Azusa Pacific University | Nurses Code of Ethics | Ethical Distress Adhering to Provision 1 | | Falahyah K. Mokhtar | 6/10/2013 | The face of nursing has changed. Time has seen nursing practice evolve with the social context and the ethical challenges that come with it. This position paper will illustrate that provision 1 of the American Nurses Association’s (ANA) Code of Ethics for the practice of “compassion and respect” for all human lives regardless of background and situation brings about ethical distress for a nurse due to three conflicting issues: adherence to ANA provision 5, the big business of health care, and the prevalence of law overriding nursing practice. Today’s nurse is faced with the daunting task of coping with multiple layers of ethical distress in adhering to provision 1 in the midst of these three conflicts. A nurse is not perfect.
The Legal and Professional Implications of an incident witnessed during clinical placement. This paper highlights an incident that occurred during a clinical placement. It will also address any legal or professional issues that surround it. Any details of the patient or institution have been withheld to maintain confidentiality. This is in line with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Standards of Conduct Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwifes (2008).
In this case there was a breach of trust, confidentiality and the Code of Conduct for the Nursing Profession. Conduct and Ethics play an important role in Nursing, they are separate action guidelines from the law itself. Ethics are moral principles governing relationships between patient and nurse. Conduct is a manner in which a person behaves while acting in a professional capacity. Nurses must have an understanding of ethics and conduct in order to remain professional and subsequently make the correct choice for a particular scenario.
What are the princicples underpinning ‘Duty of Care” and the associated legal requirements? Duty of care requires everything reasonably practicable to be done to protect the health and saftely of others at the workplace. A nurse has a duty of care to prevent harm to a patient he/she is nursing. The amount of care the nurse is required to take to ensure no harm to the patient by his/her actions or omissions depends on a number of factors. Factors may include - -The magnitude of the potential harm -The extent to which it was foreseeable -How much you could objectively be expected to take care to prevent the harm.
DELEGATION A registered nurse (RN) has many responsibilities. One of the most important is delegation. The RN has the authority to delegate certain tasks in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their patients. Delegating tasks to others allows more time for the RN to focus on more critical aspects of patient care that only a RN can perform. Delegation is transferring a task from one person to another making them responsible for the task but the RN is still accountable for the outcome of that particular task.
Nursing Liability in Critical Care Settings Robin M. Rostock University of Phoenix Health Law and Ethics HCS/478 Debrah Archer March 05, 2011 Nursing Liability in Critical Care Settings Litigation in critical care is a question of when, not if. This reality makes it even more important to understand how nurses expose themselves daily to lawsuits and how they may prevent or limit their liability. Charge nurses found liable for the actions of reassigned nursing personnel when delegating assignments is always a risk. Many of the tools used by the critical care nurse to expedite care such as standing orders do not offer the protection that one might expect in a lawsuit. Administrative policies may be incomplete in their definitions, leaving them open to court determination.
Mental health nursing is a unique field, under constant scrutiny, perhaps because of the misunderstanding of its science or the misconception about the community it serves. This scrutiny has provided mental health nursing with the opportunity to examine its practice of restraint use and through its history constantly improve its practices. Ethics in nursing is a constantly studied area. The American Nurses Association code of ethics requires that the nurse provide care that is respectful of the dignity and individuality of each patient. Underlining this concept are the nursing ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence (Taxis, 2002, p.158).
Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing NUR/391 February 3, 2014 Patricia Shaw Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing Nurses today face many ethical dilemmas in the delivery of patient care. What can or should be done for the patient versus the wishes of the patient’s physician conflicting with the personal beliefs the nurse holds to be true. The client’s wishes may conflict with the institutional policies, physician professional opinion, the client’s family desires, or even the laws of the state. According to the nursing code of ethics, the nurse’s first allegiance is to the client (Blais & Hayes, 2011, pg. 60).
Nurse Advocacy Steele (AnnMarie) Public Policy and Issues in Health Care Abstract In the ever changing world of healthcare, it is of upmost importance nurses today become involved in the policy process at the legislative level. To protect the profession of nursing, the rights of the patient, and to provide quality care at the bedside we must have our voices heard. The problem with this, more often than not, is nurses are not prepared to speak out in such a public venue, nor are they versed in the legislative process. The Missouri Nurses Association provided a day of learning titled Nurse Advocacy Day, in which the focus was to provide a basic knowledge to several hundred nurses who attended, the who, what, why, and how nurses should
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 issues involving health care arise, the Ethics Committee may be needed for additional resources to aid the patient and family. The Ethics Committee is made up of multidisciplinary groups drawn from the institution and the local community. It is important for nurses to know how to deal with ethical decisions so that patient rights and values are honored without compromising their own moral values. Nurses should respect