The medical experts or health workers

Running head: CASE STUDY ON JASMINE
Case Study on Jasmine
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

CASE STUDY ON JASMINE
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Introduction
This case study depicted the life story of Jasmine, who is a 15-year-old
student. As per the case study, the patient is reported to recently have a sexual
relationship with her boyfriend who was two years older than her and attended the
same school. Her boyfriend had two sexual partners before, but it was the first time
for her. Although, she seems to be happy with her present relationship but fears of
getting pregnant and wants to take contraceptive pills without letting her parents
know.
Considering the above scenario, the healthcare professionals including
nurses may face conflicts with respect to their ethical and legal responsibilities
towards the patient. Thus, the essay highlights on the ethics and laws fundamental
to professional conduct among the healthcare professionals with an overview of the
cultural aspects in relation to the case and also a brief description of the adverse
health effects related to the above scenario.
Part A
Professional and Legal Responsibilities –
For a health care professional, proving quality care is very crucial for both the
patient as well as for them. However, providing an enhanced and quality care can be
often challenging for them since there are a lot of ethical and legal responsibilities
considered while delivering care to the patients. Consent is always taken from the
patients of all age groups regarding their decision about the treatment, provided that
they are supplied with all the necessary information and advices given by the
medical experts or health workers. Every health workers must provide adequate
information to the patients and inform them about the treatment approaches or
options available to make them participate in the decision making process and
respect their decision completely. If any health worker is found to be violating this
role, are considered to be negligent.
The common law of Australia applied in medical practices has specifically
legislated the appropriate age of giving informed consent prior to giving treatment.
Although, the common law states that the appropriate age is 18years for giving

CASE STUDY ON JASMINE
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informed consent to treatment, the common law relating to a minor’s competency to
consent established by “Gillick” and approved by the High Court of Australia in a
case, “Marion’s Case” states that the parent’s authority decreases progressively with
time when their child becomes competent. Therefore, Gillick suggests that the
parental right of determining and deciding their child’s treatment terminates when the
child under 16 years of age is able to understand fully the medical treatment
proposed.
It is the professional duty of the health care providers to maintain
confidentiality of the patients for privacy issues while providing care to the patients of
any age (2). The exemptions to maintain confidentiality are considered from both
ethical and legal aspects, where the patient consents to disclosure, or the patient
has expressed consent through verbal or written permission to disclose their
information to a third party.
The health care providers must apply the ethical considerations of their
professions. The issue of confidentiality refers not to share the information related to
the patients to other people but in order to plan and implement the necessary
intervention strategies addressing the patient’s issues and concerns, it is important
to maintain their duty of care by building a relationship of mutual trust to facilitate an
effective delivery of an enhanced care for an improved health outcome.
In some cases, it may be possible that the health care providers may have to
inform to the third parties. Third parties include parents or any other person who can
take care of the patients as well (4).Moreover, the nurses may have to maintain
conditional confidentiality which indicates that the concerns are partly provided to the
patients without giving them direct information. This includes simple explanations of
various concerns provided by the nurse that cannot be informed to the patients
directly (3). Therefore, in this case, the conditional confidentiality may be applied to
the patient Jasmine as she is only 15 years old.
Considering the legal responsibility of the health care professionals, it is
reported that the medical professionals should consider all the related legislation and
practices related to the delivery of care to the adolescents. Therefore, the health
care professionals must consider client’s legal rights and must maintain the
legislative considerations throughout the treatment process as well. Apart from that,