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Monday, November 2, 2009: 4:10 PM
Learning Objective 1: ...examine specific factors from a hospital serial murder case investigation that justify a role for a clinical forensic nurse on any hospital quality management team.
Learning Objective 2: ...identify specific roles and responsibilities of a clinical forensic nurse in the review of every patient death in real time.
As was evident in the Gilbert case and in the majority of serial murder by healthcare provider cases, alarming trends of patient death came to the attention of the Quality Management department after the fact. Suspicions were reported up the supervisory chain and then data was analyzed to determine if it supported the allegations before any further action was taken.It is crucial that not only do QM staff recognize suspicious trends promptly, but that real time data be available to review on a regular basis rather than information collected on random patients, day or weeks after an event. Yorker, et al 2006, reports that less than routine quality management activities are one reason there was an increase in the likelihood that these crimes were undetected for so long. The clinical forensic nurse is in a prime position to fulfill the responsibility of responding to all patient death, collecting pertinent data and managing medical evidence. If the death is not suspicious, all information may be archived and retrieved later should events lead to re-examining the information at a later time (Sullivan 2009). What constitutes medical evidence will be discussed as well as other contributors to caregiver malfeasance.
References:
Yorker,B., Kizer, K., Lampe, P., Forrest, A.R.W., Lannan, J., Russell, D., (2006) Serial Murder By Healthcare Professionals, Journal of Forensic Science, 51(6), pg1362-1371.
Sullivan, M.K., (2009) Serial Murder in Healthcare Settings: Clinical and Forensic Implications, Journal of Nursing Management (Accepted and pending publication 2009).