This paper analyzes the legal issue of medical malpractice in palliative care. It discusses the impact on patients, scope of practice, and legal responsibilities of nurses. The paper emphasizes the importance of complying with Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) standards to address this issue.
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Legal responsibility in Palliative care Student's Name: Student's ID: Module: Topic: Medical malpractice a legal issue in Palliative care Specialty area: Palliative care Number of words: 1000
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1 Introduction The primary purpose of the paper is to analyze a legal issue that occurs in palliative care critically. However, medical malpractice is a legal issue that will be further discussed in the paper. Medical malpractice occurs due to professional negligence, where a medical practitioner fails to provide reasonable care to the patients. It creates a great impact on patient safety and care, along with its families in palliative care. Thus, the paper will discuss the impact of medical malpractice on patients and scope of practice. It will provide relevant information based on the legal responsibility of the nurse to address this legal issue by considering Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) standards. Medical malpractice a legal issue In palliative care, medical malpractice is determined to be a significant issue where a medical practitioner fails or neglects a patient to deliver appropriate quality care or implement relevant actions by considering its medical conditions. However, medical negligence is determined to be a valid reason that leads to a claim related to medical malpractice in palliative care. Generally, people in hospice care are terminally ill and seek palliative care that helps in relieving or reducing the associated pains (Sinclairet al.,2016). When palliative care providers neglect or fail to provide appropriate care, then it may occur as legal claims based on the resulting injury. The factors that result in medical malpractice are an unreasonable delay in treatment of serious condition or illness, misdiagnose of medical condition or disease and failure to evaluate or diagnose. Most of the time it occurs when a patient fails to provide informed consent to medical processes. In palliative care, medical negligence also occurs if the medical or hospital facility is not well sanitized and kept well (Morata, 2018). This involves the presence of bacteria that generates adverse impact on patients. Medical malpractice in palliative care is determined to be a legal issue as it is the responsibility of nurses to improve the quality of life of patients along with their families who deal with a spiritual, psychological, physical and life-threatening illness (Mehtaet al.,2016). Therefore, people can claim medical malpractice when a medical professional or hospital neglects medical aspects or makes mistakes.
2 Impact of medical malpractice on patients and the scope of practice In palliative care, medical malpractice is determined to be negligent, improper or unskilled treatment by a physician or nurse that creates a negative impact on patients quality care (Saini et al., 2017). The negative impact of medical malpractice on patients states that nurse or physicians are involved in a lawsuit. It severely changes the life of the patient, along with its families. Medical malpractice also creates a serious impact on the emotion of a patient. It affects the trustworthy relationship that has been developed between a medical professional and the patient that could not be replaced. The medical malpractice also leads to considerable damages to patients like disability, constant pain, and loss of income, enduring hardship and suffering (Zaorsky, Ricco, Churilla, Horwitz & Den, 2016). The consequences of medical malpractice may result in psychological trauma and physical scars that can be sustained because of vulnerability, isolation and stress experienced by a patient. Thus, most of the patients are unable to trust medical personnel as they experience psychological distress. Such type of medical malpractice also affects the scope of practice by escalating the costs of healthcare. It is a great cause of stress in the life of a healthcare professional (Royceet al.,2019). When malpractice insurance cost increases, the healthcare providers are forced to leave their practice and work in a field that consists of minimum risk of litigation. Medical malpractice highly influences a patient's access to best physicians or nurses. Legal rights and responsibilities to address the issue In order to reduce or eliminate the risk of medical malpractice, it is significant that nurses must analyze the circumstances and facts on a case-by-case basis. To avoid malpractice, it is the legal responsibility of the nurses to comply with legal principles as per NMBA standards and integrate such principles into their nursing practice (Thirlwell, Mason, Davis & Machowski, 2018). The nurse must remain up to date with its state's nurse practice act along with hospital procedures and policies. According to NMBA standards, the nurse must practice nursing skills within its scope of practice in which the nurse is competent to perform. The nurses must follow this standard of care which is determined to be a legal concept that depicts how a nurse is required to act professionally. The nurse within the palliative care must ensure that while undertaking care for their patients, they possess a duty to serve care for that patient reasonably and competently. As
3 per this standard, the nurses must conduct themselves in a huge degree of knowledge, skills and care to prevent medical malpractice (Alexander & Bogossian, 2018). It is the legal responsibility of a nurse to remember that this particular standard comprises a minimum level of practice, hence a nurse must adhere this to avoid being found negligent. By complying with this standard, the nurse exercise training, education and their good judgements to the best of their ability. It is said that nursing practice in palliative care that fails to follow the standards of NMBA leads to a medical malpractice lawsuit. Conclusion The paper demonstrated an understanding of medical malpractice which is determined to be a legal issue in palliative care. It is observed that medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional fails or neglects to comply with the legal standards. However, it creates a negative impact on patient quality care and safety. It affects the psychological, physical and emotional states of a patient that, in turn, affects the relationship between patient and medical professional. Therefore, to address this issue, it is the legal responsibility of a nurse to comply with NMBA standards. As per this standard, a nurse must understand the application of NMBA standards and provide reasonable and quality care to the patients.
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