Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing Diane Eckert, Christen Rosa, Gary Pagdilao, Melissa Mendoza Nurs 391 April 20, 2015 Willie Goodwin Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing The nurse plays an important role in the safety and well-being of the sick and vulnerable. In two different cases, one involving the care of the unresponsive patient without advanced directives and the second involves the nurse observing negligent behavior by another nurse. The nurse is responsible not only ethically but legally for the care of the patient. The American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics serves to protect the welfare of the sick, injured and helpless. Nurses are relied upon to advocate for our patients dignity, privacy, confidentiality, improper and incompetent care.
Benson as negligence. Keeping in mind the definitions of negligence, gross-negligence and malpractice, I would have to argue that Mr. Benson’s case is one of malpractice. The defining fact that Mr. Benson was injured at the hands of a medical professional makes this an issue of malpractice rather than negligence. Mr. Benson’s injury was a direct result of a medical professional failing to act in “accordance with the prevailing professional standards” (Guido, p.93). The circumstances surrounding how the incorrect extremity was amputated was not clearly identified, but the doctrine of res ipsa loquitor – “the thing speaks for itself” – can be applied in this instance (Guido, 2010).
Benson is a case of malpractice. “Malpractice, as distinct from the type of error that is the focus of the Institute of Medicine’s report implies a greater degree of individual culpability. Examples might include the physician who ignores the procedures in place to protect patients from error such as the time out to confirm that the patient about to undergo a procedure is, in fact, the patient scheduled for the procedure” (Zientek, 2010). This is malpractice because there was a duty owed to the patient to amputate the left leg. The breach of duty was the failure to amputate the correct limb.
Kaplan University Different forms of Patient Consent “The Standard of Care refers to the degree of attentiveness, caution and prudence that a reasonable person in the circumstances would exercise. Failure to meet the standard is negligence, and the person who fails to meet the standard is liable for any damages caused by such negligence” (Standard of Care Law & Legal Definition) (2014). In Sandra’s case the appropriate Standard of Care is determined by her symptoms and mental state of mind. The correct Standard of Care is also taken into consideration in ways that other experts would agree most appropriate in her situation. If something was to happen and it lead to a malpractice lawsuit the lawyer of the physician would want to prove
Informal Leadership in Nursing Western Governors University RKOT 1 Task 2 Informal Leadership in Nursing Nurses are leaders even when not in a formal position such as in administration or nursing management. There are two areas where nurses lead; as a role model and a problem solver. A role model is able to demonstrate correct actions professionally to peers and other interdisciplinary co-workers. The correct actions reflected may not have been within the nurses comfort level, such as remaining calm while someone else may be addressing them irately. However, a professional nurse instead of reacting emotionally remains calm; exemplifying control in a charged situation.
It is the failure to meet a standard of care or standard of conduct that is recognized by a profession reaches the level of malpractice when a client or patient is injured or damaged because of error. Medical malpractice is professional negligence by act or omission by a health care provider in which the treatment provided falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error. It usually involves an alleged tort of negligence (states the party who acted wrongfully is liable for damages to the injured party). Criminal negligence is the failure to use reasonable care to avoid consequences that threaten or harm the safety of the public and that are the foreseeable outcome of acting in a particular manner. Unlike the tort of Negligence, a person who is convicted of criminal negligence is subject to a fine, imprisonment, or both, because of the status of the conduct as a
This causes a potential loss of business from the patient and whoever the patient tells about the incident. Before long, the hospital will have a bad reputation in the community’s eyes. This is never a good thing for any health care team member involved. Depending on the severity of the breach, it’s also possible that someone can lose their medical license on top of being fined. A health care team must learn to obey the rules and regulations of the HIPAA Privacy
They believe that it would be better if nurses only practice under the guidance and supervision of the doctor. They believe that allowing them to practice independently would be detrimental to their patients (Mills, 2009). They would be prone to some misdiagnosis, failure to attend to less obvious, but potentially life-threatening problems as well as prescriptive errors. In fact, they maintained that many deaths in the hospital would be realized due to errors made in prescriptions. According to them, nurses however much trained and experienced lack skills to manage and deal with complex living with multi-system diseases.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE AND REPORT UNSAFE PRACTICES Unsafe practices are anything that would threaten the personal safety of another person whether if it is due to physical, emotional or psychological means. An employee or staff has the obligation to take care of himself and his client’s safety and cooperate with the management in safety practices. Samples of unsafe practices in health and social care are: • Lack of training and supervision • Negligence to provide personal care • Unsafe recruitment practices • Inappropriate physical restraint • Using abusive words or sexually explicit languages • Ignoring client’s health and social needs (personal hygiene care) • Misuse or mishandling of client’s belongings and finances • Inappropriate sharing of information regarding client’s state of health • Confusion over prescribing and administering of medication • Lack of awareness of infection control • Lack of fire safety knowledge and evacuation procedures • Improper disposal of clinical and chemical waste • Lack of knowledge in moving and handling • Food safety awareness and poor hand hygiene techniques • Misuse of hoist and other equipments It is the obligation and a responsibility of everyone to report any unsafe practices that have been identified to the supervisor or line manager, so that staffs can be retrained and accidents that may cause injuries and damages will be avoided, falling to do so means encouraging them that it is the right thing to do. This could also mean grounds for disciplinary actions, suspension and even dismissal for staffs who doesn’t report unsafe practices. Follow the whistle-blowing procedure and policies.
The tort of negligence is a term that escapes complete definition. Torts of negligence are breaches of duty that results to injury to another person to whom the duty breached is owed. Like all other torts, the requirements for this are duty, breach of duty by the defendant, causation and injury. It includes carelessness and lack of foresight; however the significance of negligence in tort is much broader. In law, it is defined as the “omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do.” (Alderson, 1856) [Blyth v Birmingham Waterworks Co.] [1856] in this essay I will discuss the essential ingredients that make up the tort of negligence.