Health Law for Nurses: Scope of Practice, Legal, Ethical and Professional Obligations, and Medication Laws

This article discusses the scope of practice, legal, ethical and professional obligations, and medication laws for nurses. It covers the Privacy Act, Mental Health Act, and Work Health and Safety Act, as well as the responsibilities of nurses in providing care to patients.

Running head: HEALTH LAW FOR NURSES
Health Law for Nurses
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Institution
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Health Law for Nurses
Introduction
The nursing profession is entitled to a specific scope that each registered nurse works upon to
delimit the area of work as per their skills, actions, and procedures and processes entitled. A
registered nurse is one of the most critical professionals in the field of nursing and is authorised
to act professionally as per the scope of the area, and the rules and regulations of the career. The
federal state has identified laws which govern the medication and have an impact on the
registered nurse because the patients require professional help from them. Registered nurses face
the legal, ethical and professional obligations in instances of unsafe and unprofessional practice.
Examples, of the scope of practice, legal, ethical and professional obligations and also the
medication laws of several federal states on medication build this paper.
Discussion
The scope of practice of a registered nurse
The scope of practice is the concept used by professionals in the professional regulation context.
The scope of practice outlines the actions, procedures and processes which a registered
professional is allowed to perform. It requires the individual practising the profession to have an
expansion or to update their skills, knowledge, and competence. It describes the services which a
qualified health professional is supposed and allowed to perform as well as permitted to
undertake as per the terms of the working licenses. The scope of practice of a registered nurse
includes the range of roles, responsibilities, functions and activities that an RN is competent,
educated as well as allowed to perform (Association, 2015).

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Nursing practice changes regularly concerning the changing needs of patients and the health
profession. The scope of practice allows expansion of some of its areas leading to improvement
in the quality of service to patients and job satisfaction. Functions of a range of training include;
helping in decision making on daily practices of nurses, acting as a foundation for the expansion
of nursing duties and promoting good nursing practices to provide excellent patient care. Lastly,
it helps nurses to pinpoint professional growth needs. Every nurse is responsible for making
decisions regarding their scope of practice.
Nurses are less trained compared to others medical professionals like doctors. The role of nurses
is to diagnose simple illnesses without the need for doctors' help. While physicians treat patients,
registered nurses take care of patients by giving them supportive attention. Nurses have a close
relationship with patients (College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia, 2012).
An excellent example of instances where an RN goes out is; due to financial constraints and the
absence of physicians, nurses are made to treat and manage complex illnesses. They stand in for
doctors in smaller clinics where physicians are not available. In this case, nurses work outside
their scope because they are not trained or licensed to operate as doctors.
Legislation relevant to the administration of medications
The Privacy Act
Health information is one of the necessary information that needs the highest standards of
privacy. The Privacy Act of 1998, was put in place to strengthen the protection of handling
health information. The law is a federal law that applies to all Australian states. The law requires
all medical service providers to observe privacy when dealing with patients. Employees such as

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the registered Nurses should ensure that there is privacy on health information such as genetic
information and other types of health data (Mckenzie, Broyles, Evans, Rachel, &Pleunik, 2016).
Under this Act, all health service providers in their activities in aged care, palliative care and care
of a person with a disability as well as handling patients must observe the Privacy Act. Such
activities include treating a person's illness, injury or disability, managing the psychological and
physical health of a person and many others. It regulates the way health service providing firms
collect and handle health data (Otlowski, 2015).
The Work Health and Safety Act
The act provides the framework for the protection of the health, safety and welfare of all
individuals at work and also the people who might be affected by the job. The health officers in
Australia are not left out in the Act because they are employees and it promotes the medication
sector in the country because it provides a conducive working environment for all medical
practitioners. Registered nurses as part of the workers in Australia are affected by the Act in
some ways. It ensures there is a good representation, consultation and cooperation in addressing
and solving health and safety problems in the workplace. It eliminates and minimises risks
arising from workplaces (Hancock, 2015).
Mental Health Act
The Act aims at balancing the rights of consumers with a treatment need as well as recognising
the significant role performed by family members and carers of the individuals suffering from
mental illnesses. It provides that, people with capacity be allowed to make treatment choices. It
also facilitates the treatment of individuals without decision-making capacity (Rickwood, Van

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Dyke & Telford, 2015). The Act gives out an outline on how Registered Nurses should handle
mental health patients hence helping them to practice a professional work.
Legal Obligations
Health professions laws require one to report a person in case of unsafe practice. Registered
nurses have to identify legal aspects affecting the patients, manage treasures of their clients,
educate people on legal matters, give information on the condition of the patient as expected by
the law and lastly, is to intervene appropriately in case of unsafe procedures. The role of nurses
is mainly to take care of their clients, and they have to do it according to the legal scope of
practice (Atkins, De Lacey, Britton & Ripperger, 2017).
Ethical Obligations
Nurses must stand up for their moral responsibilities towards unsafe practices. According to the
code of ethics of registered nurses in 2017, nurses are allowed to query, get involved, report and
address hazardous or ineffectual processes. According to Atkins, De Lacey, Britton & Ripperger,
(2017) nurses must get concerned in case of signs that a colleague is unable to give safe health
care. In this case, the nurse is allowed to take relevant procedures to ensure that the patient is
safe. However, there is always a conflict between reporting a colleague and following
professional ethics to ensure the safety of customers. Therefore, the registered nurse must
consider the following; if the practice endangers the public, if the method is disabled or if it is
professional misconduct. The nurse must have in mind that the safety of the client is one of the
primary objectives thus when reporting the issue one should focus on safety first rather than
laying blame. Also, the nurse should always have the principles of honesty and fairness.

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Professional Obligation
Reporting a practice that may help guard the safety of a customer is a registered nurse's
professional responsibility. Some of the unethical practices that can interfere with the security of
a client include; working under the influence of alcohol, unsafe medical administration and the
breaking of confidentiality. Grossman & Valiga (2016) argue that the nurse is supposed to assess
if the patient is in immediate or possible danger. If the situation implies immediate risk, the nurse
should intervene first the report later. If the risk is a potential one, the nurse should first discuss
the concerns with the professional and can then report to the manager using the proper chain of
authority.
An example of a professional standard that influences these obligations is the duty to care. The
primary objective of a nursing council is to take care of their clients (Cherry& Jacob, 2016). It
sets a standard in their education, training, and performance in the course of their job. A nurse
assumes responsibility to take care of the customers. If ones professional duty to care contradicts
with employers expectations, like for instance unsafe workload, the nurse should raise concerns
with the employer.
The law imposes the responsibility to care for nurses, and they must be reasonably careful in
practices that may harm their clients. Nursing care needs concern regarding human rights,
traditional and religious beliefs of the client. Patients should not get discriminated against
according to race, religion, gender or even social status. Nurses should help improve the health
status of the community by educating them on disease prevention methods and addressing the
social needs of the society (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen, & Korhonen, 2015).
Conclusion

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The scope of practice as a registered nurse gives the RN a mandate to act as per his or her
training, skills, and competence which are guided by legal procedures that must be adhered to.
The Privacy Act, Mental health Act and the Work and Health Safety Act constitute of some of
the legal measures put in place the Australian government on the medication sector. The RNs
have professional, legal and ethical obligations that monitor their service to clients while
providing medication. Observation of these three measures of professional practice makes a
nurse to offer excellent care to patients in Australia. Nurses should also report cases of
unprofessionalism and unsafe standards committed by the peers and also provide training to
them to ensure the quality of medical care is of high standards.

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References
Association, A. N. (2015).Nursing: scope and standard of practice. Chicago: American Nurses
Association. DOI: 10.1207/s15326985ep3904_2
Atkins, K., De Lacey, S., Britton, B., & Ripperger, R. (2017). Ethics and law for Australian
nurses. Cambridge University Press.
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hsag.2017.04.002
College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia.(2012). A discussion paper on the scope of nursing
practice for registered nurses in Nova Scotia. Halifax, N.S: College of Registered Nurses
of Nova Scotia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20110228-01
Grossman, S., & Valiga, T. M. (2016). The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of
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Hancock, P. (2015). Health and safety-an essential element of ethical practice. AusIMM
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Mckenzie, G., Broyles, B., Evans, M., Rachel, P., &Pleunik, S. (2016). Pharmacology in
Nursing.Cengage AU.

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Otlowski, M. F. A. (2015). Disclosing genetic information to at-risk relatives: new Australian
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Rickwood, D., Van Dyke, N., & Telford, N. (2015). Innovation in youth mental health services
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