ASSIGNMENT 01 (UNIQUE NUMBER: 863996)
1. If you want to know whether the university has received your assignment, you must contact
1 your lecturer
2 assignment department
3 the secretary
4 student registration department
2. The first assignment is important because it
1 gives you entry into the examination
2 contributes to your year mark
3 indicates important areas to study for the exam
4 enables the university to keep track of you
Choose the appropriate combination (questions 3-6)
3 Thevideo conference is important because
a you will meet the lecturer
b you will meet your fellow students
c it is compulsory
d the examination demarcation will be discussed
e you paid for it
1 abc
2 ce
3 abd
4 cd
5e
4 myUnisais a website that
a gives students access to important Unisa information
b allows students to update their personal details on the Unisa student system
c gives students the opportunity to join online discussion forums
d allows students to submit assignments electronically
1 abcd
2ab
3ac
4 bcd
5 acd
5 Students are allowed to submit their assignments
a by faxing it through to the academic department
b by posting the assignment to the assignment department
c by e-mailing the assignments to the assignment department
d through myUnisa
1 abcd
2ab
3bd
4cd
5 abd
HMA1502/101
6 The purpose of the discussion forum is to create a platform where
a students can ‘meet’ to discuss problems
b students can share their concerns and ask for academic help
c the student can talk to the lecturer
d the lecturer can give important messages to all the students
e teaching can take place if the students are actively participating
1ab
2 cd
3de
4 abcd
5 abcde
7 All information on a mark-reading sheet must be filled in with a black pen.
1 True 2 False
8 Students are expected to purchase prescribed books.
1 True2 False
9 The due dates for assignments are merely guidelines to guide you in your planning.
1 True2 False
10 You must be a registered professional nurse to register for HMA1502.
1 True 2 False
ASSISGNMENT 02UNIQUE NUMBER: 675448
An incident report is a documentation about an event that is not normally seen in the facility, such as an atypical episode in the usual daily care of a patient. It is usually negative in nature, and thus documentation is crucial immediately after the event has happened. In fact, as a type of administrative record, it is the nurse’s ethical and professional responsibility to adhere to the facility’s procedure on documenting these types of occurrences. It is the responsibility of the one who directly witnessed the incident to document the report. This is so that when the matter ends up in court, the primary witness will be able to defend the accuracy of his report (Mochaki and Dolamo, 2009, p. 131).
According to Mochaki and Dolamo (2009, p. 131), incident reports function for multiple reasons. They can actually serve as a protection to the nurse. Because authorities typically inquire about the case after a certain time has elapsed, an immediately written report will aid the nurse to recall precisely what has transpired. If the nurse was really able to do his job well, then his integrity can be supported. On the other hand, if a nurse or any health professional erred on the wrong side, then the incident report can serve as an evidence of misconduct. In short, the performance of the facility’s health professionals can also be assessed. Aside from protecting nurses, incident reports can also help the facility evaluate areas that needs to be improved on. Some mistakes can be minimized or completely removed from the future if the facility can detect problematic areas as seen in the incident report. Aside from problematic areas, patient and family grievances can also be seen from incident reports.
Basically, incident reports can help manage risks from a possible litigation against the health professional and against the facility. The purpose of risk management is to prevent or minimize any type of risk to the health care service. For example, a nurse fell asleep while she was supposed to monitor the heart rate a patient with a heart problem. Hours later, the patient died. According to the Lippincott Nursing Center (Anon., 2010), strategies to minimize risk may require putting up multiple levels of alarm systems such as a supervising personnel, setting up alarms in the health professional’s cellular phone, and increasing the loudness of the alar systems. Constant checking on the alarm systems should also be implemented.
Aside from risk management, incident reports can help in providing quality assurance. In the previous paragraphs, it was mentioned that incident reports can help the facility evaluate areas that needs to improve on. This is a component of quality assurance (QA). Because health providers should constantly seek ways to develop the service they are giving their patients, quality assurance is born. Quality assurance is simply the manner of assessing if the health care service is really providing the optimal level of service by analyzing areas that can still be corrected. This idea is grounded from the beneficence principle of doing good to the patient according to Aiken (2004 cited in Mochaki and Dolamo, 2009, p. 63).
Shortell and Kaluzny(1994 cited in Mochaki and Dolamo, 2009, p. 63)agreed that quality assurance is based on five principles: (1) To have exceptional QA entails commitment of both personnel and institution; (2) In order to evaluate and apply the changes needed, decentralization of the responsibility amongst the staff should be implemented; (3) QA should be widespread among all the departments that have a concern about quality, such as support services and administration; (4) QA is all about highlighting exact definite requirements; it does not use a generalized approach to find a problem; (5) There must be incessant evaluation for QA to be able to follow the present changes in the organization. An example of quality assurance being done is that the College of Registered Nurses in British Columbia (2014) require their nurses to complete to a self-assessment form, seek and received peer feedback, and meet a certain number of duty hours over a certain number of years.
Incident Report Sample
This January 24, 2016 at around 7:15 in the evening, I was doing my usual rounds in the 3rd floor East Ward of Northshore Medical Center. I entered Rm. 301 and first saw the bed empty. I looked down the floor on the left side of the bed and saw Mr. John Doe (75 years old, diagnosed with dehydration secondary to persistent diarrhea) lying on his left in fetal position with both eyes closed. He was not moving at all. I looked back at the bed and saw that the left bed rail was down. There was no one else in the room. I immediately went beside Mr. Doe and tapped his right shoulder and called his name at the same time about a couple times. At about the fifth tap, I heard Mr. Doe groaned with his eyes still closed. I asked Mr. Doe if anything hurt but he just groaned again. I got up to buzz the nurse station to ask for help. While waiting, I asked Mr. Doe to relax and not move around much. After about 2 minutes, Gary Smith, my colleague, and Dr. Alex Gates, Mr. Doe’s doctor came inside. Dr. Gates asked Mr. Doe if anything hurts, and Mr. Doe just groaned. Dr. Gates asked Mr. Doe again, “Is there anywhere that hurts?” This time, Mr. Doe opened both his eyes and asked, “How did I end up here?” I replied, “I saw you lying on the floor when I came to check on you.” Mr. Doe just nodded and said, “Help me get up.” Dr. Gates said, “Let me check first if there’s anything broken.” After checking Mr. Doe’s head and body, Dr. Gates asked Mr. Doe to sit up slowly. Mr. Doe was able to do so without difficulty. Dr. Gates asked Mr. Doe if he felt any dizziness upon sitting up, but Mr. Doe just shook his head and stood up and went back to the bed to lie down. Mr. Doe said that he is tired and wants to sleep. He says he is all right and wants us to leave the room. Dr. Gates agreed and put the left bed rail up again. We all went outside and Dr. Gates asked me to write an incident report about what happened.
References
Mochaki, NW &Dolamo BL. 2009. Leading/Directing and Control in Health Services Management. Pretoria: University of South Africa.
Raso, R &Gulinello, C. 2010. Creating cultures of safety: Risk management challenges and strategies. Lippinicott Nursing Center, [online] Available at:
<http://www.nursingcenter.com/cearticle?tid=1095690> [Accessed 24 January 2016].
