Nursing Ethics and Professional Practice: A Case Study Analysis

This case study examines a situation where a nurse altered a patient's medical record and prescribed medication without authorization, leading to ethical and professional conduct breaches. The analysis highlights violations of nursing ethics, codes of conduct, and the importance of critical thinking in patient care, particularly in emergency situations. The nurse's actions are assessed against the guidelines set by organizations like AHPRA, emphasizing the impact of such actions on patient health and the nurse's career. The case study also explores the benefits of reflective practice in improving workplace situations, decision-making, and patient care management. The student reflects on how this scenario can inform their future nursing practice, promoting ethical decision-making and adherence to professional standards.

Nursing
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1. The nurse has failed to apply critical thinking in the false recording of the medical entry of the
patient. Since the nurse is an enrolled nurse and was practicing in an emergency department her
action of altering the medical report is an ethical issue regarding her nursing profession. The
nurse has failed to analyse the effect of altering the report of the medical record of the patient.
The patient was in a serious condition and any action or wrong medication may lead to any
serious health issue or even death of the patient so by doing so the nurse has done a serious
mistake and has not obeyed the professional nursing practices, ethics and nursing codes of
conduct (Griffiths, 2015).
4.As per to the code of conduct the nurse should not provide a medication without any
authorization from the general physician of the patient, the nurse should not alter or make any
changes in the medical report of the patient without the awareness of the doctor. The nurse
should prescribe any medication to a patient with verbal conversation with the general physician
over phone about the condition of the patient (Faa.gov, 2015). There are the codes of conduct
that are noticed to be violated by the nurse here. Since the patient was in emergency ward any
wrong action by the nurse might have harmed the patient physically or mentally.
5. The nurse has breached the following code of ethics the fundamental values and commitments
of nurses, to adhere to the boundaries of duty and loyalty of nurses and aspect of duty beyond the
personal patient care. The actions performed by the nurse while prescribing the medication and
making false entry and providing false statement all are the indicators of not following the
ethical codes for nurses.
8. The professional should include the adherence of the nurse to the professional code of conduct
for the nudes, to adherence to the ethics that has to be followed by the nurse during the treatment
and to adherence of the nurse to the professional code of practices for the nurse.AHPRA and the
National Boards regularly check with suggested groups to gather reaction, information and
counsel on a wide range of issues (Nursingworld.org, 2015). Regulatory authorities should assess
the knowledge and clinical performance that relate closely to the demands of the nurse’s scope of
professional practice and the practice situation.
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9. Prescription of the medication without any authorization by a doctor and the entry of a wrong
medical record of the patient are the two professional issues that are done by the nurse. By doing
so the nurse did not adhere to the ethics of nursing and the code of conduct for the nurses. The
false entry of record is an ethical issue conducted by the nurse and the prescription of a medicine
without doctors authorization is the disobeying the code of conduct rule for the nurse.
10. The three benefits of reflective practice that will help me are a better sense of workplace
situations, making a sense of events at the workplace and to take proper actions towards the
situation. Ultimately reflective practice will help me to improve and manage care for the patients,
and to take proper action regarding a critical situation. By the use of reflective practice I can
develop a sense of the problem at the place of work, inspiring that sense with interpretation of
the related conditions; then elaborating a conclusion and testing the conclusion in my practice.
11. This critical thinking case scenario can help me in handling my own work at the workplace.
The critical thinking about the topic will help me in making decision about a patient in an
emergency situation while adhering to the ethics, code of conduct, and the nurse’s professional
practices. The topic will help me how to use my critical thinking power to avoid any problem in
the health of the patient. Also I got about the fact that what will be the impact of any mistake
done by me on the health of the patient and on my personal nursing career. This case scenario
will help me in my future practice as a nurse and to be practical while assessing the patient in an
emergency case and to act as a professional nurse.
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References list:
Faa.gov, (2015). Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners.
Griffiths, M. (2015). Nurse Prescribing in Practice. 1st ed. pp.1-17.
Nursingworld.org, (2015). The Power of Professional Nursing Practice – An Essential Element
of Patient and Family Centered Care.
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