Legal and Ethical Considerations in Nursing Profession

This article discusses the legal and ethical considerations in nursing profession. It covers various topics such as codes of ethics, codes of practice, and laws that nurses must adhere to. It also talks about the different ethical issues that nurses may face and how they can make ethical decisions. The article provides a comprehensive overview of the nursing profession and its responsibilities towards patients and society.

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Question 31 How legal and ethical considerations are relevant and applied to the
nursing profession.
 Children in the Workplace- nurses work to help children in the workplace and bare
responsibility to prevent and protect them against harm.
 Codes of ethics for Nurses in Australia and codes of professional conduct for nurses-
nurses recognizes the codes of ethics and codes of conduct and adhere to all elements
in their work and professional practice(Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia,
2014)
 Codes of practice- Nurses work in line with the four international codes of practice in
as a ethical guidance at work to provide safe care to individuals and community
 Continuation of professional education opportunities- Nurses contributes to foster
professionalism through continuous education and evidence-based practice(Nursing
and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), 2018).
 Discrimination- Nurses recognize and serve all people regardless of their tribe, race,
gender or social status equally.
 The duty of care- Nurses takes seriously their duties and values quality of care to all
people.
 Equal employment opportunities- Nurses values equality and promote equal
employment to all qualified nurses regardless of where they come from.
 Human rights including access to healthcare- Nurses recognize the universal human
rights and takes responsibility to advocate for the inherent dignity of all individual
including the right for the better quality and safety care(Nursing and Midwifery Board
of Australia, 2008)
 Informed consent- Nurses recognize the importance of the informed decision to
patients and the patients are the rightful owner of their life in decision making.

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 Insurance requirements including professional indemnity insurance for enrolled
nurses- Nurses support patients in process of insurance application through patient
education in order to reduce the patient burden cost(Nursing and Midwifery Board of
Australia, 2014).
 Life and death issues-nurses recognizes the difficult situation patient go through at
end of life and promote them and their families in making sensible decisions.
 Power of attorney-Nurses recognises the power of attorney by allowing and
supporting patients to choose an individual who can make decisions on their behalf
when they are unable to make for themselves(Johnstone, 2016).
 Living wills and advanced directives-Nurses work to encourage patients to make
advance directives such as a living will during their end of life.
 Guidance- Nurses recognize the general principles surrounding guidanceship and
support the patient in choosing the legal individual who can have autonomy on patient
decisions and properties.
 Disability and Discrimination Act 1992 – Nurses demonstrate their understanding of
the law by providing equal care to all patients regardless of their race, physical and
mental disability, gender, tribe and social status(Johnstone, 2016).
 Children and young people legislation enacted in each state-Nurses values and respect
young people or children as an individual who owns their right as a member of his
family or community he or she lives
 Working with children legislation-Nurses work in opposing all forms of
discrimination or exploitation that may be proposed in the children legislation.
 Workplace health and safety- Nurses advocate for safe and quality environment for
workers to prevent potential occupational health hazards(International Council of
Nurses, 2012).

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 Role of nurses and midwifery board of Australia in regulating the nursing profession
 Ethical decision making models- Nurses uses critical thinking in making decisions
concerning the patient to ensure best practice is enhanced
 Contemporary ethical concept- Nurses uses ethical concept and models to guide them
in making ethical decisions(Butts and Rich, 2013).
 Autonomy-Nurses advocate the principle of autonomy by empowering patients to be
fully responsible for their life and by using professional knowledge to make
independent decisions about the patients.
 Beneficence and maleficence- Nurses work in doing good and avoiding harm to the
patients by providing the best quality and safety care(Johnstone, 2015).
 Confidentiality- Nurses recognizes patient privacy and adhere to principles of
confidentiality by keeping patients secrets regardless of the situation.
 Justice-Nurses work to promote truthfulness, equality and fairness to all patients.
 Rights- Nurses recognises the universal human rights and that patient have rights for
better care and work to promote personal dignity and respect.
 Verancy- Nurses always demonstrate transparency to patients by telling them
everything they need to know about their condition and situations(International
Council of Nurses, 2012).
Question 32
Ethics- Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with how people’s value and conduct
with respect to wrongness or rightness of certain actions. Bioethics are ethical principles
related to human beings(Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2008). Nursing ethical
principles are guided by autonomy which is the personal duty for a nurse to make her own
right decision regarding patient care. Nursing ethical decisions are guided by principles such
as justice, respect, beneficence, malficence, veracity, and autonomy(International Council of

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Nurses, 2012). There are various ethical issues that may bring dilemma and always affect
nursing decisions. This includes;
Abortion- It is a criminal offense to conduct a miscarriage to a mother since it is regarded as
the termination of life. However, a person is not criminally responsible for performing in
good faith a well surgically operated abortion(Butts and Rich, 2013).
Tissue Transplantation- People with strong religious beliefs often reject tissue transportation
of their families. An ethical dilemma comes when it concerns a child who is at risk of death
and their patients fail to sign an informed consent.
Organ donation- most people believe that when given organs from another person they may
aquare their bad characteristics.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide- A person may ask health care professional to conduct an
assisted painless death. However, many regards that as murder.
Mandatory reporting- It is an obligation of nurses and other healthcare providers to report all
nursing care, adverse reactions, and errors made in order to participate in adverse effect
analysis and promote quality of care(Johnstone, 2016).
Question 33
Law- The government of Australia uses the law to rule all of its citizens. There are various
sources of laws in the country that the government uses which also nurses are supposed to
adhere to. The statutory law is law is a written law by the legislature of which it may
originate from national and state levels. Common law is also known as a case or precedent
law which is developed at the courts by judges(Shrestha and Jose, 2014).

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Law of torts- the law of torts are civil wrongdoings against a person and it is punishable by
damages. The following are various forms of the law of torts.
Intentional torts- This is wrong doing done by a person or a nurse with high degree of
certainty that harm will result.
Asuult and Battery- assullt is causing immediate harmful to a person with conscious
awareness that it will cause injuries, Battery is an offensive touching of another person.
Negligence- negligence tort means a fail of a nurse to act reasonably to patients whom she or
he is providing services for(Shrestha and Jose, 2014).

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References
Butts, J. B., and Rich, K. L. (2013) ‘Ethics in Professional Nursing Practice’, Nursing Ethics
Across the Curriculum and Into Practice, pp. 69–98. doi: 10.1111/j.1552-
6909.1979.tb00973.x.
International Council of Nurses (2012) ‘The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses’, The Michigan
nurse. doi: 10.1111/j.0028-1425.2007.ethics.x.
Johnstone, M. J. (2015) ‘Decolonizing nursing ethics’, International Nursing Review, pp.
141–142. doi: 10.1111/inr.12197.
Johnstone, M. J. (2016) ‘Key milestones in the operationalization of professional nursing
ethics in Australia: A brief historical overview’, Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing,
33(4), pp. 35–45.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2008) ‘Code of Ethics for Midwives in
Australia’, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, pp. 1–16.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2014) ‘Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses
in Australia’, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 1, pp. 1–9. Available at:
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?
record=WD10%2F1353&dbid=AP&chksum=Ac7KxRPDt289C5Bx%2Ff4q3Q%3D%3D.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) (2018) ‘Code of conduct for nurses’,
Code of conduct for nurses, p. 3. doi: 10.1002/adma.201190042.
Shrestha S and Jose P (2014) ‘KNOWLEDGE & PRACTICE OF NURSING ETHICS AND
LAWS’, Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences, 2(3), pp. 30–33.

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