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.
This type of rate change is called titration. Understanding the medication that is being ordered and the dosage that this drug is routinely given in is key to assuring that the patient is getting the proper dose of medication. • Transcription Errors: Being able to read a physicians writing is sometimes a difficult task, get clarity if uncertain about what has actually been written. If taking a verbal or phone order, a "read-back" system can be instituted in which the nurse who is taking the order, writes down the verbal order and reads it back to the prescribing physician. Once it is read back to the physician and both parties are in agreement, the order can then be processed.
According to Garity (2005), “The nurse’s ability to collaborate with patients, families, and multi/ intra-disciplinary health care professionals in the successful resolution of such dilemmas can affect the quality of health care” (p. 11). The nurse has an ethical obligation to give every patient the same level of compassion, care, and respect regardless of the nature of the illness (Chitty & Black, 2010). Whether or not the nurse agrees or disagrees with the decision that Marianne’s family has decided on, the nurse must ethically abide by the family’s wishes and provide the highest quality of care for her. The nurse’s highest level of commitments is for Marianne at that point. Although competing demands of patient, family, and physician have risen, the nurse’s first priority is always providing care that ensures patient safety and protects the best welfare of the patient.
Running head: IMPROVING QUALITY PATIENT CARE AND SAFETY Improving Quality Patient Care and Safety Betty Miller Western Governors University RTT1 Task 1 Improving Quality Patient Care and Safety The American Nurses Association developed nursing-sensitive indicators for the purpose of improving quality patient care and safety. Nursing-sensitive indicators are the patient outcomes that have been clinically researched and proven to be directly linked to nursing care. Nursing-sensitive indicators are based upon the organization of care, nursing care process and results of patient focused outcomes. The organization or structure of nursing care is reflected by the quantity and quality of nursing staff. The structure indicators are related to nursing staff characteristics such as the skill mix, experience, certification and education of the nurses.
Safety in Nursing. Safety in Nursing According to Gordon, Darbyshire, and Baker (2012), “Extensive work in high-stakes industries has demonstrated that improving safety is not just about enhancing knowledge or skills, but also concerns the addressing of human factors and poor performance of non-technical skills that can lead to errors.” Safety has and will continue to play a vital role in nursing. It does not apply to only the patients, but also the nurses. This paper will address different safety techniques and how it affects the patients and their care-givers. Safety Techniques Nurses need to know and apply proper hand washing techniques, wear gloves during patient care, and use anti-bacterial hand lotion or soap.
Professional Roles & Values--Task 3 It is imperative that the FNP recognize her role to better meet the needs of the client. The nurse should meet with the FNP to explain the resources that are available at the clinic (ie: other staff members) During the meeting with the FNP the nurse should have policies on hand that have specifics of what the FNP should do in certain situations (ie: when to refer the patient to the high-risk clinic). The FNP needs to understand that while she is concerned about the patient it is her obligation to ensure the patient receives safe, quality care. When delegating the nurse is still accountable and responsible for the nursing practice. The nurse should ensure that when they delegate the person they are delegating to is competent enough for the task.
Nursing Strategies and Recommendations to Prevent Falls and Trauma There are a lot of things a nurse can do to prevent falls and trauma, after all it is a nurse’s job to help the patient feel and get better. Preventing a fall can be simple if all rules and regulations are followed accordingly to the hospital or location
Communication Style Regina Haney, Ann Crane, Farida Biobaku, Kendall Larsen HCS/ 350 July 11, 2011 Randall Webb Communication Style Effective communication in healthcare is essential to deliver good patient care. When delegating tasks to co-workers, one needs to be clear and precise. When people have a full understanding of what their job is, they will perform better and patients will get better outcomes. Without effective communication we are setting up our fellow co-workers for failure and our patients as well. Effective communication is necessary to convey the importance of instructions and task to co-workers so they can fully understand the importance of their task and the steps necessary to manage the task.
For example, I can delegate the task of emptying a catheter to a nursing assistant instead of having the nurse do it. Identifying the ability and skill is important as well. I will not be able to delegate a task of inserting an intravenous line if the nurse does not have training on it. To choose the right person we also need to consider the personality, reliability, and commitment because it can make the tasks of delegation easier. If a person is committed and reliable, then we know that the task will be done.
| If the patient has to take more than one type of medication at the same time; they will get confused if the Doctor hasn’t clearly explained how they should take it. | This can be related to Argyle’s Stages of Communication because the patient needs to trust the doctor to know what he or she wants them to do. | Improves level of care for everyone | More than one nurse taking care of a patient at a hospital or in an elderly people’s home. | If they don’t communicate with each other than they may end up repeating things or the patient won’t trust the nurses. | This can be related to Tuckman’s theory of Group Interaction because the Nurses have to work together so that they can provide the best care for that patient