Question

While taking a shower, a patient pushes the emergency light. When the nurse arrives, the patient complains of feeling dizzy and unsteady. The nurse turns to reach for the patient's walker, and the patient falls, hitting the right side of the face resulting in the loss of vision in the right eye. This scenario represents a _______ event.

a) Sentinel
b) Root cause
c) Adverse
d) Causal

Answer 1

The patient's experience of falling in the shower and sustaining an injury that resulted in the loss of vision constitutes a sentinel event, which necessitates immediate investigation and response.

Step-by-step explanation:

The scenario provided describes a sentinel event, which is an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof. In this particular case, the patient signaled for help due to feeling dizzy and unsteady, which already indicates that an adverse event is occurring. The situation escalated when the patient fell and suffered a loss of vision in the right eye after hitting the right side of the face. Sentinel events require immediate investigation and response. Furthermore, this event underlines the importance of rapid assessment of neurological function in emergency situations to address issues such as vision loss or loss of motor control, which can originate from various issues ranging from physical trauma to conditions like meningitis causing swelling around the optic nerve.