...July 18, 2010 Professional Ethics Paper The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationships between legal and ethical issues, identify personal values and professional ethics, examine ethical theories and principles, and apply these to current practice examples. Nurses face an ever-growing complexity within their practice as professionals. Understanding the relationship between legal and ethical issues and how to apply that understanding to every day practice is paramount for today’s professional nurse. This paper will further explore these ethical theories and principles while discussing how personal values affect an individual’s nursing practice. The Relationship Between Legal and Ethical Issues Nurses, as with any job, face challenges in order to accomplish the tasks of their role. This is one of the reasons that it is important to have a description that serves as guidance as to how the role is to be accomplished. Without such guidelines, it is likely that there will be a breach of established rules along the way to performing duties and accomplishing the job duties. In situations where one person exercises authority over another, there are important guidelines that define relationship between the two parties. Legal and ethical principles define how a job is to be carried out and how individuals are to relate to one another. Legal and professional ethics define the liability of the person that is entrusted with accomplishing a certain task. They...
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...| Professional decision making | Bachelor of Nursing 02nd Batch | | Mariyam Ibrahim | S028677 | | Introduction This assignment is based on a scenario in which Dalaika a 69 year old terminally ill female who has been admitted in medical ward for one month. For her pain medication the physician ordered a placebo to be altered with a low-dose pain medication. Since it was a placebo her pain has not alleviated and she is in severe pain. She tells the nurse that her pain is unbearable. The nurse approaches the physician with her concerns but he did not agree to increase her pain medication or replace the placebo. Therefore, in this paper I will discuss the ways in which nursing in the Maldives protects the rights of the patient, relatives and nurses. Moreover, ethical and legal issues in this scenario will be discussed. Professional standards A standard is an expected and achievable level of performance against which actual performance can be compared. It is the minimum level of performance. Professional standards are written as guidelines. Such guidelines help assure patients that they are receiving high-quality care. The standards are important if a legal dispute arises over the quality of care provided a patient. The main target of setting professional standards is to reflect the values of the nursing profession, clarify what the profession expects of nurses. The primary purpose of professional standards is to promote, guide and direct professional practice...
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...Legal aspect of Nursing Nursing practice is ruled by many legal concepts. It is important for nurses to know the legal aspect of Nursing; because nurses are accountable for their professional judgments and actions. Accountability is a crucial concept of professional nursing practice and the Knowledge of laws that legalize and affect nursing practice is needed for two reasons: first to ensure that nurses’ decisions and actionsLegal aspect of Nursing Nursing practice is ruled by many legal concepts. It is important for nurses to know the legal aspect of Nursing; because nurses are accountable for their professional judgments and actions. Accountability is a crucial concept of professional nursing practice and the Knowledge of laws that legalize and affect nursing practice is needed for two reasons: first to ensure that nurses’ decisions and actions are consistent with legal principles and second to protect nurses from legal responsibility. What are the functions of law in nursing? The law serves a number of functions in nursing: it helps structure nursing actions in the care of clients are legal. It helps establish the boundaries of independent nursing action. It assists in maintaining a standard of nursing practice by making nurses accountable under the law. There are three sources of laws that affecting nurses: Federal Regulation, Criminal and Civil law and State law. Federal Regulations have a great impact on nursing practice for example The Health insurance portability and...
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...ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES OF Nursing Many confusing factors make it a task to establish, monitor and sustain ethical and legal issues in nursing. Everyone has various personal views based on experiences of life, religion, education and political affiliations, all nurses should be aware about nursing laws and ethics and understand how nursing legal issues can affect them. The American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics is very influential to nurses because it is used as a framework for making ethical decisions with all aspects of health care. The foundation in any successful professional practice, are based on ethics, values, morals and principles from which the ANA Code of Ethics are formatted. Moral leadership in nursing is about professionalism, responsibility, accountability, and competency. Nurses have an obligation to preserve their patient’s values, beliefs and dignity, to assure optimal health care, personal well- being, and promote quality of life. In all aspect of nursing, nurses are role models, healthcare providers, patient advocates and are required to meet the needs of their patients. Which can be done by communicating openly and honestly, being fair and trustworthy, being proactive, and by putting patients first. Nurses are face with ethical dilemmas on a daily basic therefore, must examine their own personal and professional values and morals in order to maintain a caring and compassionate relationship with their patients. When complex ethical...
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...Confidentiality in Nursing Introduction: This essay will give a brief definition regarding the principles of nursing practice, state why there are important to nursing practice. It will then explore confidentiality as a principle E of nursing practice, report why confidentiality is extremely important within nursing practice and will discuss the patient’s rights in relation to law. Relevant reference of published literature will be put forward in this essay to support the author statement. Main body: RCN (2010) states that the Principles of nursing practice “describe what everyone can expect from nursing practice, whether they are colleagues, patients, the families or carers of patients”. There are eight Principles of nursing practice such as; Principle A: “focuses on dignity, equality, diversity and humanity” Principle B: “focuses on ethical integrity, legal integrity, accountability and responsibility”. Principle C: “focuses on the safety of all people (patients, visitors and staff), the environment, organisational health and safety, management of risk, and clinical safety”. Principle D: “encompasses themes of advocacy, empowerment, patient-centred care, and patient involvement in their care”. Principle E: “focuses on communication, handling feedback, record keeping, reporting and monitoring”. Principle F: “focuses on evidence-based practice, technical skills, education, training and clinical reasoning”. Principle G: “encompasses themes of care...
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...ASN Program Description Mission and Goals Our Mission Trinity College of Nursing and Health Sciences provides a quality higher learning environment preparing competent practitioners for health-care professions. Continuous quality improvement guides the educational process as students prepare to deliver culturally congruent health care, perform as responsible citizens within the global community and seek avenues for life-long learning. Our Goals Program goals for each department in the College derive from the philosophy of the College and the domain competencies, as follows: Knowledge • ability to examine and explain phenomena • ability to construct and organize knowledge • ability to integrate and synthesize knowledge • ability to apply quantitative and qualitative concepts Proficiency • ability to solve practical problems • ability to collaborate with multiple disciplines • ability to communicate effectively • ability to practice competently and skillfully in a changing health-care environment Culture Care Values • ability to preserve/maintain cultural identities • ability to accommodate/negotiate diverse life ways • ability to re-pattern/restructure health-care delivery methods • ability to apply ethical and legal principles to health care The Associate of Science in Nursing Program (ASN) is a two-year program of study combining didactic and clinical nursing courses as well as general education courses. The Program...
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...QUESTION TWO: ADULT CASE STUDY, AN ETHICAL ISSUE OF CONSENT. This essay presents a critical incident analysis of a 70 years old man refusing to give consent to a life saving treatment. The essay will discuss its impact by discussing the conflict between professional and the patient’s issues. It will go on to explain the main professional issues in the scenario, breach of any NMC code of conduct and show how they relate to the guidelines set by Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). It will also highlight on the relevant underlying legal or ethical principles that applies to the case study and its implications. For instance, ethical principles, such as beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice, human rights and the best interests of the patient will be explored, in the light of relevant laws, in order to show some of the legal and ethical complexities within this case study, and finally draw a conclusion. For confidentiality purposes, have been changed in accordance to the NMC guidelines. The main professional issue reflected in this case study is the issue of consent. Consent, means to give permission for something to take place or to agree to do something (oxford dictionary 1998). This does not necessitate that, the actions approved have been developed or permission given in the knowledge of possible consequences known as informed consent has been achieved. This goes to show that, for medical purposes, although the patient has the right to refuse treatment, he has to also...
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...The legal aspects of nursing will directly affect how the patients are cared for by the nurse’s. As a licensed nurse, it is very important that you know the legal concepts of your chosen profession. Since the nursing profession was the one decided on then you are held accountable for your actions. Accountability is extremely important in the nursing practice as well as the law. (Berman, 2012) Currently there are two reasons that knowledge of laws is important in the nursing practice. The reasons are to ensure nurses decisions and actions are current with legal principles and protect the nurse from liability. (Snyder, 2012) There are several classification types of the law. One of the primary types of law is public law. Public law deals...
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...An Ethical Analysis of Negligence In this paper, the author will describe the main differences among negligence, gross negligence, and malpractice in the medical field. In addition, the author will explain his opinion about this article and the facts described in it as well as the rationale used to form this opinion. Furthermore, the author will describe the importance of documentation in the medical field as well as how nurses should document when providing care while complying with legal and ethical requirements. Unintentional torts are the most common torts in the medical field. Torts are acts occurred without the tortfeasor intention to cause harm; however, some type of harm results from it. Torts are also actions committed unreasonably or disregarding the consequences, in legal terms this represents negligence (Judson & Harrison, 2010). According to Judson and Harrison (2010), negligence is an unintentional tort and a person is negligent when in similar circumstances he or she did not performed as expected from a reasonable person (Judson & Harrison, 2010). Defining gross negligence is a more complicated issue. According to Thornton (2006) the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code defines gross negligence as an act of omission that when viewed from the position of the actor at the time the omission occurred it shows a significant degree of risk and possible harm to others (Thornton, 2006). In addition, the actor is aware of the risks but proceeds disregarding the rights...
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...Introduction Nursing is a call to serve the humanity. Present day healthcare system focused on preventive care and wellness has become highly advanced which makes every nurse responsible to achieve maximum level of education, skills and power of knowledge to meet the challenges. Continuous research in nursing and the evidence obtained from the research serves to support the nursing care. Continuing education helps nurses to keep track of all the developments taking place in the field, trace advances in technology and care, have a better understanding of all current rules and regulations, beware of all ethical and legal aspects of nursing as envisaged by various boards of nursing and other authorities in the field of healthcare. In this paper, I would like to explain the position statement of career development in nursing. It is only through proper and continued education that nurses can provide patients better care, assess and report what is best for the patient and always seek ways to improve patient outcome. In order to achieve the best results, nurses need to identify the core knowledge, scientific principles, skills and attitudes of nursing practice to improve healthcare system (International Council of Nurses, 2007). Therefore career development must be achieved by integrating care through our scholastic system, giving nurses opportunity to learn, grow and move up the ladder, making them capable of leading from the forefront. Career Development in Nursing Ever changing...
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...relationship among professional values, ethics, and legal issues. A person’s personal values and ethics can influence their professional values and ethics in the workplace. Finding the right balance between personal and professional views in the workplace will help foster a successful career. This paper will cover relationships between legal and ethical issues as well as personal values and professional ethics. Relationships between Legal and Ethical Issues According to Wacker-Guido & Watson (2010), there are eight ethical principles that nurses encounter when making decisions in clinical settings, autonomy, beneficence, no maleficence, veracity, justice, paternalism, fidelity, and respect or others. In other terms nurses have personal freedom, the right of self-determination, a duty to perform good actions, duty to prevent any harm for occurring to their patients, the obligation to tell the truth, treat all patients equally and fairly, allow others to make decisions for individual patients, keep promises and commitments they make, and to treat everyone with respect. Ethical values are influenced by personal feelings, and are interpreted differently depending on the beliefs of the individual. The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia defines the code of ethics for nurses as follows: The code of ethics for nurses was developed as a guide for carrying out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality on nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession...
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...by a colleague to prescribe for a patient on her behalf. In my role as a vascular clinical nurse specialist, I run nurse led clinics working alongside other nonprescribing colleagues seeing patients with peripheral vascular disease, this can range from patients with leg ulcers or diabetic foot ulceration with wound infections to patients with intermittent claudication, Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm or varicose veins, all of whom may or may not need medications or wound management treatments prescribed. It is very likely that during these clinics once I qualify as a non-medical prescriber I will be asked the same. In this essay I will explore the issues of law, accountability and ethics raised by prescribing on behalf of others. The legal system of England and Wales has two branches of law; criminal and civil Criminal Law: Statues are acts of parliament which are presented via the House of Commons moves to the House of Lords where amendments are made, returns to House of Commons, for final discussion when complete the Bill is given Royal Assent and passes into law. Criminal law involves offences against the state, it is usually the Crown that brings the action against the defendant (Gagan 2010 cited by Courtnay & Griffin). In terms of non-medical prescribing there are two important statues The Medicines Act 1968 this regulates the licensing, supply and administration of medicines. The misuse of drugs Act 1971 this is a provision with respect to dangerous or otherwise...
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...CODE OF ETHICS FOR NURSES WHEREAS, the Board of Nursing (BON) has the power to promulgate a Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses in coordination and consultation with the accredited professional organization (Sec. 9, (g), Art III of (Republic Act) No. 9173, known as the “Philippine Nursing Act of 2002); WHEREAS, in the formulation of the Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses, the Code of Good Governance for the Professions in the Philippines was utilized as the principal basis thereof: All the principles under the said Code were adopted and integrated into the Code of Ethics as they apply to the nursing profession; WHEREAS, the promulgation of the said Code as a set of guidelines, regulations or measures shall be subject to approval by the Commission (Sec. 9, Art. II of R.A. No. 9173); and WHEREAS, the Board, after consultation on October 23, 2003 at Iloilo City with the accredited professional organization of registered nurses, the Philippine Nurses Association, Inc. (PNA), and other affiliate organizations of Registered Nurses, decided to adopt a new Code of Ethics under the afore-mentioned new law; NOW, THERFORE, the Board hereby resolved, as it now resolves, to promulgate the hereunder Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses: ARTICLE I PREAMBLE SECTION 1. Health is a fundamental right of every individual. The Filipino registered nurse, believing in the worth and dignity of each human being, recognizes the primary responsibility to preserve health at all cost. This responsibility...
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...Professional EThics Professional Ethics Legal and ethical issues are frequently encountered in the health care setting and present unique challenges to health care professionals. Practicing nurses need to be knowledgeable with these concepts to ensure patient’s rights. In this paper, the author will describe the relationships between legal and ethical issues. In addition, the author will identify personal values and professional ethics and examine ethical theories and principles. Examples of applications of legal and ethical issues to current practice will also be provided. Relationships Between Legal and Ethical Issues “Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with evaluating human action” (Guido, 2010, p. 3). It is based on the principles of right and wrong and provides structure to behaviors and actions. Ethics are closely intertwined with morals and values. Morals are “personal principles that are acquired from life experiences, family and peer relationships, religion, culture, and the law” (Guido, 2010, p. 3). Values are “personal beliefs about the truths and worth of thoughts, objects, or behavior” (Guido, 2010, p. 3). Therefore, ethics are subject to an individual’s personal interpretation. In contrast, laws are rules and regulations established by some authority and enforced by judicial decision (Dictionary.com, 2011). The legal system governs actions and behaviors without regard to personal values, beliefs, and views. Laws are constantly evolving to...
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...Abstract Nursing is a profession focused on assisting individuals, families, and communities in attaining, maintaining, and recovering optimal health and functioning. Modern definitions of nursing define it as a science and an art that focuses on promoting quality of life as defined by persons and families, throughout their life experiences from birth to care at the end of life. In nursing, ethical issues arise daily. There are issues such as death, dying, birth, abortion, genetics, quality of life, and general human rights. The legal system and ethical system overlap in most situations. Every patient contact can produce a legal or ethical situation. Nursing Ethics According to Aiken (2004) “Ethics is the discipline that deals with rightness and wrongness of actions”. The goal is similar to that of the legal system except that in most cases there is no system of enforcement or ethical penalties. “General ethics is the consideration of the morality of human acts in general”. (Fitzpatrick 2002) The Nursing Code of Ethics began in 1893 with the "Nightingale Pledge" which was patterned after the Hippocratic Oath in medicine, and is understood as the first code of nursing ethics. Nursing ethics is a branch of applied ethics that concerns itself with activities in the field of nursing. Nursing ethics shares many principles with medical ethics, such as beneficence, non- maleficence and respect for autonomy. It can be distinguished by its emphasis...
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