Nurses' Ethical, Legal & Professional Duties: A Guide - Essay Sample

Introduction

The complexity of nurses' practices in the process of executing their duties has given rise to ethical, legal and professional concerns (Butts & Rich, 2019). Universal rules and procedures provide both a theoretical and practical framework for health practitioners' conduct throughout their career. Ethical considerations regulate nurses' behaviour as well as manner towards their line of duty. Legal considerations define the expected requirements and standards of nursing in addition to the legal ramification .Professional concerns address the formulation of nurses' value, supporting them, and reshaping public policy (Chadwick & Gallagher, 2016). However, the legal, ethical and professional concerns governing the duty of care are often disregarded .In light of this, nurses become uncertain about the appropriate time to execute their responsibilities especially in times of severe incidents and emergency encounters. This paper will focus primarily on the ethical, legal and professional conduct of nurses while reflecting on the case study provided.

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A particular code of ethics bounds the conduct and behaviour of nurses. The ethic code of conduct encompasses the morality of practices undertaken and is incorporated in the decision-making process of dictating how the ultimate effects of those practices (Griffith & Tengnah, 2020). Drawing from the case study of Kate and Billy, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that Kate has contravened the ethical, legal and professional regulations in various settings and role. From a moral point of view, Kate has failed to demonstrate a primary commitment to her patient, Billy.

Additionally, Kate fails to take individual responsibility of improving, maintaining and establishing an ethical environment of work that is appropriate to quality and reliable healthcare. He assumes full liability and responsibility for not turning down Billy's request for a romantic and sexual relationship. Again, her provision of information to Billy outside work settings is unethical. Kate, as a nurse, compromises the integrity of her profession and undermines nursing values. Her ways of consolidating public social issues with nursing and health policy do not reflect on the nurses' code of conduct.

Nurses' legal considerations focus majorly on malpractices (Pozgar, 2019). In the case study, negligence as far as nurses' actions are concerned to include breach of duty and misconduct. To begin with, the act of Kate providing medical records to Billy without following the due process is a breach of duty. By doing that, Kate compromises her integrity as a professional nurse. She breaches the confidentiality, privacy as well as the security of medical records, a crime punishable in a court of law.

The need to protect the information security, privacy and confidentiality has become more apparent in today's world. Kates's conduct contradicts the principle of health care management information system of upholding, advocating and defending people's right to privacy and the philosophy of confidentiality in the access and provision of data. Again, Kate breaks the doctrine of secrecy of limitations of occasions under which a patient's sensitive health information can be used or released. Kate's practices amount to misconduct and a breach of duty. Policymakers have taken the initiative of providing information's confidentiality, security and privacy to safeguard healthcare information system. Addressing nursing legal concerns has been affected by the lack of universal laws covering all the nurses' work settings. For instance, the law does not govern how nurses should perform their duty when out of duty. Individuals handling medical information have an obligation of protecting the data. Therefore, they assume full responsibility and liability for overlooking the set policies and legal constraints.

Professionalism in nursing does not only involve discharging clinical care but also adhering to the expected standards as well as attaining professional relationships. Professional clinical care consolidates facility's policies and the federal governing health care laws which meet the set standard of serving patients. She engages in professional misconduct when she fails to consider the legal and ethical aspects that govern her area of work.

Her failure to resist Billy's plea of engaging in a sexual relationship highlights her lack of commitment to duty. Disclosure of information without the appropriate due processes is a breach of information's privacy, security and confidentiality. Since the interest of the nurses lies primarily on healthcare, nurses need to avoid engaging in other conflicts of interest that are not meant for the treatment of patients. Duty of care forms the foundation of nursing (Griffith & Tengnah, 2020). Nurses are therefore expected to focus primarily on the significance of duty of care in their professional responsibilities. Nurses should show full commitment to healthcare while in compliance with both the ethical and legal regulations that govern how actions should be executed (Carvalho & Santiago, 2016). Any action discharged by nurses should meet the expected set standards by both healthcare providers and federal laws. The nursing profession requires not only adequate skills and knowledge but also demands respect for human life and dignity (Griffith & Tengnah, 2020).

References

Butts, J., & Rich, K. (2019). Nursing Ethics. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.

Chadwick, R., & Gallagher, A. (2016). Ethics and nursing practice. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Griffith, R., & Tengnah, C. (2020). Law and professional issues in nursing. Learning Matters.

Carvalho, T., & Santiago, R. (Eds.). (2016). Professionalism, managerialism and reform in higher education and the health services: The European welfare state and the rise of the knowledge society. Springer.

Pozgar, G. D. (2019). Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning.