Nurses: Practicing Ethically and Professionally to Reduce Legal Liability - Essay Sample

Introduction

The nurses need to practice their career professionally while also making their decision based on ethical requirements. The laws also establish relevant procedures that the nurse needs to follow while handling the patients ("Legal and Ethical Issues in Nursing Explained", 2020). Hence, to reduce the risks of legal liabilities, the nurses should exercise caution in all their aspects of decision-making so that they protect the interests of the patients based on the ethical implications. Patient responsiveness, responsibility, and competence are the major ethical concerns in this scenario. Nurses have the moral obligation of making decisions that will have a positive impact on the daily lives of the patients. Based on the case of the infected woman, it is noble to consider the consequences of revealing the test result to the husband since it may affect their relationship.

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Patients' responsiveness is an ethical responsibility of the nurses. The amount of time spent by the nurses to check on the response of the patients should allow them to monitor their reaction to any information offered to them. For instance, if the woman feels that her husband should not know about her condition, then the nurse should not force her to reveal it. Competence is yet another ethical concern that the nurses should focus on while handling the patients. The nurses must exercise a high degree of knowledge and skills in handling cases of complex decision making without infringing on the rights and interests of the patients ("Legal and Ethical Issues in Nursing Explained," 2020).

Legal Violation, the Conduct and the Law

From the given scenario, there is a legal violation of the patient's rights. When practicing nursing, the nurses need to abide by the laws and regulations. Nurses should be the advocate of patient when it comes to their privacy. They have the legal responsibility of protecting the information of the patients at all times and ensure that they are not revealed against their wishes. The action by the receptionist to approach the patient's husband suggested to him about the issue of testing is a violation of the privacy of the woman after testing positive for gonorrhea. Since the patient did not want to reveal the test result to her husband, and it was noble for the nurse and other staff to ensure that such information remains confidential.

The act of contacting the patient's husband for a medical test by the receptionist is a criminal act which the woman can take to the courts since it violated the law. The time of illegal conduct in this scenario is negligence. Any nurse or healthcare worker who mishandles the patients' information in the medical records commits falsified conduct, which is also regarded as a fraud and can face criminal charges. The type of law involved in this case is administrative law. Through the board, the state uses the nursing agency in charge of administering the standards and professionalism of the nurses (Rankin-Box, 2002).

Possible Repercussions

Upon the investigations by the board, and the justification of the offense, the nurse, may be subjected to possible disciplinary actions. The board may further take disciplinary action against the nurses by restricting their licenses of practice through revocation or suspension. Moreover, the board may also deny the nurses other administrative privileges. The disclosure of confidential patient's health information attracts an appropriate disciplinary action taken against any nurse who discloses the information about the patients without their authority. Moreover, the effects of the nurse are not in any way related to the company since they are all motivated by the accused's reasons.

Violation of patients' confidentiality may further attract repercussions of many forms that bring negative consequences. A severe breach of patients' privacy, leads to appropriate disciplinary actions that may lead to the termination of the nurse's employment as well as other punishments by the board of nursing. Terminating the job for the nurses may not only involve loss of benefits but also leads to blacklisting that prevents the accused nurse from getting any employment opportunity elsewhere. Any nurse who faces the charges against the violation of the nursing rules has no chance for an alternative job in any health organization. According to the nursing board, any offense that the nurse commits against the patients are likely to cause repercussions and criminal penalty. Hence, the nurses are expected to uphold their ethical conduct at all times while handling the patients and their information.

Whether the Clinic Should Report the Disease

The Clinic has no obligation to report the disease about the woman but must keep it confidential. Again, there should be a cordial relationship between the physicians and the patients concerning any sensitive information. The confidentiality of the patients should be protected by the Clinic ("Confidentiality, Patient/Physician," 2020). Based on clinical history, the communication between the physicians and the patients should be safeguarded according to the constitutional requirements and personal privacy of the patients. Hence, the clinics have an absolute duty of ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of the patients' personal information. It is not recommended for the health institution to share the patients' data since such actions lead to hindering the health information standards regarding the security of the patients' personal information.

The fundamental guidelines in the medical profession state that the clinics have the obligation of keeping health information of the individuals confidential as also required by the code of ethics. All the health institutions should advocate for and uphold the privacy rights of the patients based on the doctrine of confidentiality of using the disclosure of information relating to the patients. Besides, the law or recognizes the patients' privacy as a privilege to communication that takes place between the health workers and the patients. There should be a professional way of handling all the connections that reveal information about the patients regardless of their test results. Every relationship between the nurses and patients in the organization should adhere to the aspects of confidentiality. Moreover, based on the evidentiary subjects' rules, the public need for the private information of the patients should follow the communication channels as stipulated in the law ("Confidentiality, Patient/Physician," 2020).

Health institutions operate under the established standards of protected health information privacy. The standards outline the limits under which the institutions may disclose private information about the patients. There is also a need to strike a balance that offers permission to the clinics to reveal the protected patients' information. In most cases, the individual patients exercise some levels of control when accessing and sharing their information by the clinics. Therefore, unlike for the rare cases of special health organization operations such as treatment, the patients' protected information may be used without their consent but still restricted to the attention of the members of the public. Moreover, the privacy rules that protect the patients' information has substantial strength that increases the awareness of the patients, thus making them more concerned about their safety while receiving treatment in any healthcare facility ("Confidentiality, Patient/Physician," 2020). Every healthcare institution should ensure that it provides the means of protecting the privacy of the patients' information and prevent them from public access. Thus, the Clinic has no obligation of reporting the disease to the public but keep this matter between them and the patients.

References

Confidentiality, Patient/Physician. (2020). Retrieved 2 February 2020, from https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/patient-confidentiality.html

Legal and Ethical Issues in Nursing Explained. (2020). Retrieved 2 February 2020, from https://nursingcareertips.com/legal-and-ethical-issues-in-nursing-explained/

Rankin-Box, D. (2020). The Legal and Professional Status of Nurses. Nursing Standard, 16(34), 29-29. doi: 10.7748/ns2002.05.16.34.29.b68