Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing- Sam Case Study 2022

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Ethical and Legal Issues in
Nursing- Sam Case Study
Question 1
According to Jessica Wilson case study, Nurse Sam is faced with ethical issue that he must
address. First, Jessica is a minor who has confide to RN Sam that she might be pregnant and that
why she had fainted in school. Jessica does not want anyone including her mother to know about
her suspected pregnancy. Her mother arrives in the hospital and asks RN Sam if he has an idea
what could have caused the daughter to have upset stomach. From this scenario, RN Sam is
faced with an ethical dilemma of either adhering to minor’s consent and not sharing her health
information or going against the minor’s consent and sharing the health information with the
parent. Though Jessica is a minor, she is mature to understand the health implications of her
treatment but not above sixteen or eighteen years of age that allows for full consent legally. RN
Sam should therefore decide on this ethical dilemma and ensure he is acts on the best interest of
the patient and abide to relevant legal requirements.
Question 2
There are both ethical and legal principles that apply to Jessica case study. Ethical principles are
important to nursing practice and they guide nurses to make ethical decisions and have point of
reference on the actions they decide on. In this case scenario of fifteen year old girl require a
registered nurse to disclose her health information to her parent has two ethical principles that
apply; the autonomy and beneficence ethical principles. First, nurses must adhere to beneficence
ethical principle that requires them to do good and the right things to the patient. According to
Grace (2017) nurse’s actions should be based and aimed to promoting good. Nurses have a moral
obligation of acting for other people’s benefits and helping them attain legitimate and important
interests (Chadwick and Gallagher, 2016). The second ethical principle applicable to RN Sam
scenario is autonomy and involves patient’s self determination. Beeson et al. (2016) states that a
nurse should uphold patient self determination and accept each patient as unique person whose
perspectives, opinion, beliefs, and values should be respected. According to Brittain et al (2015),
autonomy obliges nurses to respect decisions of any person who has capacity to make decisions

and a nurse should observe the patient’s understanding, intentionality, and absence of controlling
influences. The principle of autonomy therefore requires nurses to tell the truth, protect
confidentiality of information, respect privacy and obtain consent with their patients. Legally, a
patient has right to privacy and nurses are required to maintain their information confidential.
Fisher et al., (2019) state that confidentiality is an important part of nurse-patient relationship
and patients have expectations that their personal information will be held confident by the
nurse. According to Garrett et al. (2015), the nurse duty to protect confidentiality of patient
information forms the basis of honesty and trust in the nurse patient relationship. Confidentiality
encourages a client to disclose truthfully personal information to a nurse without fear of harm,
embarrassment or discrimination that can arise from dissemination of the information (Santa
Maria et al., 2017). According to Privacy Act 1988, an individual is responsible for his or her
medical information and medical practitioners have an obligation to maintain the information
private. The Act 1988, recognizes a situation where a patient is an adolescent that a practitioner
can disclose the information to a parent or guardian if the adolescent not competent to decide on
own private decisions. However, a health practitioner cannot disclose an adolescent information
if he or she has capacity to make own private information even if a parent requests the
information. Pathak and Chou, (2019) noted that confidentiality is an important consideration to
young people when seeking medical treatment. Beeson et al. (2016) in their research found that
25% of adolescents reported that they cannot seek medical services because they are concerned
about their confidentiality. Fisher et al., (2019) in another study found that majority of young
people in United States has health issues they wish not keep confident from their guardians or
parents.
Question 3
From the case scenario, RN Sam has two available options for addressing the ethical problem
arising. The first option, RN Sam can decide to keep Jessica confidentiality and not disclose the
information to her mother. Jessica is fifteen years old and has capacity to make own private
decisions. She can understand the health problem, consequence of treatment choices and
potential risks that are associated with the treatment interventions or procedures. This means that
Jessica is able to make and own decisions about her health. According to International Council of
Nurses Codes of Ethics for Nurses (ICNCN), nurses’ first responsibility is to the people who