Assignment Task: Read the following case study and answer the questions. Please be thorough and provide references.
Case study:
The older adult male patient was admitted to the hospital emergency center with major blunt abdominal trauma following a car crash. In the emergency center, the nurse carried out the physician's order for a dose of morphine for the patient's pain, which he said was an 8 on a scale from 1 to 10. After being given the morphine, the patient's blood pressure dropped significantly, and the patient went into cardiac and respiratory arrest after lapsing into unconsciousness. The nurse alerted the physician, who immediately intubated the patient and sent him to the operating room to be resuscitated and then for exploratory surgery to determine the extent and cause of the abdominal bleeding. The patient was never revived, and he died the next day in the facility's intensive care unit. The family has brought a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging that the morphine was the cause of the patient's demise. In the lawsuit, there were no allegations of excessive dose, improper administration of the medication, or inattentive monitoring by the nurses in the emergency center.
Answer the following:
Q1. Was the nurse negligent for not questioning the use of morphine for a patient with blunt abdominal pain before administering the dose of morphine?
Q2. Would knowing that the patient's blood pressure was 148/94 when the morphine was administered impact the finding of the trial court?
Q3. What evidence would you argue in the nurse's defense regarding the care of this patient?
Q4. How would you decide this case?