Health Law and Ethics: Legal Requirements and Implications for Health Facilities

Running head: HEALTH LAW AND ETHICS
Health Law and Ethics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1HEALTH LAW AND ETHICS
CASE STUDY 1
1. Legal requirements
The professional code of conduct mandates how a person is supposed to conduct
himself/herself in a professional and ethical capacity. The Code of Professional Conduct for
Nurses in Australia along with the Code of Ethics for Nurses in Australia gives the
framework for conducting professional behavior and act in their sphere of expertise with
proper ethics. The above-mentioned legislations guide the conduct of a varied range of
professionals- nurses, nursing students and it is their duty to act with concern and care and
uphold the principles of their professional ethics (Schmidt, MacWilliams and Neal Boylan
2017). Nurses are expected to act in accordance with the proposed legislations and
regulations and they have to maintain the community’s trust that is laid down on them. The
nurses are responsible for the well-being of their patients and therefore they have to act with
proper care and concern.
In this present case, a nurse is seen to be behaving badly with her patient and using
expletive, which was witnessed by another nurse and student creating a long impact on them.
The nurse is seen to be indulging in a heated behavior and slapping the patient. The nurse is
expected to conduct herself in a compassionate manner, which she violates and therefore she
has acted contrary to the laid principles that are expected of a nurse/midwife. The ethical
issues that are associated with this scenario is that the nurse must have been more concerned
about the student and should not have made him go through the torture. The student who has
been treated badly suffers trauma and therefore it can be said that the nurse has acted in
violation of her ethical duties (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen and Korhonen 2015).

2HEALTH LAW AND ETHICS
2. Implications for health facility
The code of Professional Conduct for Nurses gives a brief framework that is aligned
with the standards and competence that are expected of a nurse or an education provider. The
presumption of the Code is that they will act in the best interests of the patients that are under
them. The legislation is significant for nursing profession as it will maintain the ethics among
individuals. In the present case, the nurse was expected to conduct herself keeping in mind
the best interest of the patient and should not have behaved in a way to cause harm and
trauma. The implications of the code is to ensure that there is no professional misconduct and
that the behavior is not such to demean someone (Carr 2016). If duty of law is applied in this
scenario, then the nurses are bound to carry out their designated duties. On the other hand, the
purpose of apology laws is to prevent particular statements from being admissible lawsuit.
The nurse has displayed unprofessional misconduct as she has slapped the patient inflicting
pain and trauma.
3. Reflection
Living in a hostel, I had to be taken to a hospital where I saw a heated discussion
break out where the patient was verbally abused by a drunken nurse. The nurse erred in her
behavior but the patient was too scared to complain to the higher authorities. Having seen the
outbreak in front of my eyes, I decided to file a complaint against the nurse so that such
behavior is not repeated in the near future. Similarly, in this case, the patient was too
traumatized to complain but I believe, the nurse who has witnessed such unprofessional
behavior should help the patient and her strength to complain against the nurse as it is not
morally and ethically permissible to physically assault an ailing patient. In my opinion, a
similar situation was observed in the case of Dewan v Medical Board of Australia [2012]
VCAT 1840.