Legal and Ethical Perspectives of Nursing Education

The current study focuses upon the legal and ethical perspectives of nursing education. The nursing study is based upon the integration of ethics into care. The nursing ethics and law has been taken into consideration which are imparted though the nursing training sessions and also during the clinical trials.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL NURSING
Professional Nursing
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Introduction
The current study focuses upon the legal and ethical perspectives of nursing
education. The nursing study is based upon the integration of ethics into care. In order to
develop and ethically and culturally aware nursing professional integrating moral values and
principles as part of a nursing care is quintessential. It is very important that a nursing student
attends their theory and practical classes well. Based upon the knowledge acquired from the
professional sessions and effective and quality care could be delivered. For the current
assignment, the nursing ethics and law has been taken into consideration which are imparted
though the nursing training sessions and also during the clinical trials.
I could relate this to my one of actual clinical setting experiences where I had been
contacted by a fellow nursing student to provide him with screenshots of the online test
which he is going to sit for. Hence, abiding by the wish or demand of the peer would have
been a clear breach of policies and ethics on my part. A more detailed outlook on the ethics
and legal frontier has been provided over here.
Case study 1:
Immediate action
Therefore, based upon the actual scenario one could take a number of immediate
steps. First and foremost, one needs to discuss the matter with the student personally telling
them of the consequences of such action. The nursing educator could tell them that if they get
caught they could be debarred from the future examinations as well as form undertaking any
future courses in the institutions. As mentioned by Lynch et al. (2017), practising such unfair
means to pass the nursing examination is a clear breach of the professional code of practice
and is punishable by law. Hence, any such instigation from a student or peer should not be
entertained by the nursing educator (Melnyk, Gallagher‐Ford, Long & Fineout‐Overholt,
2014).
One more step which one could take over here is calling the supervisor of the
examination centre. As mentioned by Devine & Chin (2018), any such legal breach of
policies should be brought to the notice of the centre supervisor immediately. This would

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help in taking immediate measures or steps to stop such dishonest practices. It could also act
as an effective warning measure to prevent people from engaging in such malicious practices
and activities. There are people who have been often found to engage in academic
misconduct or plagiarism which is a huge threat to quality education. In order to cope up with
the huge burden of nursing assignments and in between coursework examination the students
have often been seen to take help from outside sources. As mentioned by Kam, Hue &
Cheung (2018), the students here are paying to agencies which are preparing assignments and
study materials for them. This could be referred to as plagiarism where the students are
presenting the work of someone else’s as theirs or asking someone else to give an online test
on behalf of them. As mentioned by Welsh (2017), such events are threat to academic
integrity and could eventually lead to deterioration of the educational standards. Therefore,
effective measures need to be taken to prevent any such dishonest means or activities.
On a personal level one can motivate my student not to get involved in such academic
dishonesty by helping them control the level of anxiety (Abdulghani etal., 2018). One can
discuss with them the procedures or hand over sample of old question papers.
Subsequent actions
Some of the subsequent actions which could be taken by me over here are become
familiar with the ensuing professional codes so that one knows which steps to be followed
exactly. One should keep the written records of the description of the cheating and the
actions which had been taken subsequently. It would help me in dealing with future events of
academic dishonesty and also ensure that right ethics and culture is maintained around
nursing education. One should report to the supervisor under the faculty academic integrity
reporting system (FAIR). The cases of academic misconduct could be dealt under a number
of jurisdictional perspectives (Fida, Tramontano, Paciello, , Ghezzi & Barbaranelli, 2016). As
a nursing educator one needs to understand the ground based upon which the conditions and
situations of a student could be considered before imposing harsh and stricter punishments
upon them. One should be careful of dealing with the student carefully that is at no stage of
the education process can the educator give threat to the nursing student. Most of the times
the threat given to the students such a dismissal from college or making them flunk in their
examination can bear much negative consequences where the students are seen to indulge in
more such dishonest means. As mentioned by Laschinger, Nosko, Wilk & Finegan (2014),
the indulgence in academic dishonesty is academic dishonesty is often seen to emerge out of

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peer pressure additionally, as a subsequent measure one should make arrangements for
reporting of any such cheating activities by the fellow students on the campus. This ensures
that appropriate action is taken against such dishonest means and policies. As mentioned by
Wang & Liu (2015), all students must be given equal chances of reporting the cheating
activities. One can also take help from peer TAs for reporting of such activities and ensuring
that effective steps are taken. One should also ensure that the questions of the tests or else
arrange for cancellation of tests. As mentioned by Welsh (2017), compromising with quality
of nursing education can on a whole affect the quality of healthcare services provided. During
the entire process of dealing with the students one should ensure that they deal with them in a
manner, which holds the moral values and principles upright (Johnson & Halstead, 2015).
Application of the sections of the Australian Registered Nurse Standards for Practice,
ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses and the Code of Conduct for Nurses
A number of nursing codes of conduct and ethics could be described over here such as
the Australian Registered Nurse Standards for practice, ICN code of ethics and the code of
conduct for nurses. As per the nursing and midwifery board of Australia, there are number of
standards, which should be focused upon while impairing nursing education and practising
nursing care. Some of these are practising in a safe and competent manner, practising in
accordance with the standards of the profession, practising in accordance with the laws
relevant to the profession of nursing. One of the most important standards a mentioned in the
nursing code of practice and professional care is that the nurses should maintain and build on
the trust of the community in nursing profession. This corresponds to the standard 9 of the
Nursing and Midwifery Board Australia (NMBA). As mentioned by Devine & Chin (2018),
health care is seen with great regards and belief by people. Hence, any forms of
malpractices in nursing care and education are seen to be interfering with the overall well
being of people (Woodworth, 2016). Therefore, overall ethics and standards needs to be
maintained in the nursing education as it will help in the development of well trained
professionals. The nurse should promote the privilege and trust inherent in relationship
between nurses. Hence, at no cost any malpractices should be encouraged within nursing
care or amongst nursing professionals. It not only deteriorates the service quality but also
affects the quality of the professional relationships maintained between nursing professionals.

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The nursing code of ethics can be broken down for the educators and researchers in a
number of parameters and factors. As mentioned in the nursing code of ethics, the teaching
and learning opportunities should support ethical decision making (Saana,
Ablordeppey,Mensah & Karikari, 2016). Hence, the ethics need to be incorporated into
nursing care from the very beginning as ethics form a very important part of decision making.
The acts of beneficence and malefecience form a very important part of nursing care. Hence,
supporting an act of academic misconduct at such an early stage can deteriorate the
development of moral principles and values. The teaching activities should encourage long
life learning and competence for practice. As mentioned by Kam, Hue & Cheung (2018),
supporting cheating at an academic stage is against propagating the behaviour of long life
learning. The nursing code of ethics states that the importance of professional learning
should be sensitized in the learners. One of the most important ethics of nursing education is
effectively communicating ethics to professions. Hence, the students need to be reminded that
supporting any illegal activity in nursing education can favour the development of dishonest
nursing professionals. The sensitization of professional learning laid maximum importance
on developing sound knowledge of professional practice (Lynch et al., 2017). It places much
importance of building an effective knowledge regarding ethics. Hence, abiding by such rules
the cheating and dishonesty in nursing students needs to be strictly prohibited. Based upon
the nursing code of practices and education the professional codes of conduct of the nurses
are built (Tinnon, Masters & Butts, 2018). The professional code of conduct helps one in
understanding the importance of quality care. Based upon the Australian code of conduct for
nurse at no point during the clinical care the nursing educator should encourage malice or
unprofessional behaviour in the nursing students (Fisher, 2014). One of the most important
roles of the nursing educator is to ensure that the nursing students are taught regarding the
nursing code of ethics and policies. This helps in ensuring that integrity is maintained by the
nursing students on a professional level, which helps in preventing any case of maleficience
or academic misconduct.
Legal and future implications of cheating behaviour in nursing education
There are a number of legal implications of breaching nursing educational policies.
Some of these may include debarment from future examinations or dismissal from course.
Additionally, stricter legal action may be initiated against the nursing professionals, which
may hugely damage their reputation along with damaging the reputation of the professional

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institute. As mentioned by Weniger & Knight (2017), the legal protocols help in ensuring that
the quality of the nursing education is maintained. It also helps in preventing any future
breach of healthcare policies. In the lack of professional legal guidelines the quality of the
nursing care services may be hampered. The presence of the legal guidelines helps in
ensuring that any form of negligence in nursing education and care practices could be
avoided (Ziefle, 2018). Cheating in academics can influence the acquiring of knowledge,
skills and values in the nursing students. As per federal lawsuit, a legal initiative could be
introduced against a student enrolled in nursing program and found cheating (Lavin, Harper
& Barr, 2015). This is done in order to ensure that only best educated nursing professional are
made. It further helps in improving the quality of the care and support services.
The future implications of implementing strict ethical and legal principles in nursing
care is that it helps in preventing any future legal breaches in care service delivery. It also
helps in ensuring that quality education could be provided to the nursing professionals which
further raise the standards of the support and care services.
Conclusion
The current study focuses upon the nursing ethics and law which are pivotal in
influencing the standards of professional care. The ethics helps in ensuring that quality care
and support services are delivered by the nursing professionals. Additionally, the lawsuits
help in maintaining the professional standards. This could be further explained with the help
of professional nursing standards. The professional nursing standards could be broken down
into seven stages each with a different perspective and objective. Here, the nursing standards
and code of conduct have been discussed with respect to the case study where cheating and
academic dishonesty has been discussed. Therefore, at no stage during the nursing education
can the professional code of conduct be breached. This is because dishonesty and malice has
been seen to affect the long term effect of nursing care. Here more importance has been
placed upon sensitization of professional care. This could be done by teaching the nursing
professionals regarding the ethics and laws governing the care activities. Additionally,
maintaining strict protocol around nursing education can help in raining culturally aware and
professionally competent professionals.

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