Legal and Ethical responsibilities in nursing

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Nurses are driven by, and are subject to a vast array of legal and ethical responsibilities. These responsibilities are far too numerous to discuss in great depth within this essay. The nurse has to take into consideration, the legal, ethical, moral and cultural implications of any decisions made as well due to the cultural diversity of patients. Nurses are faced with working in a society that many people have called a “sue happy” society. This fear of being sued can have an impact on the interventions or decisions made by nurses. These fears can also lead to legal issues resulting from “in-action” or apprehension and fear of being sued. Many nurses decide not to do something, (which maybe they should have done), because of the fear of being sued. Only to wind up being sued anyways for not doing whatever it was. Legal responsibilities and interpretations of the laws governing the actions of the nurse are ever changing, and are an area that leads many nurses to question their own ethics because of the fear of lawsuits. Nurses usually approach the ethical responsibility of nursing with great drive and passion rather than apprehension. Because of the cultural differences and beliefs in America there are also vast differences in individual ethics. None of these are necessarily right or wrong, they are just different. The duties of the nurse are first and foremost, to be a patient advocate and to ensure that the patient has the best possible quality of life, and maintains the most dignity and individuality possible. Often nurses face the dilemma of right and wrong during the decision making process, when a patients requests (or patient’s family requests) and cultural beliefs are in direct conflict with the nurses own ethics, beliefs, facility rules and the laws governing nurses. The nurse thus has to deal with the legal and ethical decision of what to do and is

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