Understanding Nursing Ethics, Law, and Professional Guidelines Essay

This essay delves into the critical aspects of nursing ethics, law, and professional guidelines, using the Australian context as a framework. It explores the 'Code of Ethics of Registered Nurses' and its significance in maintaining patient care and professional integrity. The essay examines the legal an...Read More

Essay on Nursing Ethics, Law and Professional guidelines
1. Introduction
The “code of Ethics of Registered Nurses” is a document depicting how a nurse in Australia
is relied upon to act with respect to moral issues. Moral standards are built upon the
assumption that nurses value and respect the individuality of everyone. Different nations have
formulated white papers on the code of ethics for medical caretakers, and the foundation rule
is essentially the same for all nations. In this paper ethical code used in Australia will be
taken as a kind of perspective to contemplate the irregularities relating to the case study. This
task indicates why medical caretakers working in health care must work legitimately and
morally, portray some of the laws and tort laws applicable to the nurses, and also refer the
“Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's (NMBA) Code of Ethics and Code of
Professional Conduct” ("Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Professional models",
2019). Irregularities observed in the actions of the nurses can have serious consequences to
both the patient and the nurses.
Registered nurses have to function within a legal, ethical and professional framework to
ensure that the patient is adequately cared for and that the professionalism is maintained with
respect and trust (Tanaka, Taketomi, Yonemitsu & Kawamoto, 2014). The professional codes
as explained by NMBA are the guiding principle for nurses to work with professionalism and
nursing ethics and values. If nurses fail to comply with these codes, they face the
consequences like the loss of licence to practise, involve in legal tussles at court due to a
complaint by the patient, reputation risk and loss of trust from patients and other staff (Lima,
Newall, Kinney, Jordan & Hamilton, 2014). The legal parameters that affect nurses are those
as statutes and common laws and also tort laws as abuses and negligence.
“Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act of 2009” is a law introduced to establish a
national registration and accreditation system for healthcare professionals and students (Blair,
Kable, Courtney-Pratt & Doran, 2015). The national competency standards for the registered
nurse are the basic competency standards based on which assessment of the performance of
nurses is done for obtaining and retaining registration as a registered nurse in Australia
(Wardle, Sibbritt, Broom, Steel & Adams, 2016). As a registered nurse, these basic
competency standards give the framework for assessing the competence of the nurse and is
used by the board to assess competence during the renewal of annual registration in order to
assess nurses. The board can also use the competency standards to convey consumers the
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standards they can expect from nurses. The universities also apply the standards when
developing nursing plans, and assess students based on achievements. The various codes
which were violated will be discussed in connection with the case study.
2 The Body
Jane had a late night party though she knew that she had to attend the morning shift.
Moreover, she was leaving the scene by leaving Dan alone in the scene.
Jane has breached the code of nursing care and is negligent to her duty. Negligence can be
defined as lack of seriousness during nursing duty that happens when a nurse does not
perform the duty with full capability what a prudent nurse should do, that may result in
unnecessary sufferings of the patient.
The nurses in Australia are under the supervision of different codes of ethics. For profession
they are controlled by “Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's (NMBA) Code of Ethics
and Code of Professional Conduct” ("Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Professional models", 2019) and other related guides and standards. The code of contract
defined by the employer, people, through the state civil and criminal law and the individual
and public via their duty in relation to medical care. A registered nurse found negligent in
duty can be booked under any of the above code of conduct depending on the gravity of the
misconduct. Registered nurse Jane has violated the following NMBA code of ethics
("Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Professional models", 2019)
Code 2.1 explains that the fundamentals of care should be delivered effectively. She was
negligent and a number of cases of drug anomaly were observed. Code 5.1 explains that the
student nurse should be under proper supervision. She is not supposed to delegate any regular
nursing work to a student nurse. Code 2.1 also explains that the nurses should be careful
enough to see that the care is effective and measures taken by her should not have likelihood
of mistakes which may cause harm to the patient. Because of her hangover, she had
committed a number of mistakes in drug delivery to patients. Code 4.1 explains that the nurse
should work within a professional boundary by maintaining integrity, honesty, respect and
compassion. Reputation of their profession is to be preserved at all times by maintaining a
disciplined lifestyle. She should not enjoy a late night party and join duty immediately
without proper fitness. Code 4.1h also explains that registered nurses should provide effective
service to ascertain that patients’ wellbeing is protected and improve their experiences of the
health care system. This is the essence of professionalism which is lacking from her conduct.
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Studies conducted by different researchers identified that most of the nurses have poor
knowledge on the law that governed their profession and if they do not take remedial
measures, then in days to come, they have to face law suits for their negligence at workplace
and it will be difficult for them to continue with their profession (Cashin, Heartfield, Cox,
Dunn & Stasa, 2015).
Dane had taken advantage of blindness of the patient and took objectionable photographs of
the patient and posted the photos with sarcastic and vulgar language to show his friends some
of whom were nursing students. Dan has made gross violation to the following code of
ethics. Violation of “Code of conduct for nurses” ("Nursing and Midwifery Board of
Australia - Professional standards", 2019). “Principle 3.5a the confidentiality and privacy of
people is to be respected by seeking consent before disclosing information”; “Principle 3.5c
social media policy and relevant Standards for practice are to be followed”; “Principle 3.5e
the nurse should not share, transmit, reproduce or post any person’s information or images”.
All the principles are very clearly defined that a nurse should not indulge in capturing
photography of a patient and using the image for personal gains. She has violated principle
3.5 a, c & e. “Social media policy (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
[AHPRA], 2014)”. When using Internet-based social media sites, nurses ought to recall that
national law, the ethics and the professional code of conduct of the national council and the
guidelines for promoting for advertising regulated health services (the guidelines for
advertising) apply ("For registered health practitioners Social media policy", 2014).
Registered health professionals should post only that information that should comply with
professional obligations by maintaining confidentiality and privacy ("For registered health
practitioners’ Social media policy", 2014). The healthcare professional should use the
permitted options of the social media guidelines and can post unbiased information under,
evidence-based context and should not make any unsubstantiated claims. With awareness and
caution, nurses can keep away from unplanned exposure of classified or private data about
patients. If the guidelines are followed there is a minimum risk of using social media as
detailed in the following paragraph. Nurses must perceive that they have a moral and lawful
commitment to preserving the patient's confidentiality and privacy (Cherry and Jacob, 2016).
Nurses are strictly prohibited from posting any patient-related picture utilizing any electronic
media. Likewise, nurses are constrained to exchanging any information that can be expected
to violate the patient's confidentiality or privacy rights, or generally compromise the patient’s
safety. Disciplinary actions can be taken by the administration of the hospital authorities
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against the nurses for using social media against the interest of the organization (Brous and
Olsen, 2017). Nurses may not post, share or disseminate information or pictures about a
patient with anybody unless there is a requirement to disclose the information which is
related to patient care or other legal obligations to do that. The nurse must not disclose the
name of the patient, or post or disseminate information that may lead to the identification of
the patient. Limiting access to posts by means of privacy settings is not adequate to ensure
privacy. Nurses must not refer patients in a defaming way regardless of whether the patient
isn't distinguished. Nurses should not take videos or photos of patients on own devices,
including mobile phones. They should follow the guidelines of the employer to take videos or
pictures of patients for treatment or other legitimate purposes using employers' devices.
Nurses must keep up professional boundaries for the use of electronic media ("When Is
Posting about Patients on Social Media Unethical "Medutainment” ", 2018). Unlike personal
relationships, the nurses have to communicate, establish and enforce professional boundaries
with patients in an online environment. They should be cautious using online chats with
patients or former patients. Online chats with patients or former patients create a lot of
confusion about the personal or professional relationship. The fact is that the patient can
initiate contact with the nurse, but this should be treated as an official communication by the
nurse and the reply should be given in a professional fashion. Nurses must consult employer
guidelines or some senior experienced nurse for guidance on the work-related post. Many
academic journals have published papers on use and abuse of social media by nurses. Use of
social media can pose risks to the nurses due to unprofessional behaviour and privacy
violation.
The data posted on the social destinations is open to all and anybody can present the data due
on which the data accessible is not always trustworthy. There are additionally some privacy
concerns on using social media by some nurses for posting patient’s photo in Facebook.
National Council State Board of Nursing (NCSBN) have observed many instances of abuse
of social media by nurses ("Free Access to Scientific Journals", 2015).
Jane was a senior nurse and she should be aware of the outcome of negligence in as critical
service where human life is involved. She should lead a disciplined life and should be careful
enough to deal with patient care. Such kind of negligence can put her in serious troubles
either from the patient side or from her employer for negligence of duty. In case of Dane,
since he has just come out of college, he still thinks that the hospital is just like his college.
Out of fun he has taken photo of the patient to show his friends. But he should understand
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that he can lose his job if this type of gross misconduct is viewed by the hospital
administration seriously. He should be fully aware of the nursing code of conduct prevalent
in Australia.
The registered nurse was not physically fit for duty and she should have applied for leave
instead of joining duty and making a series of mistakes. The student should think that he has
joined nursing to serve the needy and should take the job seriously. He must have studied
about abuse of social media and should keep his restrained when on duty. The complaint
against him by one of the student nurse should be viewed seriously and he should desist from
such kind of irresponsible act in future.
3. Conclusion
To be successful in the profession, nursing requires a certified training process, a licensing
and certification system and an ethical code of conduct to practice. NMBA 2018 code of
ethics for medical caregivers with interpretations help to maintain professionalism,
respectability and integrity.
The enlisted medical caretakers must know moral guidelines and see how they apply to their
day by day practice. It is likewise critical to know about the moral concerns revealing
procedure and solicitation thought in their association. Accessible instructive contributions
should be investigated and they need discourse with their friends to help the moral
consideration region as a major aspect of their own and expert development and
improvement.
Social media has great benefits for reinforcing individual relationship and giving significant
information to consumers of healthcare services, just as giving nurses an important chance to
contact associates everywhere throughout the world (Michaelidou and Micevski, 2018).
Nurses ought to know about the possible outcomes of revealing patient data through social
media (Boddy and Dominelli, 2016) and focus on the related policies of the employer,
relevant state and government laws and guidelines with respect to protection and privacy of
the patients. Being cautious and principled, nurses can appreciate the individual and
professional benefits of web based social networking without compromising the security and
privacy of the patient (Tuckett, Kim and Huh, 2017).
Development of the codes ought to be considered as an ongoing process, so it is normal that
the nurses should reflect and improve upon the shortcomings observed during reflection in
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their practice. The learning points for both the registered nurse and the student nurse should
be used as a reflection to student nurses who are not aware of the implication of lapses in the
role of nurses. Serious lapses may lead to cancellation of registration and termination from
the job.
The setting of nursing practice, including limitations due to jurisdiction, is real boundaries to
the declaration of scope of practice of nursing professionals. These restrictions, though, not
excessively difficult, continue upsetting nurses to practise to their full potential. Moreover,
the setting of nursing practice, including limitations due to jurisdiction, is a significant barrier
to the expression of scope of practice of nurse practitioners. These impediments, though can
be overcome, keep on hindering nurses to practise to their fullest scope (Scanlon, Cashin,
Bryce, Kelly and Buckely, 2016).
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