A surgeon unknowingly damages the intestines of a nurse expecting only an overnight stay after surgery, beginning a chain of more tragic and preventable errors. The consequences result in the nurse spending several weeks on an ICU ventilator in a drug-induced coma, having four additional surgeries, and requiring a pump to drain the raging infection from her open abdomen. As she awakens and tries to come to terms with what happened to her, she realizes the hospital and doctors will never tell her the whole truth; she has to find out what went wrong on her own. In order to heal, she determines to write and share her story so others may learn how infections, adverse events, and medical errors occur frequently in hospitals, sometimes resulting in death.
More than a narrative, Anatomy of Medical Errors: The Patient in Room 2 shines light on the dysfunction that underpins many hospital organizations, especially teaching hospitals, including silencing of the patient, provider arrogance, flawed coordination of care, poor communication, and lack of ownership for outcomes.
Forever changed by the experience, author Donna Helen Crisp uses her struggles to teach nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals how to prevent or avoid potentially dangerous situations, recognize warning signs, and work collaboratively to provide transparent patient care. This book provides an ethical and critical thought process framework for care providers and others through a compelling story about hospital culture. Readers who want to understand how delivery of care works in fast-paced and complex healthcare environments will come away engaged and informed.
About the Author
Donna Helen Crisp, JD, MSN, RN, PMHCNS-BC, became a nurse in 1992 after working in social work, law, and music. After earning her BSN and MSN degrees, she became a mental health Clinical Nurse Specialist in adult psychiatry. She has worked with clients of all ages in various hospitals, long-term care facilities, clinics, homes, and private practice. Whether in the role of staff nurse, supervisor, administrator, consultant, or teacher, her nursing practice of care focuses on the person s suffering.
After teaching in the community college system for five years, Donna Helen became an assistant professor at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing, where she taught for six years in the undergraduate and graduate programs. Her nursing research has focused on chronic illness, suffering, quality of life, advance directives, ethical decision-making, and forgiveness. She has taught on these topics at numerous conferences. Her abiding passion continues to focus on the recognition and amelioration of suffering, wherever it exists. She currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where she works as a nurse and writes about nursing.
