Healthcare consumers are majorly patients. Patients have complex needs. Currently, there is an increasing awareness concerning health and healthcare dynamics in society. Different regulations concerning healthcare such as healthcare act, legal issues, and ethical issues in healthcare are currently known to the patients. It is an implication that patients are presently becoming aware of their rights. As a result, nurses’ role is expanding to include the different issue that may jeopardize the patients' rights. Ethics and legal dimension of care are becoming essential to nurses as advocates, leaders and healthcare professionals. Ethics and legal perspective of health set boundaries that govern nurses in the right direction as they interact with the patients on a daily basis ( Jones, Hillier & Comfort, 2016). There are different legal and ethical issues in the nursing profession. They include informed consent, autonomy, confidentiality, Negligence and the duty to seek medical care for the patient. The discussion in this article majors on the five terms and their impact on nurses practices in the healthcare setting.
A professional nurse must inform the patient concerning any treatment before carrying out the treatment. Informed consent is a document that has details of instructions and conditions of treatment a nurse should explain to the patient, and let the patient know the benefits of such procedures as well as the potential risks before confirming the treatment. Inform consent is critical as it ensures that the patient is aware of the risks involved in the treatment procedure. Autonomy, on the other hand, is the power a nurse has to make a decision. A patient also has the autonomy to decide on their treatment. The nurses must recognize patient autonomy and given them the freedom to have a say on their treatment procedure for quality care. Confidentiality is an ethical and legal principle that demand totals confidentiality of patient information by the uses unless the law demands such information. Medical negligence is a serious ethical and legal matter. Medical negligence occurs where one performs a below the set standard work, or such a person performs lower than what a prudent person can achieve under similar situations. The last concept is the duty to seek medical care for the patient. This implies that a nurse must ensure that he or she takes care of the patient in case the patient is in need of his or her services.
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The ethical dilemma is a challenge which nurses face as they try to adhere to these concepts. The ethical dilemma is where a nurse finds herself or himself in the middle of two critical and competing for ethical situations. For instance, imagine a situation where the nurse realizes the husband is HIV positive yet the mother is not aware. In such a case, the nurse is torn between keeping the secret as demanded by the confidentiality and acting in good faith, and personal morals by informing the wife of such issue ( Zopiatis, Theocharous & Constanti, 2016). As a nurse, one needs to make an ethical decision when facing ethical delimit as a result of any of these concepts.
Notably, the ethical issues brought about by these concepts can be challenged under different circumstances to save the patient or the entire public. For instance, the law may demand critical data concerning a specific patient to act as a piece of evidence in the court. Under such circumstance, the confidentiality and the patient’s autonomy must be underlooked. Further, nurses can also act in good faith and treat a patient against their will in a case where such a patient is a threat to the public. Also, there are situations where the patient is unable to fill a consent form or request treatment. In such a case, a nurse can consult the family members to consent for the patient ( Hall et al., 2018). Lastly, the legal system sometimes ignores the case of negligence in situations where the doctor was mentally ill. These exceptions are all stipulated in the ethical and legal codes that govern nurses for quality patient care. Under these exceptions, the law gives less priority to a patient or a nurse’s right, to serve the interest of the public or justice.
Ethical training is an essential factor which can help in preventing ethical and legal issues among the nurses in the hospital environment. Nurses need to undergo ethical and legal training in different matters that concerns medical ethics and legal aspect of health. The training can help in creating sensitivity with regards to ethical decision making among the nurses. Also, it is recommendable for the hospital to advocate for ethical culture within their environment. Ethical culture is critical mostly where a nurse is facing an ethical dilemma. In an environment where ethics is part of the norms, making an ethical decision is easy.
Awareness creation is the best way a nurse can intervene to ensure that ethics and legal aspects of health, as well as theories, are considered within the hospital. Nurses can teach their fellow nurses and other care experts, and hold awareness campaign that aims at sensitizing both the nurses and patients on the benefits of upholding ethical and legal integrity within the healthcare system ( Grady, 2015). Further, nurses can push for the implementation of the ethical department in the hospital environment where the nurse can seek advice when in a situation where they are facing a different kind of ethical and legal dilemma while carrying out their daily routine. These can help in reducing the rate of ethical and legal issues in the healthcare system.
References
Grady, C. (2015). Enduring and emerging challenges of informed consent. New England Journal of Medicine , 372 (9), 855-862.
Hall, M. A., Orentlicher, D., Bobinski, M. A., Bagley, N., & Cohen, I. G. (2018). Health care law and ethics . Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Jones, P., Hillier, D., & Comfort, D. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , 28 (1), 36-67.
Zopiatis, A., Theocharous, A. L., & Constanti, P. (2016). The adult vocational decision, career satisfaction, and future intention: Insights from the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , 28 (12), 2696-2720.
