Identifying Acts and Applying Guardianship and Administration Act 1990

This document discusses the identification of two acts or laws based on a case study and the application of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 to the current care and situation of Ms. Jones. It also explores the identification of an ethical issue and strategies to overcome it.

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Table of Contents
Identifying two Acts or Laws based on the case study....................................................................2
Applying Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 to current care and situation of Ms. Jones. 2
Identification of an ethical issue......................................................................................................3
Strategy to overcome the ethically challenging situation................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

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Identifying two Acts or Laws based on the case study
Based on the case study, the two acts or laws that are appropriate are Public Health Act 2016 and
Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 that are legal in Western Australia. Both the Acts are
described below:
Civil Liability Act 2002
The commencement of this act reveals that it comes into operation on fixed day basis by
proclamation. The word ‘harm’ means personal injury, damage to property and economic loss.
The personal injury includes few of the crucial terms like death, prenatal injury and the
impairment of mental or physical condition of any person (Western Australian Legislation - Civil
Liability Act 2002, 2019). Moreover, the ‘personal injury damages’, explains the damages which
effectively relates to the personal injury which are caused to an individual person by another
person’s fault but it does not includes any sum payable under any scheme (Sekendiz, Ammon &
Connaughton, 2016).
Guardianship and Administration Act 1990
This Act identifies that individuals who are not in state of making rational judgements for
themselves and requires somebody to make decisions for them to prevent them from abuse,
mistreatment and neglect and assure that their quality of life is maintained (Kidson‐Gerber et al.,
2016). The Act facilitates that Staff Administrative Tribunal (SAT) may appoint an administrator
or guardian as an alternative decision-maker for an individual who has decision-making
disability (Lamont, Stewart & Chiarella, 2016).
Applying Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 to current care and situation of Ms.
Jones
After analyzing the case study and observing the current care and situation of Ms. Jones, it is
said that Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 can be applied to her condition. She was
being admitted to the emergency department, where the test and samples revealed a positive
pregnancy test and to recover from the injury she is required to undergo fractured femur and
further x-rays. After two days Ms. Jones has regained consciousness and after hearing that she

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has lost her partner and is pregnant she decided not to have surgery. It can be said that this
decision is made in an emotional state (Chan, 2017). As a result, depending on her current
condition, this particular act is applicable as it states that if a patient is not in a condition to
provide informed consent and make rational decision a family member, service provider or
friends can decide on behalf of the patient (Hatch, Crane & Martinis, 2015). To save her from
facing any critical condition in the future it is important to have surgery for her fractured femur.
Therefore, Christine’s mother who is present in the hospital can be regarded as her family
member who wants Ms. Jones to undergo surgery for her betterment. Thus by adhering to this
particular law and considering Ms. Jones condition, Christine’s mother can be regarded as
substitute decision maker and can be given authority to make rational and appropriate decision
regarding Ms. Jones health condition. According to this law, her mother can be given the Power
of Attorney for making reasonable decision.
Identification of an ethical issue
While working with patients, registered nurses have to go through various incidents where they
deal with different ethical dilemmas that creates critical conditions for them (Gelinas et al.,
2017). However, ignoring such ethical issue may lead to leave their unit and face burnout issues.
Within the case study as a registered nurse, I had to face an ethical challenge while providing
care to Ms. Jones in the morning shift regarding disclosing medical conditions. Such ethical
dilemmas state that most of the time, families of a patient request the nurses and the other
healthcare providers to not inform to the patient related to their diagnosis or health condition.
Nurses have to determine the right of the patient's to know regarding diagnosis or health
condition (Ben-Assuli, 2015). Similarly, based on the case study, I faced an ethical issue when
Christine's mother came to me and told me that not to inform Christine regarding her positive
pregnancy test. In this way, Christine will get ready to undergo surgery for further x-rays and her
fractured femur. She also said that if any nurse or doctor inform Christine regarding her positive
pregnancy test, she will be unable to make a rational decision. However, this is determined to be
a challenging situation for me as a nurse as it is my responsibility to maintain nursing ethical
standards and inform patients regarding their health condition.

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Strategy to overcome the ethically challenging situation
In order to overcome with such an ethical dilemma, it is the responsibility of a registered nurse to
make efficient use of comprehensive and effective communication skills or strategy. To maintain
ethical standards regarding disclosing medical conditions to patients, a registered nurse must
interact with individuals of different social, cultural and educational backgrounds (Resnik, Elliott
& Miller, 2015). However, this must be done in a professional, caring and effective manner. As a
result, to overcome with this ethically challenging situation, I will use communication strategies
that will guide me to serve appropriate nursing practice. However, I will communicate with
Christine's mother to explain the situation that may arise if such ethical issue takes place.
Effective communication strategy may help in reducing bad or negative feelings of patient's
family members regarding the patient's deteriorating health condition. Through implementing
this comprehensive strategy, I will make her mother understand that patient's rights always
comes first as compared to families best intentions. Most of the time, the intentions of the family
members are distressing the patient, thus, nurse must teach the family members to be with the
patient rather than concentrating on negative aspects (Pritchard et al., 2017). Similarly, I will
instruct Christine's mother to support Christine instead of thinking about negative factors. Based
on this condition, it is the legal responsibility of a nurse to become aware of the patient's privacy
rights that might create an impact on the information that is disclosed to friends and relatives.
Therefore, depending on this condition, I will stay relax as well as neutral and speak softly with
Christine's mother rather showing a judgmental attitude. As a result, this will help Christine's
mother to take an appropriate decision regarding Christine's health condition.

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References
Ben-Assuli, O. (2015). Electronic health records, adoption, quality of care, legal and privacy
issues and their implementation in emergency departments. Health policy, 119(3), 287-
297.
Chan, H. Y. (2017). Refusing Treatment Prior to Becoming Incapacitated: Supported Decision-
making as an Approach in Advance Directives. european Journal of health law, 25(1), 24-
42. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718093-12460332
Gelinas, L., Pierce, R., Winkler, S., Cohen, I. G., Lynch, H. F., & Bierer, B. E. (2017). Using
social media as a research recruitment tool: Ethical issues and recommendations. The
American Journal of Bioethics, 17(3), 3-14.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2016.1276644
Hatch, M. J., Crane, S. A., & Martinis, J. G. (2015). Unjustified isolation is discrimination: The
Olmstead case against overbroad and undue organizational and public guardianship.
Inclusion, 3(2), 65-74.
Kidson‐Gerber, G., Kerridge, I., Farmer, S., Stewart, C. L., Savoia, H., & Challis, D. (2016).
Caring for pregnant women for whom transfusion is not an option. A national review to
assist in patient care. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology, 56(2), 127-136. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajo.12420
Lamont, S., Stewart, C., & Chiarella, M. (2016). Decision-making capacity and its relationship to
a legally valid consent: ethical, legal and professional context. J Law Med, 24, 371-386.
Pritchard, D. E., Moeckel, F., Villa, M. S., Housman, L. T., McCarty, C. A., & McLeod, H. L.
(2017). Strategies for integrating personalized medicine into healthcare
practice. Personalized medicine, 14(2), 141-152.
Resnik, D. B., Elliott, K. C., & Miller, A. K. (2015). A framework for addressing ethical issues
in citizen science. Environmental Science & Policy, 54, 475-481.

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Sekendiz, B., Ammon, R., & Connaughton, D. P. (2016). An examination of waiver usage and
injury-related liability claims in health/fitness facilities in Australia. J. Legal Aspects
Sport, 26, 144.
Western Australian Legislation - Civil Liability Act 2002. (2019). Legislation.wa.gov.au.
Retrieved 17 September 2019, from
https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/main_mrtitle_149_homepage.ht
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