Professional Accountability
Being accountable is to accept responsibility and consequences for your deeds. Professional caregiver accountability means being liable to yourself, patients, employers, colleagues, and the nursing profession. As stated by Joshua O’Hagan and David Persaud, accountability is important because it improves patient care quality and makes more value for money used on healthcare services. They note that being liable enhances the usage of evidence-based practices, improves learning, and reduces unevenness in care (Sawatzky, 2014).
The professional code of ethics requires caregivers to put what their patients need first. Hence after every course of action, a nurse ought to review whether the patient got the best care (Thorne, 2014). A nurse can show professional accountability by taking responsibility for their judgments, actions, and omissions. A nurse can show accountability by making sure that they always give blood products to patients properly. Referring back to their clinical expertise, caregivers know they need to have an order, consent, two licensed professionals to confirm the products and the patient before anything is administered and to be present for the first fifteen minutes of the transfusion.
Another way for a caregiver to show professional accountability is by using safe practices. Such as giving the patient information on signs and symptoms of a reaction from the transfusion, informing the staff if they have questions and worries during the transfusion immediately, and quickly reporting or stepping in if there is a problem. Professional accountability is shown in evidence-based practices.
References
Thorne, S., & Sawatzky, R. (2014). Particularizing the general: Sustaining theoretical integrity in the context of an evidence-based practice agenda. Advances in Nursing Science, 37(1), 5-18.