Analysis of Law, Ethics, and Professionalism in Nursing Practice

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the crucial aspects of nursing practice, including law, ethics, and professional guidelines, using a case study involving a student's derogatory comments on social media. The report begins with immediate actions such as addressing the student's behavior and the application of defamation law, followed by subsequent actions to prevent future incidents. It explores the importance of maintaining professional standards, adhering to the ICN code of ethics, and understanding policies like APHRA's social media policy and NMBA's code of conduct. The report details the legal and potential implications of such actions, highlighting the impact on the victim and the potential consequences for the offending student, including legal penalties and suspension. The analysis emphasizes the significance of ethical behavior, professionalism, and the importance of maintaining a positive and respectful environment within nursing practices.

Understanding Law, Ethics, Professional
Guidelines and their Relationship to
Nursing Practice

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Immediate action.........................................................................................................................1
Subsequent actions......................................................................................................................2
Applicable sections.....................................................................................................................3
Possible legal and future implications of the action....................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
In nursing practices, there are various aspects that are associated that seems essential
enough to be involved so that all the processing of the operations and services can go in an
efficient and appropriate manner. Some very well known and basic aspects involve the analysis
and understanding of the ethics, law and other factors that leads to maintenance of
professionalism in various different nursing practices (Green and Karolides, 2014). The report is
about analysing a case. The case study to be used in the report is that a fellow student has made
some derogative and irrelevant comments on a Facebook post. So, it involves the discussion
about the actions and preventive measures to be taken in order to control such actions.
Immediate action
The immediate action that could be taken is that the person should be made aware of the
fact that it is completely unacceptable to pose any remarks regarding anything, whether it would
be the colour, age, gender or even the way of teaching of someone. It is not acceptable because a
few disrespectful or derogative comments about anyone can have a negative impact on the image
of the person and that might affect their way of living and dealing with the situation as well. In
nursing practices, it is very important to ensure that every single person is aware of the laws so
that they might not get indulge in any such activity that can seem harmful for any other person
(Rudge, 2015). There are various laws and policies that have been developed by the Australian
government in order to avoid any such complications in the nursing practices so that they can
keep their focus on providing an efficient quality of treatment to the people, thus making lives
better and healthy.
As the fellow student has been commenting negative and disrespectfully, the law of
defamation can be taken as the immediate step. As per the law of defamation, it helps in
protecting the reputation of the person from false comments or ideas of anyone. So, the fellow
student who was going very derogative about the lecture, it can be applied for the same. It is
because it is completely OK if a person is not satisfied with the thoughts and ideas of some other
person but on the basis of that, making irrelevant comments on that is not acceptable because it
affects the fame as well as can effect the behaviour of the person. Also, it can lead to depression
and other related complications (Morton, Fontaine and Gallo, 2017). So, the law of defamation
can help the lecturer to stay prevented from any unfair attack such as the disrespectful comments
made by the student etc. The law also helps in hampering the free speech so that the higher
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authorities such as lecturer etc. of the nursing practice can stay prevented from scrutiny. There
are two types of defamation, one is the oral and the other is published. The student made
comments on a Facebook post and they were threatening and disrespectful as well, so this can be
considered as published defamation, which is also known as libel (Witney, Joyce and Vicki,
2015). So, for slandering the law, the teacher can file a complaint against it and the student can
then receive a legal notice. Also, the student can get a legal letter by the lawyer of the lecturer to
remove the matter as soon as possible.
Subsequent actions
There are various subsequent actions that can be taken by the lecturer in order to avoid
any such issues in the future. The internet is not considered as a liability free zone because it
takes no time to the broadcast of some specific comment of some person. So, a comment on
some specific page does not mean that it will remain to them only. It can be shared, liked, unlike
by an enormous number of population. So, the fellow student who mage false comments
regarding the lecture of the lecturer should be aware of the fact that they have to face liability
because of that. Also, the student can remove the comments and reply a sorry comment on the
behalf of that. Also, the nursing care can make involvement of various factors that can help then
in avoiding the same incidents in the future (Forrester, 2017). A very common example of this
can be considered as the fact that if the nursing care can make everyone aware of the policies,
legislations etc. then the employees, nurses can also ensure that they may have to go through the
consequences of this. It is because there may be the possibility that the ideas and views of two
individuals does not match, but making derogative and threatening comments on the basis of that
is completely not acceptable and the persons found guilty may have to pay huge penalties. Also,
the punishment can lead the person to go behind the bars as well.
To prove the defamation, there should be sufficient amount of proof so that it can be
proved that someone has actually tried to defame. The nursing care centres can also organise a
variety of sessions in which they can help the nurses and employees to know the importance of
ethics and professionalism in the nursing practices. These elements play a very important role
while dealing with the operations and services of the nursing care. Professionalism in nursing
covers various aspects such as non biased care for the individuals, respect, a positive attitude,
team work etc. So, the nurses as well as the other team members, students must ensure the fact to
maintain a balance between all these factors so that it can lead the nursing care centres to achieve
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all their targets and goals at a much faster rate. The fellow student who commented negative and
posted threatening and disrespectful comments on the Facebook post about the lecturer can also
be understood that it is not the way to show the hatred or disrespect and this can also lead to
various further complications. So, it is better not to make use of any such methods, rather include
ways such as helping, advising and suggesting more efficient ways that can help.
Applicable sections
Maintaining the standards
In managing the nursing practices, one of the essential factor is that the nurse should be
aware of the ways to maintain the actual standards. It is important so that there should not be any
delay or compromise in the way the patient is to be treated. Also, the involvement of technology
can prove as a beneficial factor (Buka, Davis and Pereira, 2016). Various modern and advanced
scientific factors can also be included so that an efficient amount of care and treatment can be
provided to the patients. The fellow student who posted irrelevant comments should also be
guided about the standards and policies so that they should stay aware that such actions can lead
to further complications and can get legal as well. Also, there should be an efficient relationship
and interaction between the people involved in the nursing practices. It is because having a good
interaction with all the students and authorities is considered as very essential to stay fresh and
motivated towards achievement of the goals.
Code of Ethics
It is also advised to make use of the ICN code of ethics and not only for the nurses, but
also for the students practising nursing. So, all the centres of the nursing care and practices can
make sure to involve the ICN code of ethics so that it can help all of them to stay aware of all the
standards and essential ways such as being in professionalism while performing the operations
etc. It is important because it will help them in maintaining a balance between the functionality
of the services (Green and Karolides, 2014). Also, the centres of the nursing care and practices
can involve various opportunities for the students, lecturers and nurses so that it can help in
fostering their competencies to a huge extent so that it can help in promoting the positive
influence of the values that are being used. So, these functions can be considered as essential
ones that play a very important role in maintaining a balance with the functionality of the
operations and services that are being used in the nursing practices.
APHRA'S social media policy
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This code of conduct helps in providing standards for the professional behaviour that can
be implemented by the nurses and the staff. It is because this helps in maintaining the
professionalism in the nursing practices (Witney, Joyce and Vicki, 2015). So, the code of
conduct also provides professional standards that are to be implemented in each and every care
centre involving the nursing practices. There are various obligations as well on the
advertisements of the promotion of the health care services. Whether it is through the means of
social media or advertisements, it should follow the basic guidelines and standards and do not
violate nay of the factor.
NMBA's code of direct nurses
As per the nursing and midwifery board of Australia, it helps in providing various
standards, codes that can further promote a safe and professionalism in the nursing practices.
NMBA helps the nurses and midwives to understood the new needs and requirements that are to
be changed in order to bring a sort of modification and improvement in the whole system of the
operations and services of the nursing practices (Morton, Fontaine and Gallo, 2017).
Possible legal and future implications of the action
The action that has been taken by the fellow student that they have made derogative,
disrespectful and threatening comments can actually have a very negative impact on the person
or victim. Libelling the law or making unfair comments about a person is completely not
acceptable at all (Green and Karolides, 2014). It can have various legal implications as well on
the person guilty. As the fellow student has made derogative, threatening and disrespectful
comments on the Facebook post about the lecturer, the lecturer here holds the right to sue the
student. It is because the comments can be act responsible for affecting the popularity and
reputation of the lecturer. In the nursing practices, it is very important to consider the ethics,
professionalism and laws because if all these are to be kept in mind, it can help in decreasing the
rate of such incidents (Arnold and Boggs, 2015). Out of the libel and slander, the fellow student
can be charged under the libel because commenting on the Facebook post is termed as a form of
written communication. Either the chances to go in prison are less but the fellow student has to
pay a huge penalty amount to the lecturer if they have made a complaint against it.
On the basis of these comments, the lecturer holds the right to sue the fellow student.
Also, along with these legal implications, it can throw a huge impact on the person itself. As in
such cases, there are high chances of the person getting through issues like depression etc.
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Although there are some strong personalities as well that do not get much affected by it but some
gets affected as well. So, in this case, while analysing the nursing practice also, if the lecturer on
which the derogative and threatening comments have been made, there is a possibility that the
lecturer can go in depression etc. (Brown, 2014), so it however throws an impact on the personal
as well as professional lifestyle of the lecturer. So, it is very important to stop this type of
behaviour and actions. So, on the basis of this action, the fellow student can get suspended as
well. It is because such practices throw a negative impact on all the operations and procedures.
Thus, it demonstrates a sort of lack in the professionalism and ethics of the procedures that are
being implemented in the nursing practices. Although, imprisonment is likely to be involved less
but the lecturer here holds the power to sue the student and in return, the student might have to a
pay a huge amount of money as a penalty.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the report that the way of making derogative, threatening
comments made by the fellow students is totally not acceptable. It can throw a negative impact
on the reputation of the lecturer. So, while implementing the operations in the nursing practices,
some elements are required to be involved in order to achieve all the processing in an efficient
and appropriate manner. Ethics, laws and professionalism play a very major role in all the
nursing practices and can help in preventing such issues so that the health care centres can be
bale to keep their focus on achieving their targets, thus making the lives of people better and
safe.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brown, D., 2014. Penality and imprisonment in Australia. Comparing Prison Systems, 367.
Buka, P., Davis, M. and Pereira, M., 2016. Care of Vulnerable Older People: Legal and Ethical
Aspects of Nursing. Palgrave Macmillan.
Forrester, K., 2017. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL ASPECTS OF NURSING
PRACTICE. Contexts of Nursing: An Introduction, p.153.
Green, J. and Karolides, N.J., 2014. Encyclopedia of censorship. Infobase Publishing.
HEATON, L., 2014. Legal aspects of nursing. Kozier & Erb's Fundamentals of Nursing
Australian Edition. 3. p.57.
Rudge, J., 2015. Australians' Right to be Bigoted: Protecting Minorities' Rights from the Tyranny
of the Majority. Brook. J. Int'l L.. 41. p.825.
Williams, G., 2015. The legal assault on Australian democracy: The annual Blackburn
Lecture. Ethos: Official Publication of the Law Society of the Australian Capital
Territory. (236). p.18.
Witney, C., Joyce, M., Ms, C. and Vicki, C., 2015. Munchausen by Internet and nursing practice:
An ethnonetnographic case study.
Arnold, E. C. and Boggs, K. U., 2015. Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Morton, P. G., Fontaine, D. and Gallo, B. M., 2017. Critical care nursing: a holistic
approach (p. 1056). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
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