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Registered Nurses and Accountability - PDF - Desklib

   

Added on  2020-03-16

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Running head: REGISTERED NURSES AND ACCOUNTABILITY 1Should Registered Nurses be Held Accountable for Their Own Practice?Student’s NameInstitutional Affiliation

REGISTERED NURSES AND ACCOUNTABILITY 2IntroductionAccountability means being answerable, liable, blame worth as well as possibility of explaining about a certain action (Migrant, 2017). According to the definition by the American Nurses Association’s code of ethics, accountability entails being answerable to one’s own and others’ actions (Battie and Steelman, 2014). With regard to nurses, they may be held accountablelegally, ethically, and professionally for their actions, including omissions and inactions. On the other hand, professional responsibility refers to the moral and ethical obligations that permeate the nursing profession (Reid, n.d.). Accountability mainly entails competency, maintenance, safeguarding of quality patient care, outcomes and heeding to profession standards at the same time being answerable to those that are affected by one’s nursing actions (Ireland, 2017). In this regard, nursing accountability is a complex but vital concept. Currently, accountability is a principle relevant to all healthcare professionals. As the Royal College of Registered Nursing (n.d.) outlines, providers of health service are accountable to the criminal and civil courts. For RNS, they are accountable professionally to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). However, in many healthcare settings professional accountability has become an issue of concern. As Sherman (2013) claims, ethicists have observed as most healthcare aspects change, individuals’ willingness to accept accountability andresponsibility has reduced. As such, the current paper seeks to explore the issue on whether RNsshould be held accountable for their own practice. Evidently, RNs should be held accountable fortheir practice this keeps them in check to deliver quality care to patients, encourage them to meetthe set standards of care.

REGISTERED NURSES AND ACCOUNTABILITY 3For an RN to be deemed accountable, they must depict various aspects. They must have the ability to carry out a certain intervention or activity, accept responsibility, and have the authority to perform it, through delegation, protocols, and policies of the organization (Royal College of Nursing, n.d.). According to the Australian Medicare Local Alliance (2013), RNs are accountable for their actions and care they provide. Additionally, they are accountable for the delegation of care decisions to another health care provider such as the EN. Also, RNs are accountable for arriving at professional judgments regarding when an activity goes beyond their scope of practice or their own capacity (Australian Medicare Local Alliance, 2013). Roles of Registered NursesThe role of a registered nurse ranges from performing physical examinations to taking health history of patients (Aurora University, 2017). Registered nurses also provide health promotion, counseling and education to clients (Charter College, 2017).Additionally, registered nurses have other roles in the hospital to deal with the patients. They administer medications, do wound care and other personalized interventions to clients (Aurora University, 2017).In order to know what is required of a particular client registered nurses interpret patient information while making critical decisions about the needed actions (Registered Nurses, 2017). The registered nurses are also in coordinating care in collaboration with other health care professionals like doctors and enrolled nurses. They do this in order to ensure smooth running of all the nursing activities in the particular health facilities.Apart from direct care for the patients’ activities, registered nurses also engage in other roles all of which contribute to the positive running of their overall responsibilities. For instance,

REGISTERED NURSES AND ACCOUNTABILITY 4the registered nurses are in charge of directing and supervising care delivered by other health care officers like nurse helps and other practical licenses nurses and supervises the less-skilled nurses or particular units (Charter College, 2017). The registered nurses also engage in conducting research for improved practice support and the betterment of the patient outcomes (Aurora University, 2017).Areas of AccountabilityThere are several areas of accountability that RNs should be held accountable for. These include accountability to the patient, employer, profession, and to the union (Philips, n.d.). Foremost, RNs’ accountability is to the client where they hold out as individuals with special training, knowledge, and skills necessary to provide the best care. As such RNs have a duty to the client to offer standards of care that are reasonable and prudent. Compromising these standards would be detrimental to the patient and one should be answerable to the consequences. RNs’ accountability is also to their employer. As Philips (n.d.) outlines, as an employee, every nurse has a responsibility to carry out their duties in the scope of employment as the employer provides. As such, RNs are responsible for knowing their employment terms and work within them, and to know the procedures and policies that govern their employment scope. Failing to work within the defined scope may void the responsibility of the employer towards the RNs, thusleaving them to bear the liability cost of their activities Philips (n.d.). In addition to accountability to the client and employer, RNs are accountable to the profession where they are expected to meet their profession’s standards (Philips, n.d.). In this regard, RNs are required to carry out activities that are in the scope of their practice, and it is their responsibility to maintain as well as update the standards. With regard to accountability to

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