Professional Accountability In Clinical Expertise Examples

Professional Accountability in Nursing
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Professional Accountability in Nursing
Nurses are accountable to themselves, their patients, employers, and colleagues as this helps them to be more effective in the delivery of their duties (NMBI, 2019). Accountability in nursing is a concept of being answerable for one’s actions in order to promote responsibility, ensure high standards of care, and promote the safety of patients (Krautscheid, 2014). Professional accountability entails accepting the responsibility for one’s actions and being ready to face the consequences. The professional code of ethics requires nurses to put the needs of their patients first (Stevens, 2013). Therefore, after every procedure, a nurse should reflect on whether the patient received the best care.
A nurse can demonstrate professional accountability by taking responsibility for one’s judgement, actions, and even omissions. A point in time when I demonstrated professional accountability was when a doctor prescribed morphine to a child who has suffered 40% percent burns. I was in the process of administering the drug when it hit me that I had not completed the handwashing procedure prior to the withdrawal. Knowing that burn victims are more susceptible to infections, I had to go back and complete the handwashing procedure. In the process, I noticed the dosage was quite high. Ther...