Law, Ethics, Professional Guidelines, and their Relationship in Nursing Practice

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Law, Ethics, Professional Guidelines, and
their Relationship in Nursing Practice-
Dan and RN Jane Case Scenario
Law, ethics, and professional guidelines form an important aspect to high quality nursing
care delivery. Law, professional guidelines, and ethics enable nurses as health professionals to
practice competently with integrity. Law is the written legal standards by the government that
determine who is competent for nursing practice (Birks, Davis, Smithson, & Cant, 2016). Ethics
are standards are moral values that provide basis to what actions, motives, and intentions are
acceptable to how a group or people conduct or behave themselves. Ethics determine what is
right or wrong in the nursing practice. Professional guidelines maintain and direct safe and
clinically competent nursing practice (Chiarella, & Adrian, 2014). Nurses need to understand the
relationship of laws, professional, and ethical guidelines in order to practice within the defined
nursing scope while maintaining safe and competent nursing practice. The following essay
discusses issues of law, ethics and professional standards on governing nurses’ behaviour and
decisions making framework a case study of Dan a student on placement and Registered nurse
Jane the Dan’s preceptor. This involve the identification of the transgressions and potential
transgression by both the nursing student and registered nurse, how the transgressions violates
the Australian Registered Nurse Standards, legal ethical implications of the transgression and
what should have been done to avoid the transgression.
In the case scenario, both Dan the nursing student on placement and RN Jane the
preceptor committed transgressions in the nursing practice. First, RN Jane reported on duty with
hangovers from a previous night out where she arrived home at 0330. RN Jane had shocking
hangover and could barely think. Hangovers have negative effects and impact a nurse
performance that undermines the ability of the nurse to carry out responsibilities and duties in a
safe manner. Secondly, RN Jane took hospital’s medicines for personal use. She pocketed
paracetamol from the medicine room that were not prescribed for her. The medicine she took
was meant for personal use. Thirdly, RN Jane made medication discrepancies when
administering prescription to the patients. Dan pointed out several occasion that RN Jane made

medication discrepancies that are risky to the patients’ health under her nursing care. Fourth, Dan
took photos of a patient and posted them on Facebook and indicated the patient name, the
hospital name and negatively mentioned the preceptor. This interfered with the patient’s privacy
and confidentiality. Dan message on social media also paints nursing profession in a negative
manner that can damage public trust bestowed to the profession.
Dan, the student nurse message on Facebook violated the Code of Ethics for Nurses,
Australian Registered Nurse Standards for Practice and the Code of Conduct for Nurses. The
social media post is a transgression of patient’s confidentiality and privacy. Dan discretely took
couple of photos of the patient’s wound and shared it on Facebook. In the post, Dan used the
patient real name that reveals the patient’s identity. Though Dan was just intrigued by the
situation, it a transgression that violates professionalism of nursing practice. In this case, Dan
violates the Standard 2 of Registered Nurses for Practice of Australia that requires nurses to
engage in purposeful and appropriate therapeutic and effective professional relationships
("Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Registered nurse standards for practice", 2016).
The relationships should be in the context of mutual respect and trust that enables nurses to
optimally undertake nursing care and enhance patient health outcome (Henderson, & Dahnke,
2015). Dan failed to sustain a relationship that differentiates the boundaries that exist between
personal and professional relationships. Dan also fails to communicate effectively and be
respectful to the patient’s dignity and rights for privacy and confidentiality as required in
Standard 2 section 2 of Registered Nurses Standards of Practice of Australia. Dan posting Fred’s
photos on Facebook violates Principle 3 section 5 on confidentiality and privacy that is under
cultural practice and respectful relationships of Code of Conduct for Nurses in Australia. Nurses
have legal and ethical obligations to protect people’s privacy. According to Green (2017)
patients expect nurses to keep any information about them confidential and use the information
for administering nursing care only. Code of Conduct for Nurses Principle 3 section 5 require
nurses to abide by Social Media Policy as outlined by NMBA and ensure usage of social media
by nurses is consistent with legal and ethical obligations to protect patient’s privacy ("Nursing
and Midwifery Board of Australia - Professional standards", 2018). Ferguson (2017) stated that
everything posted on social media is public and nurses should view posts from a public
perspective to avoid posts that can be misconstrued as demeaning or uncaring to a patient. Dan
action to post Fed’s photos on Facebook also violates Value Statement 7 of Code of Ethics for