Question

you are a brand new medical assistant and it is your first day at a very busy family practice clinic. you are shadowing an experienced medical assistant and while setting up a sterile tray she contaminate the field by reaching across it which cause her scrub top to touch the scalpel handle. you tell her that she touched it. but she say it's fine, no one will know and there is no time to do another one and continues to set it up what would you do, if anything? why or why not?

Answer 1

This is a delicate situation in which you do not want to overstep your seniors but also at the same time you have to maintain the sanctity and also sanitary condition to maintain appropriate care and treatment for the patient. You can request the experienced medical assistant to consider a decision about using the same contaminated tray and explain her the negligence that could severely caused the hospital as well as the patient in terms of repetition and also the health of the patient will be jeopardized. In this case we do not want to offend the senior medical assistant so we could explain the senior that we can prepare another sterile tray and other pair of scalpels and I can help in sterilizing as well as making another set available for the surgery for medical treatment. we could explain the senior medical assistant that even if no one is looking atom is deeds but as per medical ethics it is a responsibility to treat the patient with best possible care options and not being negligent with his care and treatment which can negatively affect his health and also violate medical code of ethics and pose major risk to the health of the patient. If even after offering help to prepare another set, the senior medical assistant is not convinced then we can request the treating physician about the and sterile equipment in a polite manner so as to not directly shift the blame but help them understand that the Patient safety and effectiveness of the treatment is very important in patient care and management. In the field of medical treatment and patient management, nothing is as important as keeping our priorities in focus with patient care and improving the quality of the care. So when the medical ethics as well as patient care is compromised and we witness unethical and improper medical care practices, we must always strive to have best possible care methods and treatments in compliance so that we can concretely help the patients and ensure the safety while maintaining high standards of care and medical treatment. In this situation, if the patient's health and safety is compromised we must polite to ask the senior medical assistant to to reconsider the decision to continue with the contaminated tray and if this is a medical assistant does not agree then we must politely ask to implement the ethical practices and request the treating physician to consider using a sterile equipment and have proper patient care and management infocus so as to ensure that no violation of human rights and patient care is taking place.