Case Study of Taylah: Ethical and Legal Considerations in Nursing Care

Running head: CASE STUDY OF TAYLAH
CASE STUDY OF TAYLAH
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CASE STUDY OF TAYLAH
Introduction:
The case study discusses about a 14 year old adolescent girl named Taylah who had
visited the healthcare ward with the hope of getting contraceptives. Nursing professionals in such
scenario have a number of ethical and legal responsibilities to follow while providing care and
services to the person. The assignment would mainly discuss about the different types of ethical
and legal considerations that the nurses need to be sure of while providing services to Taylah.
Legal considerations:
The age of consent associated with medical interventions and treatments for patients
belonging to minor age group are seen to vatu across different jurisdictions and states across the
nation of Australia. The age of consent is found to be eighteen in the state of Western Australia.
On the other hand, the same in the nation of South Australia and NSW is found to be 16 and 14
years respectively (Davies & Davies, 2016). Here, the concept of consent mainly refers to the
ability of children to make healthcare decisions about their own medical treatment. Most of the
times, it had been noticed that while treating children under the age of 16, healthcare
professionals mainly provide treatment interventions with the consent of their parents or that of
the guardians. However, there is another perspective of this where it is found in all the
jurisdictions of the nation that consent of the child can prove to be sufficient in the conditions
where the child is found to be possessing sufficient knowledge and information for enabling him
or her to understand what the healthcare professionals propose and advise them. It has been
indeed found from an extensive research that healthcare professionals may not need the consent
of the guardians or the parents if they are satisfied with the capability of the child to understand
the consequences as well as the nature of the risks that arise from the treatment in consideration

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CASE STUDY OF TAYLAH
with the fact that the treatment would be in best of the interest of the child and that of her well-
being (Forrester, 2017).
In order to treat Taylah, the healthcare professional should first consider her age and
accordingly he should consider the jurisdiction of the state where she practices. This is important
for the professional to ensure whether she has the right for seeking medical help without the
presence and guidance of the parents. It can be found here that as the patient is not directly
seeking for any treatment where she needs to give any form of consent and so the case might
become quite difficult in the legal domain (Vryonides et al., 2019). It can be found here that
Taylah is seeking contraceptives here which would prevent her from conceiving as well as to
protect herself from any sexually transmitted disorders. In such situation, it is the duty of the
professional to support the needs of the patient as it is associated with the well-being of the
patient. The Privacy Act in Australia had not set any minimum age when individuals can make
decisions regarding their personal information. On close analysis it has been found that
Guidelines to the National Privacy Principles state that each particular case need to be
considered individually and that guidance need to be provided to any young person who has the
capacity of making decisions on their own (Esmaelzadeh et al., 2017). Moreover, the Guidelines
on Privacy in the Public Health Sector opines that when a young person is capable of making
his or her own decisions, complete support and freedom should be given to the patient. Even the
guidelines state that if the individual is not found to be having the competence of making her
own decisions, the professionals need to consider her views.
The healthcare professional who is attending Taylah should ensure maintaining her
privacy and confidentiality. She should never be revealing the information to her parents. This
might result in legally breaching the principle of confidentiality. The professional should