Health Ethics Report: Nursing Ethics, Drug Use, and Reporting

This report delves into the ethical obligations of nurses, particularly concerning the use of drugs and the importance of reporting misconduct to ensure patient safety and uphold professional standards. It highlights the legal and ethical responsibilities nurses have, including adherence to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) standards and the consequences of substance abuse on their practice. The report also examines the ethical dilemmas faced by nurses when colleagues are suspected of being under the influence and emphasizes the role of AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) in safeguarding patient care and maintaining ethical conduct. The report stresses the importance of reporting such instances to the appropriate authorities and provides a detailed overview of the reporting process and the need for accurate documentation of suspected behaviors.

Running Head: Health ethics
Health Ethics
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Health ethics
The nurses and the midwives’ duty is to take care of the children and they are under legal
obligations under relevant state of territory law. It is to notify if any case of child abuse or
neglect disclosure of such kinds of problem results in consequences which ranges from a
period of treatment and rehabilitation of nurses having their license for practicing revoked
(IVEY, 2015).
Mainly, nurses are bound to dispose the portion of schedule 8 drug which is not used by
removing the rest of the portion from the original ampule, syringe or vial and it has to be
disposed in such a way that it should be able to prevent retrieval and reuse (NSW Ministry of
Health, 2013).
At the time when nurses use alcohol and drugs in an inappropriate way such that it impacts
clinical practice, they put the patients care at risk and also of their peers (AHPRA, 2014).
According to the standard 3 of the Registered Nurse standards for practice (Nursing and
Midwifery Board of Australia [NMBA], 2016) proposes that RN’s, as ordered health care
professionals, they are accountable for safeguarding that they are safe and also are able to
practice, although, when any nurse is on duty and is under the effect of drugs or the alcohol,
he or she is totally unethical in his or her profession and unethical in behaviour too.
Such usage of substances which can impact nurse’s behavioural and manual skills, breaks the
moral and ethical statements and the rights that the consumers have to have a good quality
treatment and care (Ivey, 2015). Apart from that, when the nurse is influenced with drugs
and it is known to the co-workers as it affects the practice of nursing, those co-workers also
go under the ethical dilemma and the senior staff also starts feeling the same. In other words,
the co-workers go in the position where they have to take a decision for reporting it to the
higher authority or not in order to maintain the code of conduct of nursing practice.
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Health ethics
AHPRA has educated the nurses that they should be able to protect the trustworthy
information and also safeguard the patient and other customers from unethical practice done
by any nurse or individual.
Nurses have this responsibility to communicate the staff about the suspect who is being
influenced by harmful and dangerous usage of alcohol and drugs (Australian Nursing
Federation [ANF], 2012). The just immediate senior or manager should be informed about
such kind of instances although, it might need important notification to AHPRA as needed
under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Victoria) Act 2009 (as cited in ANF,
2012). Any kind of reporting should be poisonous and it should be reinforced by a detailed
depiction of the suspected behaviours (AHPRA, 2014).
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