Nurses Dealing with Cases of Women who are Victims of Domestic Violence - Coursework Example

as a nurse, one is expected to uphold utmost professionalism. He or she is expected to follow the ethical standards as prescribed under the Nurses and Midwifery Council code of professional ethics. A registered nurse must respect the patient as an individual, obtain consent before giving treatment, uphold the confidentiality of information, maintain professional knowledge and competence, be always trustworthy and must act with the end goal of identifying and minimizing risk on the patient (NMC 2002).

On the other hand, the nurse has a legal obligation towards his or her patient. According to the case of Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932)1, where there is an established proximity of relationship between two people where the duty of care exists, the person who owes the duty of care towards another but failed to fulfill such duty, that person shall be liable for the breach such duty of care. According to the case of Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee (1957)2, where the healthcare profession failed to perform acts which are expected of his or her profession, he or she shall be deemed in breach of such duty of care.

In the more recent case of Bolitho v City & Hackney Health Authority (1997)3, the Court ruled that the delivery of the duties and responsibilities of the healthcare professional should be able to stand of up to logical analysis, where the action should be examined in the context where it would be the right thing to do on such a given circumstance. Accordingly, there are four elements that must be satisfied before a suit can be successfully brought against a nurse or a healthcare professional, namely, the existence of the duty of care, the failure to perform such duty, that damage resulted from the failure of the health professional to perform the duty and that such damage which resulted from the negligent act is foreseeable and is a direct consequence from such negligent act (Horwitz, B. 1998). In the case of Barnett v.

Kensington and Chelsea Hospital Management Committee (1969)4, the liability of the healthcare professional is established where the damaged that the patient could suffer due to the negligence is foreseeable and is the direct result of the breach of a duty of care.