Redcliffe Hospital Post-Surgical Nurse: Scope, Ethics, and Practice

This report details the scope of practice for a post-surgical nurse at Redcliffe Hospital. It outlines the nurse's roles, responsibilities, and the importance of providing safe and appropriate post-operative care. The report emphasizes the assessment of patients' mental and physical health, monitoring for complications, pain management, and patient education. It highlights ethical and legal standards, including informed consent, adherence to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's code of conduct, and the application of ethical principles such as beneficence, autonomy, justice, and non-maleficence. The report also discusses the benefits and limitations of the healthcare services offered by Redcliffe Hospital, including cost reduction and diverse service offerings, while acknowledging challenges related to rural access and health literacy. The conclusion reinforces the nurse's primary duty to ensure safe post-surgery care while adhering to ethical and legal guidelines.

Running Head: PROFESSION'S SCOPE OF PRACTICE
Prepared by:
Student ID:
Unit code: HTLH102
Assessment: 1B
Unit Coordinator:
Due Date: 15 December 2019
Word count: 500
Actual word counts: 548

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PROFESSION'S SCOPE OF PRACTICE
Introduction
Redcliffe hospital is among the five hospitals of the Metro-North health centre that
established in the year 1965. It is a 250-bed regional hospital with six operation theatres that
delivers quality pre and post-operative care. It offers medical, orthopedic, renal dialysis,
neonatal, older individual care, pediatrics, surgical, cancer care, rehabilitation, emergency care
and palliative care (Queensland Government, 2019).
Position
I work as a post-surgical nurse at Redcliffe hospital. I find my job challenging as a single
post-operative error can lead to adverse patient outcomes. At the same time, I also find my job
rewarding and satisfactory.
Roles and responsibilities
As a post-surgical nurse, I must deliver safe and appropriate care to the patient post to
their surgery. Upon completion of the surgical procedure, I assess the current mental and
physical health condition of the patient. Along with that, I am also accountable for monitoring
the patent and assessing if there is any sign of infection, shock, distress and other complication
which can be done by considering the vital signs of the patient at regular interval. I assist the
patient in dealing with the negative impacts of the surgical procedure by delivering pain
management options. While discharging the patient, I educate the patient and their family
members about the post-operative care to ensure that the patient is comfortable and is getting
effective care for a speedy recovery (Queensland Nursing Council, 2019).

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Ethical and legal standard of practice
According to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2019), the nurses should
maintain the principles listed among the code of professional conduct for nurses such as
providing safe and competent care, allying with the laws and other to avoid any further risk of
getting into ethical and legal complications. Before treating the patient, I should take informed
consent from the patient as per O'Donoghue et al. (2015). As a post-surgical nurse, I should
abide by the four main ethical principles which are beneficence, autonomy, justice and non-
maleficence. All the patients are treated equally irrespective of their caste, background, gender
and age. According to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2019), the confidentiality
of the patient needs to be protected and no personal information should be shared without their
consent.
Benefits and limitations
The benefits of the entity include reducing the overall cost and minimizing cutting budget
deficit. It also helps in providing high-quality care to the patient suffering from chronic illness.
The advantages that are provided to the patient of the Redcliffe hospital is that it provides a
diverse range of services such as older individual care, pediatrics care, surgical care, cancer care,
rehabilitation, emergency care, palliative care and many more (Queensland Government,
2019).As the cost of services is reduced, many people will be able to afford the medical facilities
from this hospital. However, populations belonging to the rural areas are not able to access the
medical services due to a poor economy and transportation complications. Due to health
illiteracy and lack of knowledge about the availability of the services, people living in the remote
areas will not be able to improve their health status with this hospital.

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Conclusion
To conclude, as a post-operative nurse at Redcliffe hospital, it is my primary
responsibility to provide safe post-surgery care to the patient to avoid any further risk of
infection. While providing effective treatment to the patient, I should also consider the ethical
and legal rules of the patient care formulated by the Queensland government and the hospital.

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PROFESSION'S SCOPE OF PRACTICE
References
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2019). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
New codes of ethics in effect for nurses and midwives. Retrieved 13 December 2019,
from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/News/2018-03-01-new-codes-of-
ethics-in-effect.aspx
O'Donoghue, S. C., DeSanto-Madeya, S., Fealy, N., Saba, C. R., Smith, S., & McHugh, A. T.
(2015). Nurses' perceptions of role, team performance, and education regarding
resuscitation in the adult medical-surgical patient. Medsurg Nursing, 24(5), 309.
Queensland Government. (2019) Healthcare Services-Redcliffe Hospital. Retrieved 13
December from
https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/redcliffe/healthcare-services
Queensland Nursing Council (2019). Setting the standard. Retrieved 13 December 2019, from
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0034/372868/nursingscprac.pdf