The Legal And Ethical Implications Of Therapy Nurses

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.

Nurse’s face ethical dilemmas every day in their nursing practice. No matter what specific role the nurse plays, these ethical dilemmas impact the nurses as well as the patients. Sometimes it’s no right solution to some of the dilemma we nurses face. First to describe what ethics is, it is the act of doing good by not causing harm to the individual involved.

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

Cost of the end of life medical care is too expensive to continue at the rate it is going. The fiscal year 2016 saw 672.1 billion dollars spent on Medicare participants with just 5% using 49% of those monies ("NHE Fact Sheet," n.d., p. 1). The ANA provides a code of ethics that nurses should use to help guide them in clinical practice decision making. There are four fundamental responsibilities for nurses to adhere too they are: promote health, prevent illness, restore health and alleviate suffering. Ethical Principals for nurses are; respect & autonomy, beneficence, justice, veracity, and fidelity ("Code of Ethics for Nurses," 2012). Attempting to keep ethical responsibilities and principals in mind, while conducting a cost-benefit analysis to determine resource allocation for an aging population and end of life care causes many ethical dilemmas.

Time, cost, and efficiency. Those three barriers are the challenges within Bellin’s current refill team covering six clinics. Beginning with medications not being filled at office visits. Patient’s changing pharmacy’s. Refills remain that the pharmacy and patients reading their medication bottles that state Refills remaining:0 and that is only due to the last older script being pulled from the pharmacy file. A new script has been often sent in but doesn’t register when a patient picks up a new script bringing the patient to call the clinic for a refill. When really a new script is on hand at the pharmacy already. So, then I research and verify with the pharmacy. Then there is the common scenario of the patient calling the clinic requesting

Ethical and legal dilemmas are issues that nurses face in their professional careers. Nurses are accountable for safe and appropriate administration of medication. With the growth in malpractice lawsuits it is important that nurses take certain precautions to limit the risk of lawsuits. “Nurses can limit the risk of liability through maintaining open communication with patients, expertise in practice, attention to details, and autonomy. (Burkhart &Nathanial, 2013).

Nurses are responsible for being ethical, competent, safe, and stay consistent with local, state, and federal laws. They must have an understanding of how to apply these principles when providing care to a client, they are not only responsible for understanding but also protecting client’s rights. Clients who are in a mental health setting have legal rights and they are guaranteed the same rights as any other person. These rights include, the right to humane treatment and care, the right to vote, the rights related to granting, forfeiture, or denial of a driver’s license, the right to press legal charges against another person, they have the right to refuse treatment, a right to confidentiality,

As nursing health care professional, there legal and ethical issues, in which are presented with the patients on a daily basis. Sometimes it can become quite challenging because the nurse has to learn to separate their personal belief or feeling in order to respect the patient’s wishes. The challenge being faced by the nurse with their daily nursing care goes back to the term autonomy. “Autonomy is closely linked to the notion of respect for persons, and is an important principle in cultures where all individuals are considered to be unique and valuable members of society” (Burkhardt and Nathaniel, 2007, pg. 53). Each patient has the right to make a choice about things in which affects their health. This paper

Nurses are faced with many ethical and legal issues, such as protecting and maintaining the patient privacy and confidentiality. “A dilemma can arise when confidential information is requested by family members or friends of the patient” (McGowan, 2012, p. 61). As nurses during our pinning ceremony we took the “the Nightingale Pledge promised to do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affair” (McGowan, 2012, p. 61). Protecting and maintaining patient confidentiality is a serious matter and you can be fined and faced with federal charges, if you are found guilty.

On September 27th, 2016, during my clinical experience we were discussing CNO nursing practice standards regarding care within the therapeutic nurse-client relationship, more specifically, types of ethical concerns. I read that when an ethical concern occurs it can be difficult to make the right decision.

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Legal and Ethical Issues in Nursing Practice Background As a clinical research nurse coordinator on an alcohol treatment unit, my duties are to coordinate the care of research participant in an alcohol treatment program. As part of the research protocol, the participants are administered a daily morning dose of the anti-craving medication, Nalrexone for one month One morning I was assigned as a research nurse coordinator for one of the participant and I could not locate the physician’s order Naltrexone for the participant. I immediately went to the participant’s research study binder and notice for the past week, nurses assigned to the participant, indicated by their signature that they administered Naltrexone to the participant.

Picture your loved one in an independent senior residence, where they can do mostly everything on their own. This sounds great until they have an emergency medical issues and the nurses that are on staff refuse to help based on their interpretation of the company policy. As a nurse, they should be trained how to handle emergencies, but in this instance the person lost their life because the nurse did not take any action. This happened to 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless, who stopped breathing and the nurse at Brookdale Senior Living Center refused to do anything or allow anyone else to do anything based on what she read in the company policy. Since state or federal departments of health license or regulate independent or assisted living centers it can

If nurses acknowledge their unfit mental or emotional status to practice safely and competently, they should consult the supervisor to be replaced to another nurse (CNA, 2008). And if a nurse recognize her colleague is unable to accomplish her duties safely and ethically or even violate the respect to the patient’s dignity, the nurse should take a step to provide safe nursing care on behalf of the colleague and report appropriate authority (CNA, 2008). If a nurse is request to provide nursing care which conflict with the nurse’s belief but acceptable as professional practice, “the nurse provide safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care until alternative care arrangements are in place (p.19)” and report to her employer (CNA,

Nurses encounter so many issues on a daily basis where they have to make decisions based on the determination of what is right , wrong or ethical. As nurses , we are committed to respecting the rights of our patients while providing care and treatment .It is my belief that a started my career in the nursing field as a Licensed practical nurse with the hope of someday furthering my education but different circumstances in life led me to delay .(The nurse creates and nurtures an intimate bond with the patient and family through a constant presence and hands-on care )