Nurses not only have the obligation to practice patient care in accordance to the law but there are also some ethical considerations they have to make in order to inform their decisions (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2018). Registered nurses have had prescriptive authority for many years and they must adhere to the legal requirements. An advanced practice registered nurse is required to have the necessary entry education for them to take part in prescribing medication to patients. It is also a legal requirement that the nurse writes the prescription in the right manner and indicates the right education.
One of the ethical considerations is that the primary commitment of the nurse is to the patient and the family this in this scenario the patient is a child. It is a requirement that the nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, the health, and the safety of the patient. In this case, the nurse has the obligation to consult a physician or another advanced practice nurse if he or she is not sure of the prescription to give the patient (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2018). Consequently, it is the duty of the nurse to report when the errors occur. One of the provisions of ethical nursing practice is that the nurse has the authority, responsibility, and accountability to make decisions and take actions that are consistent with the obligations of providing the patient with the best care possible. It is required that the nurse collaborates with other health practitioners in order to provide the necessary patient care to the patient.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Strategies to Address Disclosure and Nondisclosure
Since the passage of HB 1614 in Texas, nurses are required to report all medical errors. However, every facility has to make the reporting annually of all the errors that have been made. Disclosure of medical errors is done to the patients and their families and should be accompanied by a formal apology. One of the strategies to deal with this problem is to have disclosure policies (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2018). Part of an organization’s culture should involve open communication, truth telling, and not blaming each other. One of the strategies to deal with disclosure and nondisclosure is to provide education to nurses in order to ensure they understand their roles, levels of harm, and the need to report the errors. Education can increase the level of disclosure and reporting (Ladd & Hoyt, 2016). It is unethical for a nurse not to disclosure an error to the patient or the family. Research indicates that patients are always looking for full disclosure of the medical errors that have an impact on them.
However, despite the obligation that clinicians have to provide error disclosure to patients, most of them are not willing to disclose. Nurses are only looking to disclose what happened and not the effects (Ladd & Hoyt, 2016). In most cases, the decision whether to disclose or not to disclose usually depends on how the errors are defined and if the errors are recognized or detected. Nurses tend to be influenced by their professional responsibility, the fears, as well as the training. On the other hand, the patients are influenced by their need for information and the level of health care knowledge (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2018).
Strategies in Making a Decision
In making the right decision in this case, I would depend on my ethical obligation to always tell the truth and to provide the optimum care to the patient. I believe that when providers tell the truth, practitioners, and patient’s trust grow. I would disclose the prescription error in order to allow room for any measures to be taken in case the patient is affected by the error (Sabatino et al. 2017). If the nurse covers the error and fails to disclose, the mission of the organization is compromised as it has the ethical obligation to admit some of the medical mistakes (Fowler, 2015). Research shows that when patients and their families do not have any trust for health care agencies, there is the risk of suspicion as well as adversarial relationships. I would be guided by the principles of beneficence and the non-maleficence in disclosing the error (Sabatino et al. 2017). Based on the nursing code of ethics, a nurse if required to act in the best interest of the patient, which means that he or she has to share information and prevent harm to the patients through the elements of truth telling and building of a strong relationship with the patient.
Prescription Writing Process
In order to write a good prescription, the nurse has to include the name of the patient. The nurse has to also include his or her information and the date of prescription. It is also important to sign the prescription (Fowler, 2015). The other step is writing the medication through the use of the brand name and also indicates if it is generic or not. The dosage should be based on the age of the patient. The other step is to indicate strength of the medication and the prescription amount. Information on the number of permitted refills should also be indicated in the prescription (Sabatino et al. 2017). The direction of use should also be clearly indicated for the patient. In some cases, the route should also be indicated in order to make sure that the medication is taken in the right manner. One of the ways of reducing medication errors is to undergo education on how to reduce the medication errors. The use of technologies such as computers can also be ideal in ensuring there is accuracy in the prescriptions given by the advanced practice nurse (Sabatino et al. 2017).
References
Fowler, M. D. (2015). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements: Development, interpretation, and application. Silver Spring, Maryland: American Nurses Association
Ladd, E., & Hoyt, A. (2016). Shedding light on nurse practitioner prescribing. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 12(3), 166–173.
Rosenthal, L. D., & Burchum, J. R. (2018). Lehne’s pharmacotherapeutics for advanced practice providers. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Sabatino, J. A., Pruchnicki, M. C., Sevin, A. M., Barker, E., Green, C. G., & Porter, K. (2017). Improving prescribing practices: A pharmacist ‐ led educational intervention for nurse practitioner students. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 29(5), 248–254.
