Nursing Ethics, Law and Professional Guidelines

Essay on Nursing Ethics, Law and Professional guidelines
1. Introduction
The “code of Ethics of Registered Nurses” is a document depicting how a nurse in Australia
is relied upon to act with respect to moral issues. Moral standards are built upon the
assumption that nurses value and respect the individuality of everyone. Different nations have
formulated white papers on the code of ethics for medical caretakers, and the foundation rule
is essentially the same for all nations. In this paper ethical code used in Australia will be
taken as a kind of perspective to contemplate the irregularities relating to the case study. This
task indicates why medical caretakers working in health care must work legitimately and
morally, portray some of the laws and tort laws applicable to the nurses, and also refer the
“Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's (NMBA) Code of Ethics and Code of
Professional Conduct” ("Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Professional models",
2019). Irregularities observed in the actions of the nurses can have serious consequences to
both the patient and the nurses.
Registered nurses have to function within a legal, ethical and professional framework to
ensure that the patient is adequately cared for and that the professionalism is maintained with
respect and trust (Tanaka, Taketomi, Yonemitsu & Kawamoto, 2014). The professional codes
as explained by NMBA are the guiding principle for nurses to work with professionalism and
nursing ethics and values. If nurses fail to comply with these codes, they face the
consequences like the loss of licence to practise, involve in legal tussles at court due to a
complaint by the patient, reputation risk and loss of trust from patients and other staff (Lima,
Newall, Kinney, Jordan & Hamilton, 2014). The legal parameters that affect nurses are those
as statutes and common laws and also tort laws as abuses and negligence.
“Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act of 2009” is a law introduced to establish a
national registration and accreditation system for healthcare professionals and students (Blair,
Kable, Courtney-Pratt & Doran, 2015). The national competency standards for the registered
nurse are the basic competency standards based on which assessment of the performance of
nurses is done for obtaining and retaining registration as a registered nurse in Australia
(Wardle, Sibbritt, Broom, Steel & Adams, 2016). As a registered nurse, these basic
competency standards give the framework for assessing the competence of the nurse and is
used by the board to assess competence during the renewal of annual registration in order to
assess nurses. The board can also use the competency standards to convey consumers the
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standards they can expect from nurses. The universities also apply the standards when
developing nursing plans, and assess students based on achievements. The various codes
which were violated will be discussed in connection with the case study.
2 The Body
Jane had a late night party though she knew that she had to attend the morning shift.
Moreover, she was leaving the scene by leaving Dan alone in the scene.
Jane has breached the code of nursing care and is negligent to her duty. Negligence can be
defined as lack of seriousness during nursing duty that happens when a nurse does not
perform the duty with full capability what a prudent nurse should do, that may result in
unnecessary sufferings of the patient.
The nurses in Australia are under the supervision of different codes of ethics. For profession
they are controlled by “Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's (NMBA) Code of Ethics
and Code of Professional Conduct” ("Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Professional models", 2019) and other related guides and standards. The code of contract
defined by the employer, people, through the state civil and criminal law and the individual
and public via their duty in relation to medical care. A registered nurse found negligent in
duty can be booked under any of the above code of conduct depending on the gravity of the
misconduct. Registered nurse Jane has violated the following NMBA code of ethics
("Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Professional models", 2019)
Code 2.1 explains that the fundamentals of care should be delivered effectively. She was
negligent and a number of cases of drug anomaly were observed. Code 5.1 explains that the
student nurse should be under proper supervision. She is not supposed to delegate any regular
nursing work to a student nurse. Code 2.1 also explains that the nurses should be careful
enough to see that the care is effective and measures taken by her should not have likelihood
of mistakes which may cause harm to the patient. Because of her hangover, she had
committed a number of mistakes in drug delivery to patients. Code 4.1 explains that the nurse
should work within a professional boundary by maintaining integrity, honesty, respect and
compassion. Reputation of their profession is to be preserved at all times by maintaining a
disciplined lifestyle. She should not enjoy a late night party and join duty immediately
without proper fitness. Code 4.1h also explains that registered nurses should provide effective
service to ascertain that patients’ wellbeing is protected and improve their experiences of the
health care system. This is the essence of professionalism which is lacking from her conduct.
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Studies conducted by different researchers identified that most of the nurses have poor
knowledge on the law that governed their profession and if they do not take remedial
measures, then in days to come, they have to face law suits for their negligence at workplace
and it will be difficult for them to continue with their profession (Cashin, Heartfield, Cox,
Dunn & Stasa, 2015).
Dane had taken advantage of blindness of the patient and took objectionable photographs of
the patient and posted the photos with sarcastic and vulgar language to show his friends some
of whom were nursing students. Dan has made gross violation to the following code of
ethics. Violation of “Code of conduct for nurses” ("Nursing and Midwifery Board of
Australia - Professional standards", 2019). “Principle 3.5a the confidentiality and privacy of
people is to be respected by seeking consent before disclosing information”; “Principle 3.5c
social media policy and relevant Standards for practice are to be followed”; “Principle 3.5e
the nurse should not share, transmit, reproduce or post any person’s information or images”.
All the principles are very clearly defined that a nurse should not indulge in capturing
photography of a patient and using the image for personal gains. She has violated principle
3.5 a, c & e. “Social media policy (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
[AHPRA], 2014)”. When using Internet-based social media sites, nurses ought to recall that
national law, the ethics and the professional code of conduct of the national council and the
guidelines for promoting for advertising regulated health services (the guidelines for
advertising) apply ("For registered health practitioners Social media policy", 2014).
Registered health professionals should post only that information that should comply with
professional obligations by maintaining confidentiality and privacy ("For registered health
practitioners’ Social media policy", 2014). The healthcare professional should use the
permitted options of the social media guidelines and can post unbiased information under,
evidence-based context and should not make any unsubstantiated claims. With awareness and
caution, nurses can keep away from unplanned exposure of classified or private data about
patients. If the guidelines are followed there is a minimum risk of using social media as
detailed in the following paragraph. Nurses must perceive that they have a moral and lawful
commitment to preserving the patient's confidentiality and privacy (Cherry and Jacob, 2016).
Nurses are strictly prohibited from posting any patient-related picture utilizing any electronic
media. Likewise, nurses are constrained to exchanging any information that can be expected
to violate the patient's confidentiality or privacy rights, or generally compromise the patient’s
safety. Disciplinary actions can be taken by the administration of the hospital authorities
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