Grammar post #11

Who vs whom
This is one of those silly little grammar things that I've never gotten the hang of. I don't remember ever having it explained before. This site has the best and most simple explaination I've come across. Basically if you could replace the word with he use who, if you could replace it with him use the word whom. It seems completely obvious. Why did none of my English teachers ever explain this before?

Presentation Research

Here is some of the research I've got for our presentation on medical malpractice. These are just the titles and abstracts. I have the entire articles on my computer so we can access them anytime we need to.

Why isn't the medical profession policing itself?

How far should a nurse go when disagreeing with MD orders or treatment decisions? In the first case, a 7 1/2-month-pregnant 26-year-old woman arrived in ER with nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. She was sent to the OB unit and assessed by a RN. The patient's obstetrician was called and ordered laboratory tests, medication for nausea, and IV fluids. When test results were called to the MD, who was also informed of the patient's extreme pain, she diagnosed a urinary tract infection and ordered antibiotics and discharge. Shortly thereafter, the nurse again notified the MD of the patient's pain and questioned the discharge order. Morphine was ordered and the discharge order upheld. The RN suggested that a resident on duty see the patient and notified her supervisor of her concerns. The patient, who was discharged without being examined by a MD, was admitted 4 hours later with a perforated appendix, developed complications, and died 19 days later. The husband brought suit for medical malpractice against the MD and the hospital. The MD settled, but the hospital went to trial, lost, and appealed. The appellate court affirmed the judgment, finding "negligence of the hospital, acting through its employees, was not superseded by the negligence of the...physician." While the RN did report her concerns to the supervisor, it is unclear what, if any, action the supervisor took. In similar circumstances, the nurse should report the event up the chain of command to the hospital chief executive if necessary.In the second case, a charge nurse assessed an admitted patient to have a life-threatening infection, toxic shock syndrome. When the anticipated antibiotics were not ordered, the nurse repeatedly reported the situation to the Director of Nurses (DON) who instructed the nurse to "document, report the facts, and stay out of it." Following reporting protocol, the nurse later discussed the situation with the chief of medical staff. Appropriate action was taken but the patient died. The DON informed the hospital administrator that the nurse had offered to obtain medical records for the patient's family and had made a statement that the patient's physician was "paving her way to heaven." The administrator directed that the nurse be terminated. The termination letter stated cause for dismissal as statements that were untrue, detrimental to the hospital and medical staff, and exhibiting lack of support. The nurse filed for wrongful discharge. The circuit court granted the hospital's motion for summary judgment based on the employment-at-will doctrine. The appeals court reversed the decision and remanded the case for trial, holding that a public policy exception existed and the Nurse Practice Act provided a clear mandate for a "public policy that requires a duty on nurses to provide the best possible care for their patients." The court noted that failure to act in the best interest of the patient could be viewed as incompetence, gross negligence, or misconduct and subject to disciplinary action by the State Board of Nursing.

COCA Conference Call – A “Never” Event: Unsafe Injection Practices (March 27, 2008)

Calls for the accessibility of the National Practitioner Data Bank particularly to consumers who want to check on the involvement of their doctors in malpractice suits. Malpractice judgments and settlements below $30,000; United States General Accounting Office report; Proposed limitations on data bank by the American Medical Association.

More medical malpractice

Here is a link to an extensive paper about medical malpractice that might be helpful for our presentation.

Academic Success Workshop, Time Management

This was one of the first workshops of the semester and as a returning adult student who has been away from the academic scene for MANY years it was very helpful. The most important thing I learned was how to prioritize my life. I can't be everything to everyone all of the time. It's ok for me to say "no" when people ask for my time, infact it is often neccissary. My kids have learned that if mom is in the office she's doing homework and you don't bother her. Procrastination and organization are also points we discussed that I have have trouble with. If I'm struggling with something it's always easier to find something else to distract me and I'll find myself up til midnight the day before an assignment is do. As I've progressed through the semester my organizational skills are slowly improving and I have lists of things to do all over the house. Maybe by the time I finish my degree, four years from now, I'll have this all figured out.