Are Nurses Like Canaries in the Coal Mine?
By Jordie Papa Image courtesy PxHere If you’re a nurse, your efforts undoubtedly come under scrutiny on a daily basis. That’s because your job is quite literally the first line of defense against injury or infection. This puts the onus on you to perform your assigned tasks diligently. While doctors can bury their mistakes, nurses get buried by theirs. Whether you’re tasked with treating patients who are infected with communicable diseases, or you work in a hospital where Staph and MRSA are present, the chances of passing a pathogen onto another patient is significant. Read a chart wrong or improperly administer an IV and you could find yourself being written up before the Board of Nursing. While nobody is perfect, the sad fact is that patients can and sometimes do wind up being injured by the very people who are treating them.
