Legal, Ethical, and Professional Duties in Nursing Practice

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the legal, ethical, and professional duties of nurses, emphasizing the importance of patient confidentiality, autonomy, and quality of care. It delves into the legal framework governing nursing practice, including statutory, common, and professional laws, as well as the role of regulatory bodies like the State Nursing Council. The essay also explores ethical considerations, such as beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and fidelity, and examines the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Code of Ethics. Furthermore, it addresses professional standards and the Registered Nurse Standards for Practice, highlighting the key domains of clinical, education, research, and leadership. The essay underscores the significance of advanced nursing practice and continuous professional development to ensure the delivery of safe, effective, and ethical patient care.

RUNNING HEAD: PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Principles of Education for Health Professionals
Name:
Institution:

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PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Introduction
In reference to Staggers, Gassert and Skiba (2000), nurses and other clinical officers
are subject to a lot of legal, ethical and professional duties. I will just cover the main legal,
ethical and professional duties of nurses. These duties are mainly regarded to be to respect the
confidentiality of the patients and autonomy and the assurance of care to all the patients. In
reference to Dowie (2017) nursing practitioners are repeatedly informed as they pursue the
undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the essence of accountability for their actions as
well as omissions which form a part of the role.
On the other hand, Young (in 2009) claims there is alot of uncertainty as to what the
role of care means for the nurses in their practice. The role of care will incorporate a legal
role, an ethical role and a professional role. The following article will seek to primarily
explore the legal aspect in relation to a duty of care, and what some of the implications will
be for nurses in and outside of practice. All the given duties are professional duties;
nevertheless, there are legal implications if they are not adhered to, hence legal duties. The
ethical considerations arise as a result of scrutiny of the duties for example breaching of the
duties and therefore referred to as the ethical duties. Consideration of the regulatory body,
GMC, is always given first.
Legal Issues
Nursing is a societal profession, meaning it involves people. Dowie (2017) believes
there is no given society that does not have laws to protect rights of its people. In this case,

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for one to have Nursing practice which is safe, you need to be conversant with the law
requires and the legal expected responsibilities protection of clients and also protecting
himself from the liabilities. In that case, it is the responsibility of every nurse to be informed
of the licensing laws by the state, the common law, the statutory and professional code of
ethics for Nurses.
Law
It is a code that is used to regulate human conduct and it usually has the capability of
being enforced and binding to everyone. It is mostly enforced for maintaining order in the
society. Over the centuries, it has been developed to balance the rights of different
individuals. Laws are however relative to change. According to Young (2009), this is brought
about by factors such as customs, the advancement of technological knowledge and what a
given society needs. The law requires a duty on each individual to tranform to certain levels
of conduct for the protection of other people.
Purpose of law
 To protect rights of every individual according to needs of given society.
 Make sure that there is equality in the particular society.
 To discipline individuals who exercise criminal acts.
 For the definition and re-definition of the least standards of behavior according to the
changes that occur in the given society.
The Constitutional laws
It states the basic rights of the citizens.

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The Statutory laws -
These are laws that are set up through the process of legislature are referred to as
statues. These laws direct the individuals on how to conduct themselves in a particular
manner. Most criminal laws, for example, are statutory laws that bring out prohibited acts
inclusive of their respective punishments.
Common laws
These are decisions made through the judicial process. Judges decide on which law
applies depending on the case or hearing. Judges have the duty and the authority to resolve
any of the presented cases.
Tort
This category of the law consists of civil wrongs done against another individual or
their property. It consists of negligence, invasion of privacy, defamation, assault and fraud
activities.
The Labour laws
The above laws highlight the rights including the obligations agreed between the
employer and employees. They regulate the discipline, the wages, and leave, pension and
many others. The service laws that relate to the officials of the government are different from
the private services. Also, there are different courts namely; the civil court, the criminal court,
the labour court and they all deal with cases according to the law which is involved . The
Supreme Court is usually the highest judiciary and it has the most powerful in the country.
The Professional laws in Nursing
Just like any other profession, certain Regulatory Bodies control Nursing. A nurse should
follow the standards set for client care whose source is:
• The State Nursing Council responsible for approving Nurse Practice Acts.
• Professional organizations give instructions for practice

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• Authorities that offer employment give written procedures and policies
• National Level Regulatory Body directs courses on training that are professional to
make sure that there is uniformity throughout the country.
The State Nursing Council
This is a body that is set up by the State law to ensure the base purpose, protection
and the safeguarding of the society (Young, 2009). It also regulates the training program of
the diploma, Graduate and Post Graduate courses. The body enacts the Nurse Practice Act
and therefore verifies who can practice to be a nurse.
Professional organisations
They are ones that give instructions for practice.
Written policies of the employer
In reference to Dowie (2017) recognition of nursing as a profession is important. Hence, the
contribution of the Nursing personnel in the healthcare, both in hospitals and the entire
community at large,needs to be provided.
Ethical issues
Nurses have the responsibility of providing their clients with high quality care. They
encounter so many challenges in terms of how to conduct themselves as they handle the
clients. Powell and Davies (2012) insist on why the should be very conversant with the code
of ethics and also the essentials of ethical decision making. The code of ethics has been
adopted by so many professionals in recent decades. Since Nursing is very trusted profession,
the code of ethics has been published by nearly all recognized professional group worldwide.
In 1953, the initial International code of ethics for Nurses was embraced by the International
Council of Nurses (ICN). These codes support the nurses as they perform their duties and
practice and reduce their moral stress.

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The nurse always makes ethical decisions about how care is delivered and in the provision of
patient care safely. There are usually six major ethical principles that come up very
frequently for the nurses. These include;
• Autonomy and self-determination
-This means respecting the patients and also their wishes despite the fact that you do not
agree with them.
• Beneficence
-This means having compassion and taking kind actions to help others while desiring to do
good.
• Non-maleficence
-This means remaining competent in the field and also taking up the responsibility of
reporting suspected abuse hence avoiding any sort of harm.
• Justice
-This means treating patients with fairness, equitability and truthfulness.
• Properties of totality and vigilant integrity
-This means you consider the entire person when making decisions on which therapies,
prescriptions and procedures that a patient is to receive.
• Fidelity
-This means remaining faithful to the commitments made based on the virtue of caring.
The Code of Ethics of ICN
It has four principle elements that highlight the standards of the ethical conduct.
The elements of the code
• The Nurses and people
The nurse has the duty to provide good care to the clients as required (Staggers
Gassert & Skiba, 2000). The nurse makes sure that the patient receives appropriate and

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sufficient information on time. The nurse should hold the clients information with a lot of’
confidentiality and use judgement when sharing it. Besides, the nurse should provide services
with professionality and values such as respect, compassion, integrity and faithfulness.
• The Nurses and practice
The nurse has the responsibility and is accountable for the nursing practice and also
maintaining competence through learning continually. The nurse should also ensure that the
technology being used gets along with the rights, the worth and safety of the clients.
• The Nurses and the profession
The nurse has the responsibility of determining and also carrying out viable standards of
clinical nursing practice, research, the management and education.
The nurse participates in creating a conducive practice environment and also maintains safety
through the professional organization. The nurse should also ensure equitable social and
economic working conditions at all times. Moreover, Dowie (2017) postulates that the nurse
always targets to sustain and protect the natural environment.
• Nurses and co-workers
The nurse makes it her duty to ensure that there is a friendly environment that is collaborative
and respectful. They should maintain a good relationship between the other nurses and other
co-workers in other fields. The nurse should make it her duty to protect the clients from any
danger to their health that may be caused by a fellow co-worker.
Nurses and students can therefore do the following;
• Study the standards set by each element of the code
• Discuss the code with other co-workers
• Reflect on how each element applies to you
• Work in groups in order to maintain clarity
• Use specific examples to identify dilemmas and solve them

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Professional issues
Nurses and the midwives should ensure that they are registered under the Nursing and
Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) and should meet its professional standards so that
they can qualify to practice in Australia.
Professional standards are the ones that give definition to the practice and also the conduct of
nurses and midwives. It consists of:
• The codes of required conduct
• The standards for practice
• The codes of required ethics
The nursing practitioners have the ability to offer provision of high quality clinical care in a
wide variety of context in Australia.
According to Jacobs et al. (2012), the nursing domain of practice is founded on the platform
of the registered nurse. They are supposed to meet both the regulatory and also the
professional requirements set for Australia. This includes the Registered nurse standards for
practice and the Code of conduct set for the nurses.
The nurses standards framework is shown by four domains namely;’
• Clinical standards
• Education standards
• Research standards
• Leadership standards
The education domain, the research and the leadership domains are concealed in the
standards that are clinically focused (Adams, 2007). The skills and knowledge that exists
within the those three domains, are coordinated in their expression in the medication work.

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Collectively, Eipstein (2008) noted that all these attributes depicted in the nurses knowledge’
and skills are commonly applied in the education domain through education of the clients
receiving the care, their agemates and colleagues. Through the judicious application, the
implementation of knowledge in the research domain is vividly evidenced. Akl et al. (2010)
provides research evidence in formulating the practice decisions and development of other
new systems of care. Additionally, Smith (2009) argues that the domain of leadership leads to
increase in capacity to confine the community and the political inclusion.
The standards to be used by the nurses include:
Assessing using diagnostic capability
• Carrying out comprehensive holistic health assessments besides ensuring that they are
• Through demonstrating timely and the use of diagnostic inquiries to inform decision
making
• Through applying reasoning to come up with diagnoses
The plans care plan and engaging others
• Through translation and integration of the evidence into the planning care
• Through educating and supporting others to enable their active participation in the
care
• Through considering quality administration of medicine and therapeutic intervention
in healthcare
• Through the use of delegates and occassional consults for healthcare decisions to
obtain optimal outcomes for the patient.
The prescribes and implements therapeutic interventions
• Through prescribes indicating non-pharmacological & pharmacological interferences.
• By maintaining relationships with people through care.

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• Through practices following the state legislation and professional regulation
governing the nursing practice.
Evaluation of results and improving practice
• Through evaluation of each practice
• Through advocating for and participating in support care,professional growth and
partnership.
Advanced nursing practice (ANP): According to Cowell (2015), it is a continuous series
along which the nurses are built up in their knowledge, thorough clinical reasoning and
judgement with inclusion of the skills and behaviours that lead to greater heights of
capability. The Nurses who are practicing at according to Geary and Schumacher (2012)
advanced levels blend professional governance, education and research into their practice
which is clinically based. This ensures effectiveness and safety. Those nurses usually work
either within a specialist or a generalist context and are responsible and take accountability in
the management of people who have complicated health care requirements.
Bultas and McLaughlin (2013) further describe advanced nursing practice as a level rather
than a responsibilty. It is therefore highly regarded that advanced nursing practice is
attributed in an individual within a nursing scope that is regulated.
Advanced practice nursing (APN):
In the Australian nursing context, it points out the additional legislative duties of an endorsed
practicing nurse that are not included in the present registered nurse domain of practice.
As per Anderson and Enge (2012) advanced nursing is a different level in terms of quality of
advanced practice to that of a registered nurse because of those additional legislative duties.
This is also as a result of the regulatory needs. These requirements consist of a well

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prescribed educational level, an advanced nursing experience when practicing and continued
professional development.
Conclusion
Having discussed about the legal issues, ethical issues and professional issues, we can
conclude that nurses are greatly accountable to their clients, the public, employers and the
entire profession. Therefore, they should therefore observe all those standards set by the code
of ethics and also the standards set by the profession act. These issues are very vital in the
health industry and should be treated with a lot of care and caution. Nurses should avoid
ethical issues at all cost thus ensuring that their clients are out of any harm. The fundamental
roles of medical personnel is to promote health, prevent illness and extend the services
beyond an individual and reach the whole community.

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