Legal and Ethical Duties of Nurses | Case Study Analysis

Legal and
Ethical Duties of
Nurses
SystemJP
2/5/2020

Case study analysis
Introduction
Nurses are responsible towards many riles during their profession even after the
compulsion of their duty timings they are entitled to response in the case of a patient
emergency. A nurse needs high level of patience for handling a patient, nurse deal the
dressing, medicine, sleeping and all aspects related to the health recovery of patient, but this
is just an outlook one think a nurse do. A nurse do more than the expected from their role,
handling a patients of negative thinking, handling the queries of patients families, motivating
the co-nurses to deal the challenge and most important focus on each and every behavioural,
physical , and other changes in a patient to record the development of the treatment and
issues in the treatment (Geyer, 2016). This essay will discuss importance of legal and
ethical responsibilities and guidelines in the nursing profession and issues nurses deal while
practicing the healthcare practices during their jobs. Nurse face many day-to-day issues with
the patient handling and performing the duties, regular issues with the patient lead stress in
the nurses and many other issues to the job as well. This essay will discuss implication of
nursing ethics and legal duties imposed over the nurse handling Mavis after her operation in
the given case study.
Nurses record all the aspect and maintain it to help the diagnosing doctors to
understand the case of a patient very effectively. Nurses perform their duties in the ethical
and legal guidelines of the hospital; many hospitals have their own legal and ethical
principles and guidelines for the nurses and other staff and many hospitals follow the
guidelines issued by the American Nurses Association to manage effective working of the
health of a patient. A detailed discussion of the case is presented in the essay based on the use
of the ethical and legal guidelines as code of ethics imposed over a nurse caring the patients
in the critical care.
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Case study analysis
Case scenario and analysis
Mavis is a 70 years old retired nurse, she is under diagnosis of a nurse, after a
laparotomy surgery for the acute bowl obstruction, a blocked bowl was located near the area
of intestine and it was unblocked after a surgery, and Mavis was feeling health issues like
changes in the blood pressure and fastens heartbeats with uncontrolled breathing. These all
result the changes in behaviour of Mavis. Mavis was restless and aggrieved by the treatment,
she want to go back to home and join the duty as soon as possible, she was behaving
aggressive with the nursing staff by shouting and restricting them to come near her. Nurses in
such scenario need to deal the situation in the guidelines because continuous aggressive
nature of a patient leads stress and job dissatisfaction among nurses, but nurses’ needs to deal
the patient healthy treatment in the guidelines of the ethical and legal principles of the
nursing profession.
According the scenario many legal and ethical duties are imposed over the nurse, aged
care patient have sudden changes in their mood, Mavis was a retired nurse, she was habitual
of busy schedule in her routine and used to spend time at her job. After surgery, she was in
rest and this lead the issues to her, as long time to the job and living like a patient made her
aggressive and impatience towards others (Ashton, 2016). According the guidelines of
American Nursing Association, nurses are bound to practice their profession according to a
multifaceted network of the federal and state legal statutes while they are talking any decision
it need to be taken in the ethical manner by focusing the implication of legal provisions over
their decisions. Nurses are legally responsible for the decisions they take in the ethical
manner towards the patient and the entire hospital system. Due to high pressure in the
emergency, a registered nurse is most liable for the decisions made for the life of a patient.
While taking any decisions or handling any critical conditions in the nursing practice, a nurse
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