Nursing DQ 1 and 2

Name

Class

Date

Professor

Winkler County Nurses DQ

As you studied the criminal and civil cases involving Winkler County nurses Anne Mitchell &

Vickilyn Galle, what did you find most shocking?  

What do you think Winkler County Memorial Hospital should have done to ensure that it was

protected from liability?  

If you were Anne Mitchell or Vickilyn Galle, would you have filed a civil lawsuit?  Why or why

not? 

The case of the Winkler County nurses Anne Mitchell & Vickilyn Galle was shocking.

The nurses did the right thing by reporting the unsafe behavior of physician Dr. Rolando

Arafiles and ended up being punished legally. The behavior of the sheriff and prosecutor

was particularly shocking. Dr. Rolando Arafiles could not have gotten away with this

behavior if the sheriff and the prosecutor had not taken the legal steps to arrest and charge

the nurses with a crime. In the end one nurse was acquitted and the charges against the

other dropped but this type of incident will make healthcare workers across the country

hesitate to report the bad behavior of other medical personnel. As a result patients could

be subject to poor healthcare and have poor health outcomes as a result. These women

were dropping their ethical duty when they reported the bad actions of Arafiles but were

punished by the bad actions of members of the criminal justice system. After the two

women were free of the criminal charges they sued Winkler County Memorial Hospital

and the county for their unethical behavior (Prince, 2011). The women won their lawsuit

in part because the hospital failed to provide the women with any protection from the

resulting behavior of the local criminal justice system. The hospital should have had a

process available that would allow nurses to report the bad behavior of medical

personnel, such as physicians. In this case Anne Mitchell and Vickilyn Galle were right

in filing a lawsuit. These women were doing their ethical duty when they reported the

physician and should never have been punished legally for following through with their

duty to the patient. It is shocking that two nurses trying to protect patients from a

neglectful and ineffective doctor could be punished instead of rewarded for being brave

enough to step forward and report Arafiles. In the end the psycian was found guilty of

unsafe health care practices.

Prince, S. (2011). Justice is Served: Texas Physician Pleads Guilty. Retrieved October 19, 2014

from http://nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/MediaResources/PressReleases/2011

Unsafe Assignment DQ 2

A nurse arrives to begin a 12 hour shift and is asked to accept what the nurse believes to be an

unsafe assignment, what should the nurse do?

What makes an assignment unsafe?   

When a nurse is given an unsafe assignment they have an ethical obligation to report

these unsafe conditions. The first obligation of the nurse is to the patient. Any condition

that could put a patient at risk can be considered an unsafe situation. What this means is

the nurse is asked to do something that could put them or patients at risk they must report

this unethical behavior. Nurses that disagree with an assignment because they believe it

to be unsafe will fill out a Protest of Assignment form. Protest of Assignment is a written

document explaining why, in your professional judgment, the assignment is unsafe

(NYSNA, 2014). This process helps to protect the nurse, other medical personnel, and the

patient. Nurses have the right to be free of unsafe working conditions similar to any other

worker in any industry. The most common unsafe assignments in the nursing industry are

short staffed shifts that can result in harm coming to the patient, sending nurses to units to

work where they do not have the proper training, lack of the proper equipment needed to

ensure the best health outcome for the patient, and lack of proper medications. Nurses

must be afforded the tools they need to ensure the best patient outcome for the patient. It

is unethical to create situations that could potentially put the patient or even the nurse in

danger. The nurse should immediately point out the unsafe condition to a manager and

follow up with the necessary forms. The failure of the nurse to report the unsafe condition

is unethical. Unsafe work conditions that are ignored by the nurse can result in

disciplinary action but can result in legal actions. Nurses just report any situation that can

result in poor conditions for the patient or that makes it difficult for the nurse to perform

their duties effectively.

New York State Nurses Association. (2014). Unsafe Work Assignment. Retrieved

October 19, 2014 from http://www.nysna.org/strength-work/know-your-rights/unsafe-

assignments#.VEQRNsnSJ5c