Ethical Issues and Nursing Relevance
The modern nature of telehealth has created a dialogue about ethical issues and its relevance to nursing, specifically advance practice nursing. Preserving the nurse-patient relationship is an ethical issue that remerges. This ethical factor can be especially relevant to nursing practice and patient outcomes. It can be argued that it is not feasible to make discriminate and safe judgment calls remotely, especially ones requiring the advanced practice nurse to physically observe and assess objective parameters first hand (McLean et al., 2013). It may not always be noticeable if harm is being done since the provider is not at the bedside. After all, beneficence, the promise to do no harm, is an ethical principal common among all healthcare disciplines. Telehealth may put at risk the trust that comes with face-to-face encounters and could influence patient outcomes. In contrast, research supports that patient outcomes are not solely determined by the physical presence of the advance practice nurse. Patient outcomes are also influenced by the development of and adherences to guidelines and standards for telehealth, which are valuable in helping insure effective and safe delivery of quality healthcare through telehealth (Krupinski & Bernard, 2014). Implementing these guidelines and standards helps the client build trust in the competence of telehealthcare. Further research shows that telehealth plays a key role as a form of healthcare access
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.
This case is purely about the legal and ethical implications of nurse T.C and her nursing manager of telemetry unit, nurse F.J. This nurse T.C has worked in a highly stressful environment before but her behavior has only recently deteriorated and become emotional with the occasional outbursts and uncontrollable crying. Her behavior put the legal issue of non-maleficence at risk for her patients as it would cause emotional stress on them. However, the legal issue that really matters is her case is that of defamation of her character as well as disclosure of her private and confidential mental state information by F.J to other nurse managers not in the unit she worked and to even the subordinates.
Describe the ethical dilemma that the nurse is facing? Please be specific. What makes it an ethical dilemma?
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.
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).
Throughout the course of their career, nurses will constantly face the reality of death and dying patients. Disparate from medical physicians, nurses are almost always on duty to treat and hand out medication. Therefore, a situation where it is not possible for their patient to completely heal can ultimately put the nurse in a high amount of stress. Such feelings can lead to discomfort with aiding hospice patients and a decrease in nurses in that area (Peters, et al., 2013). The quality of end of life health care is also jeopardized due to the nurse facing ethical issues and death anxiety (Hold, 2017, p. 13). The impact of a patient death can incite more stress in the health care worker, according to Bickham, "Nurses often experience
Ethical, Bioethical, and Legal Issues in Nursing Chio Thung Arizona State University Ethical, Bioethical, and Legal Issues in Nursing Ethical, bioethical, and legal issues are all concerns that affect professional nursing practice. Nurses should be aware about why and how these issues affect their profession. A case scenario that questions these boundaries is a homeless person without any health care insurance being provided substandard care by a medical team (Maville & Huerta, 2008). There are many components that affect nursing such as ethical principles, bioethical dilemmas, moral values, and statutes, which I will discuss how they would influence my actions in this case scenario.
The books of Genesis and Acts in the Bible hold passages that Jehovah’s Witnesses feel are key in their beliefs on not receiving blood transfusions (Ethics, 2009). For the medical community this is a difficult issue to deal with and relate to. Saving lives is what healthcare is about and blood transfusions assist in that. For some, however, blood transfusions are not an option. Although denial of life saving measures such as blood transfusions may not be ideal for members of healthcare, it is an important ethical issue and belief for some. With that being said, it is important as a leader in healthcare to have a better understanding of this in order to
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
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,
Monitoring his blood sugar is very vital, the nurse will continue to monitor and record his blood sugar level before and after meal in order to identify any rise or decrease in sugar level. This will also enable the nurse to intervene and manage the condition in case of emergency. Mr C is a Muslim, he eats Hallam food. The nurse must comply with the ethical principles in respecting his choice and beliefs by making sure he is being served the right food. In support of this, The Equality Act 2010 (get the page) stated that everyone has equal right regardless their belief or religion.
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.
During my internship, I have experienced several ethical issues that involved patients, staff, and the emergency department. When these situations took place, I took time to discuss issues with my site supervisor and discuss whether I would have handled the situation differently. Majority behavioral health hospitals stays are short-term; in my opinion, when treatment is short, there seems to be an increase in ethical issues. At Sentara Behavioral Health Norfolk General Hospital, there have been two major ethical issues that occurred. From these issues, I have gain insight about the systemic aspect of hospitals and patient care.
The ethical dilemma is a situation by which it’s difficult to determine whether a situation is can be handled without disappointing both sides. Therefore, an ethical dilemma exists when the right thing to do is clear or when members of the healthcare team cannot agree on the right thing to do. Ethical dilemmas require negotiation of different points of view (potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall 2011pg 78).
Intro For many people, death is a transition into a different order of the universe, which is called spirituality. All religions are a form of spirituality, but not everyone who is spiritual is religious. As nurses, we must delicately try to understand how we can best ease a patient’s transition to death by maintaining their dignity and spiritual beliefs. Nursing is science based in the practice and artform of genuinely caring for people as whole beings on a metaphysical plane of existence (Vance, 2003).