Ethical Dilemmas: The Missouri State Board Of Nursing

between two sets of human values, both of which are judged to be “good” but neither of

Ethics plays a very important role in the healthcare setting, especially when minors are involved. There are several factors and outliers that affect the decision making process as well as the quality of patient care. A major dilemma nurses face is confidentially, especially when parents or guardians have certain legal rights over the minors that limit their choices. All patients whether they are minors should still be able to expect confidentiality. The argument is whether or not teens are able to make these difficult medical decisions alone and whether they understand what’s going on, the procedure process, and all the risks and consequences involved. The ethical dilemmas that many nurses face with teen pregnancies are confidentiality, informed consent, and competence. Nurses face whether or not to

Ethical issues have always affected the role of the professional nurse. Efforts to enact this standard may cause conflict in health care settings in which the traditional roles of the nurse are delineated within a bureaucratic structure. Nurses have more direct contact with patients than one can even imagine, which plays a huge role in protecting the patients’ rights, and creating ethical issues for the nurses caring for the various patients they are assigned to. In this paper I will discuss some of the ethical and legal issues that nurses are faced with each and every day.

The decision made by the Virginia Board of Nursing concluded with an indefinite suspension of her license until a monitoring rehabilitation program has been completed. The Health Care Practitioners Program will be customized for the specific criteria that the defendant needs. If the defendant does not complete all parts of the program, she will have to come before the board to discuss the issue. The defendant stated during the hearing that she “does not trust herself around narcotics and needles.” Therefore, the board decided that she will not be able to work in a setting where she has access to either of those. The rest of the details of her implications are to be determined as a later time.

is a nurse practicing in Missouri that has, already, previously been placed on probation for testing positive for heroin. She has recently had a relapse in her recovery and is fighting to get her license back so she can practice nursing. The state board has already given her one chance and she was practicing in Missouri. She has been sober for nearly 3 years and has taken suboxone the entire time of her sobriety to help with withdrawal. E.M. hates that she has a dependency on the suboxone and wanted very badly to wean herself off of it. She spoke with her physician about this matter and her physician strongly suggested that she not be taken completely off her prescription of suboxone. Her physician lowered her dose and she began taking a lower dose. After time passed, E.M. felt like she had things under control and she completely stopped taking her prescription. E.M. went under some stress at her job and ended up leaving the facility she was working at. She knew that one of her old co-workers had access to heroin and after running into him at a local store, she started abusing again. Beginning at the time of her first time being placed on probation E.M. has been required to provide urine samples at randomly selected intervals. During her time of remission, when she was abusing, she failed to call and leave urine samples. At this time, E.M. explained that she was focusing on bettering herself and working on her sobriety. I feel that E.M. was very sincere and was accountable for her actions. She truthfully took responsibility for her wrongful actions. E.M. stated that she now realizes that her heroin addiction is a lifelong addiction that will always be knocking at her door and she cannot stop taking suboxone. The board questioned her and wanted to make sure she did not have plans of going against her physician’s orders again. E.M. was in tears almost the entire time she was explaining her actions to the members of the board and I feel like they were true

Ellen Hughes Finnerty, a registered nurse, was found guilty of negligence and incompetence, and was consequently disciplined by the Board of Registered Nursing. Accordingly, Finnerty’s license was revoked, and she was placed on a three-year probation. The following timeline gives a detailed summary of events that led to the conclusion of nursing negligence and incompetence on the part of Finnerty (NDC Learning House, 2015).

Ms. Webster is a 28 year old female who presented to the ED via LEO under IVC by her mother for suicidal ideation and alcohol dependence. Ms. Webster denies allegations to nursing staff. Per documentation she appears intoxicated. Per documentation Ms. Webster states, "Going through withdrawals". Before assessment this clinician spoke with nursing staff about Ms. Webster, they reports she has been asking for Ativan since she has been placed in her room. They reports she informed them that she had not consumed any alcohol today. At the time of the assessment Ms. Webster is found sitting upright in her room. Ms. Webster reports she had a plan to hang herself. She states, " you know I have to say that to get into detox." Ms. Webster reports alcohol abuse as primary stressor contributing to her distress. She denies depressive symptoms. Ms. Webster states,

#1. According to Nursing Leadership and management ATI ethics is defined as an expected behavior of a certain group in relation to what is considered right or wrong. (Henery, McMichael, Johnson, DiStasi, Ball, & Holman, 2016) There are six ethical principles they are autonomy which is the ability of the client to make personal decisions, even when those decisions might not be in the client’s own best interest. The second principle is beneficence which is care in the best interest of the client. Third is fidelity which is keeping ones promise to the client about care that was offered. The next principle is justice which is fair treatment in matters related to physical and psychological care and use of resources. Then there is non-maleficence which is the nurse’s obligation to avoid causing harm to the client. The last principle is veracity which is the nurse’s duty to tell the truth. (Henery, McMichael, Johnson, DiStasi, Ball, & Holman, 2016)

On November 19, 2015, we attended the disciplinary hearings at the Missouri State Board of Nursing. The first case we heard was that of T. O., who had violated the terms of her settlement agreement with the State Board that took effect back in June. Originally disciplined for being under the influence and testing positive for benzodiazepines and opiates, she failed to call the third party administrator of her random drug screens daily on several occasions. She also tested positive for oxazepam on at least one occasion.

On 04/28/15 Jane Doe 23 year old rape victim was processed into the Jax Correctional Facility at 6 weeks pregnant. Information was revealed that she was on medication for an abortion completion, Jane Doe had taken two of the three pills prescribed; she would require the permission to continue her treatment while incarcerated to take the last pill in the regimen. Explained to patient all medications had to be verified and approved by the Family Nurse practitioner (FNP) prior to administration. FNP was informed of the patient’s health status with a need to continue medication while incarcerated, the FNP chose not to participate with the administration of medication for the health condition of this patient.

In 2006, Tina’s nursing license was suspended because of marijuana positively showing up on a routine drug screen report. Tina was also placed into SC Recovering Professional Program (RPP) and placed on probation for one year. After her recovery program she was discharged and there was no diagnosis of abuse or dependency. Tina was able to return to work and continue practicing. In 2008, a claim was filed on numerous counts of documentation errors on Tina’s behalf. All of which involved narcotics. At this time her probation period was extended for another year until further investigation. The

Nurses face ethical decisions frequently when giving patient care. These dilemmas can result from deciding how to allocate resources such as time or materials. Caring for patients from diverse backgrounds complicates decision-making when faced with dilemmas, because organizations that depend on standards of patient care that may not by culturally congruent. In these situations, the nurse must consider the patient’s beliefs and values along with the organization’s care expectations and bridge the gap between the two (Andrews and Boyle, 2016-a). In this post, I will describe ethical dilemmas with the current state of population health and health disparities, discuss the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, and explain how social justice

In order to become a nurse I think it is important to be a virtuous person, because many situations will arise when working as a healthcare professional and nurses should be able to know what they find is morally the right thing to do. Everyone does not have the same definition of morality, since everyone is different and has a right to their opinion, but in regards to nursing, morality should be kept at a constant. Morals are hard to define and do not contain the same meaning to everyone, but as nurses we need to do what we think is the best for the patient. The four cardinal virtues include temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice, which are integrated frequently in the healthcare profession, especially at a Catholic institution. Being virtuous is what makes a nurse unique among other roles of professionalism.

The demand for nursing is increasing and rising each and every single day with an increase in the birth rate and the aging population. Unfortunately, the supply of efficient and skilled nurses is unable to meet their demand thus leading to overworking and overstretching of the available nurses. Nurses constitute the highest percentage of the employees in the health care industry, but this percentage is unable to satisfy the ever-growing number of healthcare work fully. Notably, ethical issues in nursing are one of the hottest topics in the globe today. Nurses face many difficulties and challenges in their bid to protect and optimize health and abilities, prevent illness and injuries and facilitate healing.

Ethical, Bioethical, and Legal Issues in Nursing Chio Thung Arizona State University  Ethical, Bioethical, and Legal Issues in Nursing Ethical, bioethical, and legal issues are all concerns that affect professional nursing practice. Nurses should be aware about why and how these issues affect their profession. A case scenario that questions these boundaries is a homeless person without any health care insurance being provided substandard care by a medical team (Maville & Huerta, 2008). There are many components that affect nursing such as ethical principles, bioethical dilemmas, moral values, and statutes, which I will discuss how they would influence my actions in this case scenario.