University Nursing Practice: Legal and Ethical Decision-Making Essay

This essay examines the legal and ethical considerations within professional nursing practice, particularly focusing on patient-centered care. It addresses the significance of privacy and confidentiality, referencing the Privacy Act 1988 and the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Regulation 2018. The essay emphasizes patient rights, as outlined by the Australian Charter of Health Care Rights, and the importance of patient involvement in healthcare decisions. It also analyzes the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Code of Conduct, highlighting its role in ensuring safe and ethical nursing practices. A video case study is used to illustrate violations of these ethical and professional standards, such as dismissive behavior and breaches of professional boundaries. The essay underscores the consequences of non-compliance with the NMBA standards, impacting the quality of care and patient safety. References include key legislation, guidelines, and research articles that support the discussion.

Running head:PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE
Legal and Ethical Decision Making in Person-centred Care
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE
Professional Practice
Professional practice can be described as the conduct of an individual who is working
in a specific profession. Professional Nursing Practice is a critical job with many
responsibilities (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). This essay is focused on the legal and ethical aspects
in the nursing profession for administering patient-centred care.
Privacy and Confidentiality within the Health field
According to the Privacy Act 1988, which was modified by the Health Practitioner
Regulation National Law Regulation 2018, the AHPRA has an obligation to protect
identifiable patient’s information. It was amended in 2012. This law in turn protects the
confidentiality of the patient when seeking healthcare (Legislation.gov.au., 2020).
Protecting a patient’s information is extremely important as this privacy is the basis of
trust between the patient and healthcare professionals. This protects the dignity of the patient
and the nurse must respect them.
Patient Rights
Australian Charter of Health Care Rights aims to outline the rights of the patients or
any individual who is currently being treated under the Australian Healthcare system. This
Charter helps the patients understand the rights, as well as their families. It provides an
understanding for all the individuals receiving healthcare (Australian Commission on Safety
and Quality in Health Care, 2019).
The patients understanding their rights and being part of the process is critical. It has
been noticed that the patients being aware of their rights makes them more connected
(Aagaard, 2017) as they can make their own decisions. In professional practice, the patients

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and the consumers are included to provide their perspective to the process (Schmidt &
McArthur, 2018).
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Code of Conduct
Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (the National Law) regulates the
function of The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). The main purpose of
the Codes of Conduct set by NMBA is to safe evidence-based practice for the nurses and
midwives and ensure the best possible patient-centred care in Australia (Nursing and
Midwifery Board of Australia, 2018). It describes the standards and legal obligations and
expectations towards the nurses that they must adhere to.
Video Case Study
In the video (Crossing Professional Boundaries as a Registered Nurse, 2020), patient
Ashleigh is suffering from severe pain. However, nurse Nickie is dismissive, which in turn
hampers her standard of practice. It is a direct violation of the NMBA Code of Conduct for
Professional Nurses (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2018). Moreover, Nickie
took a call rather than listening to the patient. She also talks about the patient in a
disrespectful way which is a violation of the National Law (Australian Health Practitioner
Regulation Agency, 2014). When Ashleigh’s brother comes to ask for help on behalf of
Ashleigh, she does not adhere to her professional boundaries and flirts with him, violating the
Code of Conduct and showing a lack of integrity and respect (Nursing and Midwifery Board
of Australia, 2018). She also provides inadequate information to the doctor and hence hinders
patient safety. This delayed Ashleigh’s care and could have been serious if Dr Jacobs did not
take initiative. It goes against the NMBA Standards of Practice since Nickie does not respect
most of the codes, making her incompetent and lowering the quality of care.

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Reference
Aagaard, T. (2017). Patient involvement in healthcare professional practice–a question about
knowledge. International journal of circumpolar health, 76(1), 1403258.
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. (2019). The Australian charter
of health care rights (second edition). Retrieved November 7th, 2019 from
https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/national-priorities/charter-of-healthcarerights/
review-of-the-charter-of-healthcare-rights-second-edition
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). (2014). National Board policy
for Registered health practitioner Social Media Policy. Retrieved November 7th,
2019, from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-
GuidelinesStatements/Policies/Social-media-policy.aspx
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Crossing Professional Boundaries as a Registered Nurse. (2020). [Video]. Retrieved 17
March 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-bOgRUJv4g.
Legislation.gov.au. (2020). Privacy Act 1988. Retrieved 17 March 2020, from
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00241.
Legislation.gov.au. (2020). Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012.
Retrieved 17 March 2020, from
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2012A00197.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2018). Code of conduct for nurses. Retrieved
October 29, 2019 from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/CodesGuidelines-
Statements/Professional-standards.aspx

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Schmidt, B. J., & McArthur, E. C. (2018, January). Professional nursing values: A concept
analysis. In Nursing forum (Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 69-75).