Ethical And Legal Issues In The Field Essay

Ethical And Legal Issues In The Field EssayAs frontline wellness c ar professionals, nurses organization various stops of challenges and issues during the fulfillment of their duties. The constant extort to quickly attend to the ineluctably of m some(prenominal) patients, duration do trusted that these services argon provided to them efficiently, impels nurses to be always on alert for any issue which they whitethorn encounter. Handling ethical and well-grounded issues is already macrocosm taught in the classroom and is being supplemented by pr propelical application during internships. examine ethics as a major concern for nurses supplements the already pissed training they had undergone when studying the fields concepts themselves.However, new changes in effectual and heathen aspects had led to new issues which argon not traditionally being taught in nursing schools. For example, nurses may often face dilemmas pertaining to a patients (or his familys) decision to de liver his life terminated once it is apparent his aesculapian tick is incur commensurate. In addition, nurses in like manner need to adopt with maintaining their professional image while endlessly interacting with their patients. Interpersonal-oriented alimonyers such as nursing are often vulnerable to extra-professional relationships which may hamper the delivery of otherwise objective diagnosis of medical condition and of giving treatments. Previous researches gravel pointed out that nurses may take payoff of their roles as wellness care providers in seeking sexual favors from their patients in return for their quality of care provision. This researcher would like to focus in her study some of the most common ethical and legal issues which nurses face in their profession.She will discuss previous researchers pertaining to these issues. Finally, she will formulate her testify conclusions based from the studies cited, supplemented by her own insights based from personal ex periences as a nurse.Responsibility of NursesAs health care providers, nurses ethics are also influenced by the concepts of the Hippocratic Oath. Being placed inside modern context, this profane swearing stipulates that health care providers should do all they can in ensuring that their patients are treated well. At the same time, the Oath compels health care workers to act with finesse and avoid behaving in such ways as to smudge their professions reputation. However, the complexities of modern health care has make it difficult to delineate which actions are ethically sound from the unethical. As shown in studies such as claw and Jane-Johnstone (2002), the most common dilemmas in nursing at present consider termination of treatment decisions, abortion, in vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, euthanasia and assisted suicide, apportioning of scarce resources and treatment of disabled infants and the mentally retarded. As several cases had shown in the past years, handlin g these issues present no single, encompassing and correct solution which is relevant to all situations. More complicated issues have even reached to the courts when the parties in a situation disagree with the legal validity of the decisions being made by nurses.Thomson, genus Melia and Boyd (2006) also point out that, in some(prenominal) cases, nurses do not have complete control over medical and health care decisions Most nurses are unlikely to be outright responsible for decisions to terminate a pregnancy, terminate a treatment and in the allocation of medical resources. (emphasis by the authors).Yet, nurses are the first health care providers being approached by the kin of the patients involved in those treatment decisions. (Thomson, Melia and Boyd, 2006). As a result, nurses should have a deep grasp of legal and ethical issues so that they can respond accordingly for those issues. At the same time, students focusing about ethical issues in nursing should consider the degree of responsibility the nurse bears in handling patient care, viz-a-viz the doctor or head nurses over-all responsibility.Daly, Speedy and Jackson (2009) detail some legal aspects of health care which nurses must take into critical consideration. According to them, various laws have been made to regulate conduct and wrongdoing with regard to patient safety, nurses liability for civil and criminal negligence in mishandled patient care cases, dominion of patients freedom of movement, facilitating patient consent for their treatments, control over patient post and records, among others. Nurses face liability, in various degrees, if they fail to fully comply with these legal aspects. (Daly, Speedy and Jackson (2009) .Ethics in NursingClarifying the all-embracing concepts of nursing ethics, Thomson, Melia and Boyd (2006) suggest students to initially define a.) the concepts of care within the context of the nursing profession, b.) pointing out the importance of citing particular prop osition cases in answer ethical issues and delineating the relationship between general righteous rules and the specific moral decisions.In particular, the researchers point out that nurses should clearly delineate two contrasting demands in health care, namely the sensitive regard for the unique needs of a person with recognition of the demands of a particular circumstance and the general duty of care based on contractual and institutional duties and rules. This researcher believes it is important to discriminate between these two aspects of care since this will prescribe the level of professional relationship between the nurse and the patient. This is important in preventing this relationship from becoming too personal to the point that the nurse is inefficient to objectively fulfill his or her duties to the patient. In terms of using specific cases to help resolve legal and ethical issues (casuistry), the authors point out that this is facilitatory in guiding nurses to reac h a decision based on previous cases. However, it is still important for them to make their own decisions based on the circumstances of a particular situation.Related to this is the delineation of general moral principles with specific circumstances. This researcher believes that it is important to balance the two when considering a licitly and ethically sensitive decision. Breaking away from precedents may cause equivocalness on how similar cases in the future will be handled. On the other hand, excessive reliance on casuistry may hamper nurses from making the correct and relevant decision on a specific situation.In making decisions, it is relevant to go back to the basic ethical concepts applicable tonursing. Finkelman and Kener (2009) detail these concepts as respecting the patients autonomy, practicing beneficence and justice to them, and being truthful to the patients and his/her kin. In sum, a nurse should be able to respect a patients decision to continue or cancel the treatm ent, even as he/she is able to give him the best care possible in line with the health care principles and the available diagnosis on the patients health. Applying these principles needs some decision-making skills on the nurses part. These skills primarily pertain to interpersonal skills, perceptiveness, moral deliberation and skilled know-how. remnant/RecommendationAs this paper had shown, nurses face numerous and very challenging issues as they provide health care services to their patients. They need to deal not only with ethical considerations which are specific to nursing, but are now also including law. Based from this discussion, this student believes it is vital for nurses to deeply compass nursing ethics and their legal implications. The changing dynamics and needs of health care blur the lines in situations which traditionally require only written language answers, so to speak. Adjusting to these changes requires nurses and nursing students to constantly review previous cases of health care-related problems while foreseeing possible new circumstances in future issues. This may be done during classes or even during review sessions. This situation also requires nurses to characterize the way their deal with patients, especially those posing problems. The nurses firmly impose the rules if the patients conk out crossing the line beyond their welfare.