Law, Ethics and Guidance in the Nursing Profession

LAW, ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM 1
Law, Ethics and Guidance in the Nursing Profession
Name of student
Institution affiliation

LAW, ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM 2
Laws are a set of rules and regulations that protect the people. It determines what is right
or wrong. Ethics on the other hand is a set of rules that describes what it acceptable to the society
and provide a guide as to people’s behavior. Ethics are important in every profession and they
detail on how people interact with each other, how they act, what they ought to do and why. In
the nursing profession ethics ensures fairness and equity in treating patients. According to
Dehghani, Mosalanejad and Dehghan-Nayeri (2015) professional ethics is the use of constant
communication, knowledge, skills and values in the nursing profession. Professional ethics
provide guidance to the nurses and offer protection in the patient by detailing the values and
principles that that regulate their relation to patients, colleagues and other professions. Various
ethical questions arise e.g. patient’s informed consent, end of life decision making and
confidentiality. The ethical code provides guidance to these issues and others arising at all levels
of the profession (Epstein & Turner, 2015)
There are four principles of ethics that improve patient care. They include autonomy,
beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. Autonomy is the patient’s right to have control on
what happens to their body. The duty of the professional is to offer advice and in the end the
patients makes his own decision even if the nurse does not agree except in some situations.
Beneficence means that all the actions of the professional must be for the benefit of the patient.
Non-maleficence refers to do no harm intentionally or unintentionally. Finally, justice refers to
fairness of the professional in their decision making including the distribution of resources
equally in distributive justice and equal rights in services provided by the nurses in social justice.
Justice ensures that there is trust between public and the nurses. Together these principles ensure
the right decision is made with regards to the patient and that it benefits him and the society.
(Butts &Rich, 2019)

LAW, ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM 3
In the case study provided, there are various transgressions that have occurred and might
occur. The registered nurse, Jane, took panadol from the medicine room. There is a possibility
that she might take the medications again. She also had forgotten names of the patient and made
the wrong decisions regarding the medications due to the intoxication prompting Dan the student
to correct her to the best of his knowledge. This might lead her to giving patients the wrong
medication and also overdosing the patients. She wanted to carry out a complex dressing on a
patient while still having a headache and also called Dan to assist her and he might not have the
knowledge about it. Dan on the other hand took a picture of the patient’s wound without consent.
He posted the pictures of the wound in social media and revealing the name of the patient and
that the attending nurse had a hangover leaving him to do the complex dressing.
Photography of patient’s illness is considered invasion of privacy hence one has to
follow the nursing standard of ethics in order to avoid legal implications. The code of ethics of
nurses requires them to value respect for self and for others. In this case study, Dan the student
does not respect the patient Freddie and he posts pictures of his illness on social media and
includes his name. This goes against the nursing code of ethics. The code of conduct of nurses
requires them to practice confidentiality to their patients by protecting the patient’s right to
privacy in their care. Dan took pictures of Eddy without consent and shared the photos with his
friends hence going against this (Wang, Anderson, Jones & Evans, 2016).
According to Halcomb, Stephens, Bryce, Foley & Ashley (2016) The Australian Nursing
standard of practice guides the nursing profession by providing guidelines on the clinical practice
and used as to ensure that nurses having appropriate working habits. Nurse Jane did not fit this as
she came to work with a hangover and this affected her work. This is evident when she got the

LAW, ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM 4
patients names wrong as she couldn’t remember them and as well gave the wrong medicine to
patients hence requiring the assistance of the student nurse Dan.
In the case of Dan various measures should have been taken in regards to photography of
an illness of a patient. First of all, he should have sought permission from the patient before
taking the photo. While seeking for person he should also explain to the patients the reasons as to
why wants to take a photo. The patient must have a clear understanding of accepting the photo to
be taken and implications it would have in the future. Some of the reasons include as part of the
confidential medical records in order for the doctor access the treatment of the patient, it can also
be for a project in which one should mention if a consent form needs to be signed. The photo can
also be for learning purposes or even to be used as a reference to patients with the same illness
(O'connor, 2017). Patients can however refuse to be photographed and hence should respect the
patient’s wishes. It is important to note that patients can’t be coerced into giving consent for
photographs to be taken. In case one is unconscious, a photograph can be taken but consent must
be obtained from a relative or one responsible for the patient. In small children consent is
obtained from their parents or legal guardian.
Not all photographs can be taken. Some are taken during exceptional circumstances for
example photos of the genital area where there has to be a clear defined clinical need and should
be stated in the patient’s medical records as to the reason why the photos were taken. Patients
have a right to privacy and hence authorized publication of the patient’s conditions can lead to
social and legal implications for the nurse and for the hospital as well. Posting of photography of
patient’s illnesses on Facebook and other social media platforms and including their names on
the posts violates this right of privacy and also the code of conduct in the nursing profession.
Palacios-González (2015) was for the opinion that in order to post a patient’s picture on social