Ethics and Law for Nurses 2011 – Case Studies Analysis
Introduction
Nurses have a tremendous amount of responsibilities incorporated in their duty of care and they are challenged with legal and ethical issues on a daily basis. Examples of legal and ethical issues in nursing may refer to topics such as medication administration, consent and abortion just to name a few. To protect the patient, oneself and the health professional team, it is, as for any health professional, crucial to gain sound knowledge and understanding of the legal and ethical aspects in health care. It is therefore important to follow up incidents that may arise carefully and properly. Law and ethics are to different factors but they are tied together in any given situation (Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council, 2008). The scenarios chosen for this paper will be analysed and looked at from a legal and ethical perspective. Furthermore, implementations of problem solving strategies in order to solve these types of issues will be discussed.
Scenario A
A friend of yours, another nursing student, Melanie Anderson, posts a public message on Facebook about her clinical placement and caring for a person who has been injured in a motor vehicle accident. The message includes information about the patient’s clinical status and the ways that the patient’s family and friends are responding. Identify and analyse any ethical and/or legal problems with this. Also discuss what you should do when you see Melanie’s message.
Confidentiality
This scenario illustrates Melanie, who is a nursing student, who has publicly announced a patient’s clinical status via the social networking site known as Facebook. This immediately becomes a both legal and ethical issue - breaching of confidentiality since Melanie has shared the patient’s information without his/hers consent. According to Sastow & Inman (2008) confidentiality is defined as the right of an individual to have any personal and medical information kept private and securely and is not to be given out
Nurses have a tremendous amount of responsibilities incorporated in their duty of care and they are challenged with legal and ethical issues on a daily basis. Examples of legal and ethical issues in nursing may refer to topics such as medication administration, consent and abortion just to name a few. To protect the patient, oneself and the health professional team, it is, as for any health professional, crucial to gain sound knowledge and understanding of the legal and ethical aspects in health care. It is therefore important to follow up incidents that may arise carefully and properly. Law and ethics are to different factors but they are tied together in any given situation (Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council, 2008). The scenarios chosen for this paper will be analysed and looked at from a legal and ethical perspective. Furthermore, implementations of problem solving strategies in order to solve these types of issues will be discussed.
Scenario A
A friend of yours, another nursing student, Melanie Anderson, posts a public message on Facebook about her clinical placement and caring for a person who has been injured in a motor vehicle accident. The message includes information about the patient’s clinical status and the ways that the patient’s family and friends are responding. Identify and analyse any ethical and/or legal problems with this. Also discuss what you should do when you see Melanie’s message.
Confidentiality
This scenario illustrates Melanie, who is a nursing student, who has publicly announced a patient’s clinical status via the social networking site known as Facebook. This immediately becomes a both legal and ethical issue - breaching of confidentiality since Melanie has shared the patient’s information without his/hers consent. According to Sastow & Inman (2008) confidentiality is defined as the right of an individual to have any personal and medical information kept private and securely and is not to be given out
References: Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council. (2008). Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia. Retrieved October 4, 2011 from http://www.nrgpn.org.au/index.php?element=ANMC+Code+of+Ethics Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council Croke, E.M. (2006). Nursing Malpractice: Determining Liability Elements for Negligent Acts. Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting, 3-24. Elliot, M., & Liu, Y. (2010). British Journal of Nursing. The nine rights of medication, 300-307. Funnel, R., & Lawrence, K. (2009). Tabbner’s Nursing Care: Theory and Practice. Chatswood NSW: Elsevier, Mosby. Harrison, C., & Weiss, V. (2011). Preparing to Pass the Medical Assisting Exam. USA: Jones and Bartlett. Matzo, M., & Sherman, D.W. (2006). Palliative care nursing: quality care to the end of life. New York: Springer Publishing. Rosdahl, C.B., Kowalski, M.T. (2008). Textbook of basic nursing. Philadelphia: Wolter Kluwer Health. Sastow, G.S., Inman, J.G. (2008). Avoiding a breach of confidentiality. Medical Malpractice Law & Strategy, 25 (11), 8-10. Staunton, P. & Chiarella, M. (2008). Nursing and the Law (6th ed). Elsevier Australia.