

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