Legal Aspects of Nursing - Essay Example

"Legal Aspects of Nursing" is a worthy example of a paper on care.
The case portrays a number of competency lapses in the health facility’s conduct and attitude towards patient management. The police arrested the man suspected of planning a self-inflicted. His name is Mr. Antonio Garcia. The culprit later admits all these allegations which compel the police officers to recommend a mental stability test for the patient. It is a basic practice for police officers to recommend mental checks for suicide attempt victims since it is not natural for people to pose harm to themselves. After handing over the culprit to the hospital, he thus becomes the responsibility of the facility, and the hospital is accountable for his subsequent actions. 

The hospital recognizes the nature of the complication that Mr. Garcia is suffering from. Besides, the nurses understand that he is at the brim of committing suicide. They put him under an overdose of sedatives which fail to act on him thereby compromising his safety. In fact, this exposes him to harm. The hospital and the nurses are accountable for the actions of the patients. This is a criminal offense since it is a crime committed to the state. Among the crimes that the health facility faces is the inappropriate diagnosis of a patient. The health facility is entrusted with the lives of millions of citizens. The employment of the doctors and the nurses follow a strict procedure which ensures that such facilities employ the best-qualified personnel. In as much as misunderstandings of patient conditions occur thereby resulting in wrong diagnoses, the case presented above is purely out of negligence and someone has to take responsibility.

First and foremost, this is a victim of attempted suicide. He has admitted that he was planning to harm himself. It thus becomes ill-advised for the facility to let on his own. By injecting him with sedatives, the doctors expressed a need of immobilizing the patient. They thus ought to have placed the patient in a room where he could not escape. This requires a simple room that is locked just in case the sedatives fail as was the case. This points out a serious lack of commitment by the health practitioners in the health facility.

Diagnosis is the process of determining the disease that a patient suffers from. After an effective diagnosis, the health practitioner prescribes a treatment methodology. The prescription details the amounts of drugs that a patient takes at every time. The patient in this context has a predetermined infection and therefore does not require a detailed prescription. He, however, requires an adequate prescription of the sedative. He is an adult whose conscience is troubled (Dimond, 2008). It thus becomes utter negligence when the health facility prescribes to the patient an underdose despite the fact that they have an effective understanding of the patient’s condition. This is an action that is unacceptable and legally predisposing the medical personnel to charges.

The health facility is liable to face all the charges that the patient’s wife later levels against them. These include possible manslaughter. The facility contributes to the possible death of the patient by letting him loose. Furthermore, his urge to kill himself could have doubled following the effect of the sedative. This implies that the health facility bears full responsibility for every subsequent harm the patient put himself including, and not limited to, his death.