Importance Of Autonomy In Nursing

This community placement allows me to understand that community nurses have a greater autonomy and responsibilities in practice. From a clinical perspective, nurses play an important role in assessing the clients and making decisions to manage their care. For instance, in medication management, community nurses do not have a second nurse to check the certain medication such as insulin which would routinely be checked by a second nurse in hospital settings. Thus, nurses need to adhere to the standard of practice (NMBA 2016), perform three checks and five rights to ensure safe medication administration. In rural communities, nurses might be the only persons to provide complex care to the clients, decision making needs to act ethically and

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.

There are a number of legal and ethical duties expected of nurses. Most of these involve care for patient’s autonomy and confidentiality despite the medical care. Failure to act regarding these can give rise to liability. One aspect of Patient’s autonomy involves giving or withholding his consent about treatment. This paper takes into account ‘consent’ as the aspect of law regarding nursing.

Moreover, an emphasis is imposed on the rights of a single patient to commit an act or decision even though it is in contrast with the views of the others. In regards to the ethical dilemma, a nurse could not justify the morality of the two possible choices based on their results and consequences. The Deontological approach would encourage the health care staff as well as the patient to ask themselves the most righteous choice for their situation. With this in mind, a combination of ethical theories can also be employed to give light to the dilemma. In view of this, another ethical approach could be applied to solve the issue, and this is the Right-based approach. This theory also aim to promote the rights of every person, and that, they are indispensable just to make ends meet. However, not all ethical theories can be incorporated in every dilemma in a health care setting because their foundations would contradict one another. In order to provide an effective and efficient solution, nurses should be knowledgeable of the principles enveloping each of the ethical theories and should be wise to apply them in appropriate issues and

Reyes, J. A. (2016). Nursing Delegation Guidelines for Nurses and Advanced Practice Nurses. Iowa Board Of Nursing Newsletter, 35(3), 1-4.

Healthcare provider’s perception and judgment in the patient’s well being as well as taking into account the right of the patient in every action is one of the key elements in nursing practice. International Council of Nurses (ICN), (2006) states “The nurse at all times maintains standards of personal conduct which reflect well on the profession and enhance public confidence” (p. 3). Furthermore, nursing action guided by theory and principles of moral and legal

Sule stated that, “The Patient Bill of Right adopted by American Hospitals Association states that ‘a patient possesses the right to be informed of the medical consequences of his or her actions and decisions and refuse treatment to the extent permitted by the law’. However, this is true only if the patient is in position to understand the consequences of his treatment. Incompetent, senile patients neither have the correct judgment regarding which treatment is appropriate for them, nor are they in a state of understanding the implications of their treatment. In such case, their willingness to grant or deny consent cannot dictate the course of treatment.” Problem with the Act is being able to find that the patient component enough to make such a call. Another issue that Sule stated was on confidentiality and autonomy. According to Sule, “This is another ethical issue erupting from the conflict of patient's rights and professional ethics in nursing job and profession. The Patient Bill of Right makes it mandatory for the medical practitioners to reveal the form and extent of the ailment along with the course of treatment to be undertaken by the practitioners. However, this law of autonomy clashes with the nursing ethic that the professional should maintain high degree of confidentiality regarding the patient's health and treatment.” This can cause conflicting issues in the NP’s

Autonomy includes three primary conditions: (1) liberty (independence from controlling influences), (2) agency (capacity for intentional action), and (3) understanding (through informed consent) (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 100). According to Beauchamp & Childress (2009) to respect autonomous agents, one must acknowledge their right to hold views, to make choices, and to take actions based on their personal values and beliefs (p. 103). Respect for autonomy implies thaturges caregivers to respect theassist a patient in achieving? Heed? the autonomous choices of their patients. From there, patients can act intentionally and with full understanding when evaluating medical treatment modalities. Autonomy also includes a set of rules, one of which requires that providers honor patient decision-making rights by providing the truth, also known as veracity (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 103). In this case, several facets of the principle of respecting autonomy, specifically veracity, informed

In our day today lives we make complex decisions, continually weighing up the risks and benefits of our actions. However in the hospital environment, the Doctor knows best attitude has prevailed for many years, patients deemed unable to be involved in decisions regarding treatment. Development in law relating to consent has been slow, based on paternalistic approach and therapeutic privilege to decide treatment choice for patients. Whilst health care practice moved towards informed consent, the law lagged behind. In 2015 informed consent has finally been recognised in Law. The author will describe the changing attitude in the law of consent from 1950’s to present day and how these changes affected nurses duty to obtain consent from patients

This assignment will explore a case study on an episode of care where a patient with chronic pain was hoisted. This will be written from the perspective of the author, a student nurse. The purpose of this assignment is to underline the ethical, legal and professional issues surrounding the episode of care during nursing practice and how these issues influence the role of the nurse and their professional judgement in delivering holistic, person-centred care for the patient. The author will cover the complications on delivering care when healthcare professionals should consider and respect the patient’s decisions and personal preferences whether it may benefit the patient or not. Therefore, the author will argue the principles of the

Gaining a patient consent prior to the medical procedure has claimed simple yet imperative process of patient care for nursing professionals as some of the legal implications can occur that may lead to a negligence on clinical care, risk the nursing registration or even criminal assault that is resulting a litigation, if it does not proceed accordingly. The patient’s consent can be obtained in various ways, such as implied, verbal or written forms are available and most importantly, different types of consent will require on the nature of treatment. Informed consent is an ongoing, practical process in relation to the patients’ health care in the clinical setting which would involve providing sufficient information about the clinical procedure and treatment that the patient expects during the medical procedures. By giving the consent, the patient would sign or agree with the treatment that he would undertake, aware of the risks and possible consequences and accept that he had fully-explained by the doctor regarding to the procedures. The patient’s consent should be given autonomously which means free of pressure and without any coercion from making decision. This case study discusses why does the registered nurses need to obtain consent from the patient prior to a medical procedures and what sort of action should the registered nurse take if she/he witnessed the nursing staff performing procedure without patient consent. This essay will also examine how the scenario in regard

Medical ethics and legal issues have been a key topic in medical field for many years now. It is important for medical professionals to understand the importance of the way we care for patients, it is therefore important to be knowledgeable and aware of the medical ethics and legal issues that govern good patient care. Health care professionals must make decisions based on ethical and legal issues to performance their regular duties. However, Medical ethics is not only about avoiding harm to patients. It is rather a norms, values and principles (Ethical theories 2015). Therefore norms, values and principles are intended to govern medical ethical conduct. Ethics is defined as “a standard of behaviour and a concept of right and wrong beyond what the legal consideration is in any given situation”. In another words medical ethics is a discipline that used to handle moral problems coming out the care of patients. Law is another important discipline that often comes together with medical ethics. Law defined as a “rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority”. Government imply law to keep the society running smoothly and to control behaviour that could threaten public safety. Medical professionals have to often prioritise these terms before making any clinical decision. The following findings will constructively emphasise on medical ethics, its

Nursing is an all encompassing profession in which practitioners are not only proficient in technical medical functionality, they also have the obligation to remain compassionate and respectful of patients and as such are expected to adhere to pre established codes of ethics. Of these ethics, autonomy is of extreme importance as it offers patients a sense of personal authority during a time where they may feel as if their lives, or at the very least their health, is no longer under their control. Autonomy in the context of nursing allocates the patient and often their family with the final word on the course of treatment. The concept of patient autonomy is a highly variable subject in all fields of health care. It is a universal concept that varies widely in its meaning and interpretation. Autonomy in its simplest form can be defined as a state of independence or self governing (Atkins, 2006). Patient autonomy can also be defined as the ability to make once own decisions, based on one’s sound judgment. It is defined by the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2011) as the "agreement to respect another 's right to self determine a course of action; support of independent decision making." This seemingly straight forward ethical concept is rife with difficulties when one considers potential disagreements that may arise even when informed consent is provided, particularly among children or vulnerable people. Relevant research and

Nurses are subject to a plethora of legal, ethical, and professional duties which can be very challenging on a day to day basis. Some of these duties include respecting a patient 's confidentiality and autonomy, and to recognize the duty of care that is owed to all patients. As nurses our duties are always professional; however there are legal implications if these duties are breached. We also must consider when it is okay as nurses to breach these duties and therefore ethical issues arise. As nurses one of our main priorities is to advocate for our patients, without our own personal feelings on the matter taking over.

Autonomy applies to the profession of nursing because the patient should always be allowed to make decisions regarding their care while being treated with respect and dignity; however, autonomy can serve as a limiting agent when the patient decides to refuse care that would be of benefit to them. Autonomy is a sensitive issue because it allows the patient to choose to die and all health care can do from that point is allow the patient to do so comfortably. With healthcare always being one step ahead, it allows a surrogate to serve as a voice piece for that patient when they are unable to make decisions. However, that surrogate can end up making decisions they think is best for the patient ignoring the patients’ will. The responsibility of the nurse and interdisciplinary team is to inform and educate the patient and patient’s surrogate on all aspects of care to include medical diagnosis, treatment, and care plan so that the patient and