Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing In nursing profession, The America Nursing Associate (ANA) Code of Ethic acts as a backbone to guide health care team to look deep into all different angle when making ethical decision. The Code of Ethic was created to assist nurses to preserve his or her professional principle of values, morals and ethical when caring for patients. Every nurses have a duty to protect and respect all patients' cultural belief, values, and dignity. Moral and ethical principles are the cord to direct any ethical decision making. It is a path to the open road for nurses to gain critical thinking, differ aspect of life.
Case study for Six Caps The nurse has an important role as a patient advocate. The patient’s family needs to make a decision regarding the care of Marianne. The nurse’s role as being the patient advocate for Marianne is to assist the family with the ethical decision by either assembling the ethics committee or performing a role on the committee. The functions of the ethics committee includes: policy and procedure development; educate committee members about competencies regarding health care ethics; education of hospital staff regarding ethical policies and procedures; develop an ethics team to be consulted on cases within the hospital and monitor the outcome of the decisions made on each case. The ethics committee may use the following two ethical principles to make the decision regarding Marianne’s proposed surgery.
After reviewing each specific case study, the team will examine the fundamental legal aspects, the legal responsibilities of nurses in the work setting, how personal and societal values can influence ethical decision making, and how the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics would influence a final decision in each case study. The fundamental aspects of each case must be understood to make a decision. In the case of a potential end-of-life decision, there are multiple family members with conflicting views trying to make a decision on behalf of a 79 –year old female who has suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and is in an unresponsive state on a ventilator. There is no advanced directive or durable power of attorney. In the case of malpractice, a nurse has been called as a witness to testify against a fellow colleague who performed negligent patient care resulting in harm.
Registered nurses are in a position to advocate for the rights of their patients and are often involved in ethical decision-making processes. Ethical decisions arise when the nurse is faced with a choice, in which he or she believes there is the potential for a bad or good outcome. In the case of Marianne the ethics committee will have to weigh the physician’s recommendation of surgery to remove the clot, her husband’s desire to “try everything” and her children’s belief that she would not want to have surgery only to live with a poor quality of life. In a malpractice case it is essential to remember the ANA Code of Ethics. According to “Code of Ethics” (2007), the second provision states, “The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, or community” (ANA, 2001, p. 18).
Henry is not so convinced and as the procedure looms closer he asks his nurse to help him make a decision on whether or not to go ahead with the procedure. The conclusion will involve how the nurse negotiates with Henry and what outcomes will be possible for Henry and his daughter. It is the responsibility of the nurse and multi-disciplinary teams to identify and protect vulnerable patients. Defining what is vulnerable is very difficult; The Department of Health (DOH ) describe a vulnerable adult as “a person aged 18 years and over, who is in receipt of or may be
30. I am sure that if the daughter of the patient was really upset, I would in my opinion try to calm her down as much as possible. Talking with her, giving her some reassurance about the treatment plan and rights her mother has to make her own
Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing The nurse has a unique ability to follow a specific and a general code of ethical decision-making while caring for the most vulnerable of patients. The nurse must navigate public health law, educational law, and his or her institutional policies while keeping his or her own personal beliefs from controlling what is best for the patient. Ethics are “the principles of conduct governing one’s relationships with others-basic beliefs of right and wrong…. Law is the minimum ethic, written down and enforced.” (Ellis& Hartley, 2008, p. 288) The registered professional nurse must use resources to assist her, including the ANA Code of Ethics and the state’s nurse practice act. A final influence in the case of both of these cases, as with case one, Marianne could not make her decisions, as a patient advocate, the code ethics states in provision 1.3, “The nurse respects the dignity and rights of all human beings irrespective of the nature of the health problem.
Where clearly has brought a difficult situation to the healthcare team of the hospital raising ethical and legal issues in all aspects due to the fact that the parents of the pregnant teen have refused any assistance and the nurse assigned has complied silently. This scenario compromises patient safety and puts the minor and child in medical danger. Not only are the lives of the minor and the teen in danger but also it raises an ethical issue of the hospital and patients’ rights. It would make sense to attempt to provide all medical attention necessary to promote patient safety for the sake of the minor and unborn child but also it is important to evaluate the legal liability of the hospital to determine if the parents have all the rights and responsibility in decision making for their daughter. Therefore, treating all patients fairly is an ethical duty of the hospital and staff with respect to values and beliefs.
This essay is written to identify the ethical and legal principle that underpins the notion of care in health practice significantly nursing practice. It gives a broad understanding of the legal, professional and statutory code of conduct that affect health and social care practice. It is to give awareness to the legal and ethical influence on health and social care practice by focusing on the legal and ethical issues of an adult case study. This essay will examine the case study and highlight main areas of concern namely consent, autonomy and communication. The principles used in ethical decision-making and the Nursing and Midwifery code of professional conduct will also be discussed.
Professional Ethics Paper Margaret Simon HCS/478 Health Law and Ethics April 15, 2014 Ann-Marie Peckham Professional Ethics Paper The purpose of this paper is to discuss professional ethics, examine the relationship between laws, ethics, and discuss different ethical theories and principles. Furthermore to discuss how these theories and principles are applied in daily practice. As nurses we are confronted with ethical issues on a daily basis, unfortunately the ethical decision may not always correlate with the laws at hand. It is important a nurse to study and understand the relationship between law and ethics, so to provide the best possible care to patients, while abiding by their moral and values. According to Judson and Harrison (2010), two reasons to study law and ethics is to help health care professionals function in the highest capacity, while providing competent, compassionate care to patients, and to prevent legal issues that can end your profession (p. 3).