Ethical Issue of Signature Forgery in Nursing Profession

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Nursing is the backbone of healthcare system of the county. Most of the times, nurses are given
the responsibility to save the lives of the people at crucial circumstances. They regularly
encounter the dilemma of making ethically sound decisions. In healthcare profession, the nurses
must realize the importance of accurate record-keeping and maintaining ethical conduct related
to signatures. In the present essay, the ethical issue of signature forging is discussed. In the given
case, a colleague is asked to attend the class and forge the signature in the attendance sheet of the
student. It can be perceived as an unethical behavior. In the nursing profession, signature forging
is considered as a serious disciplinary matter. In such situation, the nursing student must be
charged under the discipline regulations of the University. The nursing ethical committee and the
University discipline committee heavily penalize such misconduct. It is due to the fact that the
nursing profession is based on ethics, integrity, sense of responsibility and self-discipline. In this
essence, the present essay will discuss the issue of signature forging and provide possible actions
to address the issue.
Forging of signature is a serious ethical issue and required immediate legal action. Even in
normal circumstances, forging signature should be addressed with legal action as it can result in
fraud. The results of signature forging are negative on the finances and the image of the person.
Moreover, the nursing professionals have to be ethically responsible as they have the
responsibility of protecting the lives of the patients. The case of signature forgery among the
students is a serious issue. It is a common practice among the students to forge each other’s
signature in the attendance sheet. However, it encourages absenteeism. Moreover, students do
not value the importance of being present in the class. This behavior should be immediately
reported to the ethical committee (Park, Kjervik, Crandell, & Oermann, 2012).

The nurses have the responsibility of protecting the health, safety and the rights of the patients. It
is unethical behavior of the nurses to forge the signature of the patients or a colleague. It impacts
the right of other person in making an informed, self-derived and autonomous decision. The
nurses have a high job responsibility as they have to honor, protect ad respect the right of
patients and their peers. The nurses must honor their rights and the rights of their patients. While
making ethical decisions, the nurses must be attentive to the legal language and understand how
their actions affect others (Cannaerts, Gastmans & Casterlé, 2014).
In order to promote ethical actions, the government and the nursing committee have made
several laws to address the fraud and abuse in the healthcare. These committees are also focused
on encouraging moral behavior in the name of ethics. It is the responsibility of the organization
to motivate moral behavior, settling disagreement and controversies among different people
(Johnstone, 2011). The committees have designed ethical guidelines to promote ethical behavior
among the nurses. The nursing ethics is a specific discipline, which concerns with the ethical
behavior in the field of nursing. The nursing principles are concerned with several values, such
as beneficence, non-maleficence and respect for autonomy. Other than that, the nursing ethics are
also based on emphasis on relationships, human dignity and collaborative care to the patients.
The nurses have the ethical responsibility to address the high-quality care to the patients (Bollig,
Gjengedal & Rosland, 2016). Therefore, they should be familiar to the ethical code of conduct
and use them in the decision making. The international nursing code of conduct is culturally
adapted so that the nurses can adapt their behavior according to the geographical location and the
behavior of the customers. The ethical codes provide the required elements for the ethical
conduct and assist the nurses in taking the ethical decisions. The nurses have several duties such
as to work as clinical nurse, researcher, administrator and the policy makers. The nursing ethics