Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice – Best Solved Essay
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Professional Development Exercises :
Read the case study presented at the end of Chapter 11 (Guido, p. 222)
Did the facility have sufficient evidence to suspend the nurse?
How should the testimony of the other nurses in the unit affect the outcome of this case?
What additional questions should the institution address before the court rules in this case?…
Solution – Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice
Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing practice
Introduction – Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice
In the contemporary world, laws and ethics influence the profession of nursing practice. Duty of care has three components, namely a professional duty, a legal duty as well as an ethical duty. Duty of care is the legal obligation that any healthcare provider has on providing reasonable care to avoid causing harm to their patients (Dowie, 2017). Should the provider fail to reach the expected standards as prescribed in their code of conduct, then they could be charged with negligence. Consequently, this case by case analysis examines the impact the law has on the professional nursing practice. To achieve the aim, the paper explores issues arising from the presented case scenarios found at the end of every chapter in the textbook legal and ethical issues in nursing (Guido, 2014). Three of these sections, as found at the end of chapters 11, 12, and 16, form the basis of this paper. (Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing practice)
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Case 1 (Guido, 2014 p.222) – Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice
The facility did not adequate evidence to suspend the suspected nurse. Having read the case it is clear that there are several notable facts that reveal misconduct and the one who perpetrates it. In her career as a nurse the suspected nurse always carried herself with dignity leading to her gaining respect for her dedication and competence. In spite of these suspicions of her diverting prescription narcotics for her personal use have emerged of late. The hospital has also installed a computerized medical cabinet (CMC) which supplements the traditional paper medication administration record (MAR). This mandates every nurse to fill out their handwritten MARs which should align with the CMC records. The testimony of the other nurses should affect the case outcome in favor of the accused because they too, on their own testimony admit to doing exactly the same things that the suspected nurse did.
Further investigation reveals that all nurse without exception do not fill the forms at the time of medication administration but later and also admit to having forgotten some of the drugs they had taken from the CMC. Were the cases to go on trial, the defendant in this case would be the hospital and the suspected be the plaintiff. This is because the facility has additional questions that it should address as the defendant is that the complainant is the suspected nurse defending her right from being suspended from work. Essentially, the hospital would have gotten justice by suspended her.
Were I the judge in the case, I would rule that the case should not be taken to the state Board of Nursing as the evidence is not enough to sustain the charge of the nurse’s misconduct. In my findings, the issue at hand is more of implementation of a technology aided monitoring system in the hospital and not the suspected nurse’s misconduct. The next issue is that with a suspended nurse the matter should be handled by the industrial court and not the criminal court where the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable which cannot be sustained by the facts of the case. It is clear that the hospital policy is the one that created loop holes and should be advised to have a single personnel filling out the MARs promptly to seal the loophole for dugs misappropriation. If the facility contends that the suspected nurse was guilty then all the others should also suspended because they did the same thing. (Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing practice)
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Case Study 2: – Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice
The Case of a Pre-School Child Defiled by Her Father (Guido, 2014, p.238)
The ANP is duty bound to seek the opinion of the child’s doctor regarding the possibility of the child’s abuse prior to her forwarding the case worker. In the case of sexual abuse as presented here it is not all children where threats or force is used particularly if the perpetrator is the child’s own father. He may have use trickery or even persuasion or promise of greater rewards. Consulting with another professional could have helped establish the extent of emotional and psychological abuse besides the physical and sexual assault the child has had to endure in the hands of her father. In the process some of the questions that would help in shedding more light on these aspects include but would not be limited to whether she upon looking at, viewing or watching been tempted to engage in the sexual act with other children, or used various objects to stimulate herself sexually. Other questions would address the adult or older children she has watched their genitals or those who have ever fondled or used oral genital stimulation or using which means made her to participate in sexual acts. As Krase (2008) reports the ANP has a duty to report the injury for further investigation because she has a duty of care to the child since the child has less than 18, the suspected perpetrator is her father and there is already an incident of harm as evidenced by the vaginal tear.
To determine liability the judge should use the strict liability principle as once the prosecution does not have to prove a guilty mind in connection to one or more elements that make up the criminal act. The three accused would each still face a conviction even if some of them like the ANP nurse or the practitioner do not have criminal negligence. Strict liability as Duff (2005) points out is so called because the accused could get a conviction even if they were genuinely ignorant of some factors which rendered their acts or omissions criminal. (Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing practice)
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Case Study 3: – Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice
Partial Liability against an LPN and Charge Nurse after their Patient Succumbed to Septicemia
Under the duty of care, the nurse manager had the residual responsibility of supervising the care of the Veteran who had had hip replacement surgery. Besides instructing the LPN on the patient’s medication, the charge nurse had a duty to warn the patient and LPN on the possible risks connected to the treatment so that they could be on the lookout in case of the onset of adverse events. As ruled in the case of Canterbury V Spence (1972), the onus lay with the practitioner in disclosing the material risks associated with Tylenol 500 mg medication. Using Barrow & Sharma’s rule of thumb for five rights of nursing delegation, it is clear that there was a better way of delegating the veterans to care for the LPN. The fundamentals of delegation in healthcare are responsibility, which states that RNs have a professional duty to perform patient care duties dependably and reliably a fact that was negated because the charge nurse never revisited the patient.
Second is authority, which calls for the assigned individual to have the ability to complete the tasks within the set time and accountability, which calls for the nurse to have legal liability for actions connected to patient care, which is one of the grounds for the partial liability found in this case. The 5Rs of the delegation is the right task under the right circumstances to the right person who is given the right supervision and utilizes the right direction and communication. The four and fifth R, in this case, were not secured adequately because the LPN did not get the right supervision from the charge leading to the wrong supervision of the patient who despite developing a high fever to blood poisoning the treatment direct and communication channels were not adequately utilized leading the patient’s death. (Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing practice)
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The fundamentals of delegation, as explained earlier on, means the charge nurse still had the responsibility of supervising the LPN and even checking on the patient when the LPN noted a change in the temperature hence the reason why she is also liable. As the judge, I would decide that both the charge nurse and the LPN have partial liability. This is because the charge nurse had contributory negligence of not supervising the LPN or informing the patient as well as the LPN the possible risks of the medication being administered while the LPN also should have reported early enough instead of waiting for four hours to monitor the patient’s fever. This implies that healthcare providers would have some partial costs for their joint negligence.
Conclusion – Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice
In conclusion, these case studies have established that all nurses owe their patients a legal duty of care to their patients and that duty of care is of a higher magnitude compared to the other players who may come into the picture with inadequate or no medical knowledge. Once the nurses have failed in their duty of care and patient harm results, then the patient is justified to expect redress for the harm caused. At the same time, the law should also hold the nurses liable only for actions, and omissions are, by their very nature, reasonably foreseeable. The nurses should also adopt the view that laws are not cast in stones and when, therefore, they also have an ethical duty to provide patient care in case of emergencies even the law does not obligate them to do.
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References – Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice
Barrow, J. M., & Sharma, S. (2019). Nursing Five Rights of Delegation.
Dowie, I. (2017). Legal, ethical, and professional aspects of the duty of care for nurses. Nursing Standard, 32.
Duff, R. A. (2005). Strict liability, legal presumptions, and the presumption of innocence. Appraising Strict Liability, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 125-149.
Guido, G. W. (2014). Legal and ethical issues in nursing (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Haddad, L. M., & Geiger, R. A. (2019). Nursing Ethical Considerations.
Kaiserman, A. (2017). Partial liability. Legal Theory, 23(1), 1-26.
Krase, M. K. (2008). Mandated reporting of child abuse and neglect: A practical guide for social workers. Springer Publishing Company.
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Question – Impact of the Law on the Professional Nursing Practice
Professional Development Exercises :
- Read the case study presented at the end of Chapter 11 (Guido, p. 222)
- Did the facility have sufficient evidence to suspend the nurse?
- How should the testimony of the other nurses in the unit affect the outcome of this case?
- What additional questions should the institution address before the court rules in this case?
- How would you have ruled in this case?
- Read the case study presented at the end of Chapter 12 (Guido, p. 238)
- Did the ANP have a duty to consult with the child\\\’s physician or another emergency center physician regarding the possibility of child abuse before she reported her findings to the case worker?
- What questions would you anticipate might be asked regarding the injury itself and the possibility that the child had caused her own injury?
- Did the ANP have a duty to report the injury, even though the diagnosis was not absolutely conclusive at the point that the child was initially examined?
- How would you determine liability in this case, assuming that the trial court found liability against any of the three defendants?
- Read the case study presented at the end of Chapter 16 (Guido, p. 329)
- Did the nurse manager have a responsibility to supervise the care of the patient?
- Was the care of this patient appropriately assigned to the LPN by the charge nurse, or could the charge nurse have delegated this patient\\\’s care more appropriately?
- If the charge nurse assigned the care of the patient to the LPN, did she retain any supervisory responsibility that would result in her liability in this case?
- How do the principles associated with delegation and supervision figure into this case?
- How would you decide this case?
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Textbook: Guido, G. W. (2014). Legal and ethical issues in nursing (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. (Chapters 11, 12, 15, and 16)
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