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This morning's newspaper carried an item about a nurse commiting suicide and it was pointed out that she was recently found negligent in the hospital (wrong drug was about to be injected into a patient) and she was under some stress. Whilst it is true the nurse was about to make a serious (sometimes fatal) mistake, there is a tendency by hospital authorities to take harsh measures including dismissal of the wrong doer. But it is more important for the hospital authorities to look at the circumstances leading to this (governance, improper labeling, poor vision, poor work ambience, supervision and support and other correctable measures) to prevent such things happening again. It is also important to provide support to the nurse who may be consumed by a sense of guilt which in turn prompts such tragic events. Mathew Jose
Re: Learning from Jacintha Saldanha’s death
This morning's newspaper carried an item about a nurse commiting suicide and it was pointed out that she was recently found negligent in the hospital (wrong drug was about to be injected into a patient) and she was under some stress. Whilst it is true the nurse was about to make a serious (sometimes fatal) mistake, there is a tendency by hospital authorities to take harsh measures including dismissal of the wrong doer. But it is more important for the hospital authorities to look at the circumstances leading to this (governance, improper labeling, poor vision, poor work ambience, supervision and support and other correctable measures) to prevent such things happening again. It is also important to provide support to the nurse who may be consumed by a sense of guilt which in turn prompts such tragic events. Mathew Jose
Competing interests: No competing interests