Case 2 Scope of Practice
In case study number two, Nadia works as a Release of Information Specialist at a hospital. She is a registered health information technician after attending classes in Health Information Technology. Nadia also had previously attended nursing school and was proud to be able to share some of the knowledge from this experience with her colleagues. Nadia was asked by a patient if she could assist them in reading a report on a life threatening condition. Although Nadia was unfamiliar with the results of the study, she went ahead and advised the patient that everything looked fine. This is where Nadia let her pride and ego trump her job duties and area of expertise because she didn’t want to look bad in front of her peers or the patient. This breach of Scope of Practice ethical code ultimately cost this patient his life; having carried on with love of running based on Nadia’s test result determination that everything appeared normal.
Scope of Practice defined: “Scope of care Professionalism The range of responsibility–eg, types of Pts or caseload and practice guidelines that determine the boundaries within which a physician, or other professional, practices” (McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc). Nadia had an ethical duty to not go outside of her field of expertise when interpreting the results of the patient’s Doppler results. She knew she was unsure of the format of the results and instead of admitting this to the patient; she gave an interpretation she was unsure of in clear violation of her ethical responsibility and outside of her scope of practice.
1. What could the implications of the release of the information clerk's actions be for the facility? Nadia’s violation of the AHMIA code of ethics could have serious legal implications for the facility. The AHMIA code of ethics states, "Violation of...