Legal Issues in Nursing: Exploring Professional Negligence in Care

This assignment critically analyzes legal issues in nursing, with a specific focus on professional negligence. The paper defines professional negligence within the context of nursing, emphasizing the failure to provide quality care, meet professional standards, or uphold responsibilities. It explores the legal ramifications of negligence, including breaches of duty, foreseeability, causation, and harm to patients. The assignment discusses the importance of documentation, adherence to standard care protocols, and the impact of negligence on the profession's dignity, patient trust, and potential for severe consequences, including injury and death. References to relevant literature support the discussion, highlighting the complexities and ethical considerations inherent in nursing practice. The paper underscores the importance of nurses understanding and fulfilling their responsibilities to patients, the profession, and the community to avoid legal issues and ensure patient safety.

Running head: LEGAL ISSUE IN NURSING
LEGAL ISSUE IN NURSING
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Author Note:

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LEGAL ISSUE IN NURSING
Introduction:
In the profession of nursing and medication many legal issues are often seen to have
been cropped up. Since the industry is a care providing industry, therefore, there are many
instances where the medical institution are posed with the issue of quality and attention and
other instances of litigations. According to Mahlanze, & Sibiya, (2017), the quality of the
care provided to the patients are often questions by the families of the patient which often
becomes a matter of legal situation. Moreover, the right and responsibilities of the nurses are
also enlisted under the legal issues.
Therefore, one of the major legal issue that the nurses are often posed with are the
issues with the duty of the nurses or the breaching ion the duties of the nurses, the
foreseeability in the services provided by the nurses, the causation and the harm or injury
made during the process of providing care (Wheeler, 2013). All these are therefore, perceived
as the quality issues and are documented under the professional negligence.
Legal Issue:
Professional negligence can be defined as the failure on the part of the care giver or
failing to meet the requirements or the basic steps that are to be taken in order to provide the
best quality or care to the person. Therefore, the professional negligence in the nursing
profession, refers to failing to provide the quality care that is needed or causing harm or
injury to the patient. In this notion it is important to mention that the professional negligence
comes into the perspective or the situation of nursing, when an experienced, nurse fails to
provide the quality care that is needed or fail to live up to the professional expectation, that
is , required or expected from her. The professional negligence, therefore, can only take place
when the performance or the care provided by a nurse deviates from the expected care or the
standard care (Cherry, & Jacob, 2016). The standard care therefore refers to the basic

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responsibilities that the nurses are to provide. These include the correct dosage of the
medicine, the correct timing of the medicine, the proper amount of attention and care given to
the patient, providing the correct advice to the patient and the family of the patient,
performing during the time of a critical operation, performing a treatment procedure,
reporting to the senior doctor regarding a particular patient timely, executing the testing
processes properly, and documentation. The documentation part is the most important aspect
of the nursing profession. The documentation includes documenting the history of a patient,
which is very critical (Baillie, & Black, 2014). While treating a patient for a particular disease
there are certain aspects and things that are to be maintained. For example, the previous
medication, the current medication situation, any major disease that happened in the past, or
any major psychological problem or behavioural problem if the person has. This is important
for the choices of medication for the person. The documentation process also includes
keeping an update on a particular patient. That is documenting the signs and symptoms, the
reaction to a particular medication, and the like. Therefore, these are the major aspects that
the professional standards of the nurse include. The professional standards in a nursing job
also include realising the responsibility that is included in the profession (Westrick, 2013).
The profession of nursing includes the essential aspects of responsibility, a nurse must
understand and realise her responsibilities, which includes responsibilities towards the
profession, responsibilities towards the particular patient, and the responsibilities towards the
nursing community. The nursing profession includes taking an oath before joining into the
profession. Therefore it is the duty of the nurses to execute the responsibilities that they are
supposed to get involved into.
However, it is often seen that in certain circumstances the individuals involved in the
profession fail to meet the criteria or fail to execute the responsibilities that they are provided
with and that they are supposed to take. Therefore the impact of the negligence in nursing

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profession, can be fatal for the patients involved (Tabloski, 2014). The dignity of the
profession is essentially attached to the failure in the practices. The nursing profession comes
with man commitments therefore failure to meet these commitments result into or can be seen
as breach in thee responsibility or profession. This is a legal offense, the profession requires
for the maintenance of the responsibilities and the commitments (Masters, 2018). Secondly,
the failure to meet the responsibilities or the failure to keep the commitments can also affect
the respect and the dignity of the person in practice. It often happens that when a person,
involved in the profession of nursing, fails to meet the criteria, or thee requirements of her
job, she is badly treated by thee medical institution, by the fellow doctors and of course by
the family of the patient party. They are disrespected and are thought to be incompetent for
the profession or practice (Huston, 2013). Respect and dignity, both of these are generated
from one simple word that is, Trust. Therefore, a person failing to meet the job requirements
and the criteria that are required by her profession, make her loose the trust of the people
involved in the act, and since the profession is very sensible and sensitive. Therefore, once a
person fails to meet the required aspects, it is very difficult for the person to gain back the
trust, which can therefore, affect the person’s future career.
Thirdly, the most important aspect of failing to meet the requirements and the
responsibilities is that it may cause fatal harm or injury or may can result into death. It has
often happened, when an individual involved in the profession of nursing fails to meet the
criteria, for example, not documenting the case history properly, mixing up the dosage,
improper dosage, not keeping proper updates, and the like (Griffith, & Tengnah, 2017). Such
an aspect is a punishable offense, and it can jeopardize the career of the person in practice, as
it is regarded to be a malpractice and legal measures are and can be taken against the person.

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Conclusion:
Nursing is a very intricate profession and it is often motivated by altruism. It can
provide a person with authoritative position, where the person can take decisions and at the
same time, there are certain social and ethical values that are included and involved in the
profession, which are to be taken care of.

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References:
Baillie, L., & Black, S. (2014). Professional values in nursing. Routledge.
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Griffith, R., & Tengnah, C. (2017). Law and professional issues in nursing. Learning Matters.
Huston, C. J. (2013). Professional issues in nursing: Challenges and opportunities. Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins.
Mahlanze, H. T., & Sibiya, M. N. (2017). Perceptions of student nurses on the writing of
reflective journals as a means for personal, professional and clinical learning
development. Health SA Gesondheid, 22(1), 79-86.
Masters, K. (2018). Role development in professional nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett
Learning.
Tabloski, P. A. (2014). Gerontological nursing. New York, NY, USA: Pearson.
Westrick, S. J. (2013). Essentials of nursing law and ethics. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Wheeler, H. (2013). Law, Ethics and Professional Issues for Nursing: A Reflective and
Portfolio-Building Approach. Routledge.