CNA153 Foundations For Professional

Management

Introduction

Generally, ethics is a branch of moral viewpoint linked to thoughts of wrong and right. The practices of nursing contain practical values and ethics. In the present time, the legal as well as ethical issues related to client care are arising day by day so nurses should have sufficient understanding and knowledge about the ethical & legal issues and concept to protect the rights of patients or clients successfully. Ethics play key role in the nursing profession as it help them in dealing with the most fundamental human rights. Today, it is essential and valuable for the nurses to know their legal commitments to offer safe nursing to clients on the regular basis. This study is based on a case study that involves ethico-legal issue. After a medical appointment of student nurse under a RN in hectic city clinic, she was taught to oversee a patient with the insulin injection. The RN teaches the learner nurse to recap the needle. But, she has been trained by her professor to dispose the needle after use. Moreover, it is also suggested in the website of government of Australia to never recap the needle as it can cause needle stick injury. Obligated by the RN’s training, the nurse tries to cap the needle but accidently punctures the skin on the left thumb. RN instructs for the blood test f the patient to see any contraction of rare disease due to imbecile. In the context of this case study, ethical and legal concepts, ethico-legal issues inherent in the case study would be discussed. Also, a clear discussion on the significance of self-reflection and ethical awareness would be given.

Main Ideas Related to Ethical Practices

The essential concepts of ethical and legal practices in the Australia are totally based on morality as well as ethics. For instance, ethical practice is supported by the deontological as well as consequentiality moral theories. The past ethical theories mainly pay attention on the actions that are ethically precise and leads to positive outcomes. But, the case study reflects that the RN’s activities did not lead to positive results. Such ethical theories and their concepts are aligned with the utilitarianism theory. It means that no action can be essentially right or wrong and based on produced results (Miles, & Scott, 2019). On the other hand, two ethical theories such as: deontological and consequentiality are opposed with each other. It means deontological focuses on the moral duties regardless of consequences. For example, a patient may take end of life care decision that may include denial of end of life care. But, a doctor may not want to kill the patient owing to the moral philosophies directed by the spiritual texts. But, in the case, the RN does not distress the consequences as she trained the nurse to recap the needle. This activity doesn’t reflect morality as caused harmful consequences. Apart from these ethical theories, justice, autonomy, beneficence, and maleficence are the four key principles that play key role in guiding the ethical practices effectively and successfully. In this case, the principle of beneficence is applicable as this guide the health care professionals to take actions that beneficial to people. But, in the case study, the RN did not weigh the consequences of her strict rule that lead to injury of nursing student. Hence, it can be said that, the principle of non- maleficence was breached by RN. Also RN violated the ethical principle that focus on avoiding the injuries of others. Hence, RN doesn’t have ethical awareness.

Ethical and Legal Complexities

The main legal issue may be lawsuit against the RN for not following the ethical norms, rules, regulation and protocol related to nursing. According to civic law, the understgradue nursing student can demand for compensation for doing wrong. This action may be positive implication for the upcoming time so RN can be aware of such acts. On the other hand, this case can also be registered under the civil law because it was not a criminal case. For case, in this case, Tort law would be applicable under civil law because it is under two people such as: RN and nursing student. Tort law can also help in solving the dispute among these two individuals successfully (Safazadeh, Irajpour,Alimohammadi, & Haghani, 2018). The act of RN may fall under the negligence. Implied, written and verbal consent are other ethico and legal issues in the case. For case, it important for a nursing staff to take valid consent to medical treatment. Moreover, based on the case study, it can also be said that, RN may give implied contract that she will carry the task with duty of care and skill to avid lawsuit against negligence. Hence, RN should not break the code of ethics. Finally, it can be said that, all the healthcare professionals must be aware about the legal and ethical principles in order to professional misconducts (Mousa, Boyle, Skouteris, Mullins, Currie, Riach & Teede, 2021).

Ethical Awareness

In the healthcare profession, ethical sensitivity is considered one of the most valuable components that play key role in measuring the ethical performance and interpersonal relations. Nurses may face a range of ethical and legal issues in day to day life so ethical awareness is important to take ethical decision making. It is also significant for the safety of clients by protecting their ethical rights. Ethical role and understanding can help nurses to perform their daily tasks successfully (Naranjee, Sibiya, & Ngxongo, 2019). In contrast, inadequate ethical awareness can lead wrong interpretation of respect and violate rights of individuals. For example, misunderstanding towards the client’s right may create a range of ethical and legal issues (Miles, & Scott, 2019). So there should be proper knowledge about ethics. Hence, ethical and legal should be followed in order to avoid wrong acts.

Value of Self-Reflection in the Area of Nursing

In the nursing professional, Self-Reflection is not only important but essential in order to inform the nursing practices and developing interpersonal relationships with others effectively. There are various modes of self-reflection used in nursing to bring improvement in practices of healthcare via self-reflection. Self-reflection models are useful and valuable that helps the nursing staff to improve knowledge. Self-Reflection also allows an individual to understand their own feelings, attitude, perceptions, and thoughts about their own nursing practices in an effective and proper manner. Self-reflection is also a major tool for the nurses that help in exploring experience. In the same way, it offer scope for the self-development and improvements which is important for high level quality care for clients (Hariyati, & Safril, 2018).

Conclusion

On the basis of above analysis and finding, it can be concluded that, there are several types of legal and ethical issues arises in day to day nursing practices which may affect individual and organizational performance negatively. So, such ethical and legal issues must be avoided by using ethical rules, regulations, norms, standards and principles. Moreover, it can also be said that, this case study is more helpful in understanding of ethico and legal issues in the context of nursing practices. The study is also offer detailed information which is important to understand the concepts related to duty of care, and ethical practices.

References

Hariyati, R. T. S., & Safril, S. (2018). The relationship between nurses’ job satisfaction and continuing professional development. Enfermeria clinica, 28, 144-148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1130-8621(18)30055-X

Miles, J. M., & Scott, E. S. (2019). A new leadership development model for nursing education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 35(1), 5-11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2018.09.009

Mousa, M., Boyle, J., Skouteris, H., Mullins, A. K., Currie, G., Riach, K., & Teede, H. J. (2021). Advancing women in healthcare leadership: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of multi-sector evidence on organisational interventions. EClinicalMedicine, 39, 101084. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101084

Naranjee, N., Sibiya, M. N., & Ngxongo, T. S. P. (2019). Development of a financial management competency framework for Nurse Managers in public health care organisations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 11, 100154. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2019.100154

Safazadeh, S., Irajpour, A., Alimohammadi, N., & Haghani, F. (2018). Exploring the reasons for theory-practice gap in emergency nursing education: A qualitative research. Journal of education and health promotion, 7. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4103%2Fjehp.jehp_25_18