The Professional, Legal and Ethical Frameworks that Guide Nursing Practice - Research Paper Example

Demonstrate Knowledge Of Two Principles Of Nursing Practice. Investigate the Professional, Legal and Ethical Frameworks That Guide Nursing Practice and Relate These to Practice Experience This essay will evaluate and reflect on the two principles of the nursing practise and relate these principles to practice experience. It will focus on the Principle A and Principle C of Principles of Nursing Practice (RCN 2010). The Principle A reflects that “Nurses and nursing staff treat everyone in their care with dignity and humanity - they understand their individual needs, show compassion and sensitivity, and provide care in a way that respects all people equally (2Royal College of Nursing, 2014).” The Principle C states that “Nurses and nursing staff manage risk, are vigilant about risk, and help to keep everyone safe in the places they receive health care” (2Royal College of Nursing, 2014). The Principles A and C are key constituents of “Principles of Nursing Practice” which was established by ‘Royal College of Nursing’ (RCN) along with the Department of Health as well as the Nursing Midwifery Council and also the user institutions. The nursing practices provide a brief description about the activities that an individual can expect from the nurses in the healthcare sector. It is the RCN which renders significance to the practices followed by the nurses and its relevance with the nursing practise (2Royal College of Nursing, 2014). Consequently, during my practice placement in the field of nursing, I looked after Mr. Jones, who was of Afro-Caribbean origin and was 70 years of old. Mr. Jones was suffering from type 1 diabetes which implies that he was dependent on insulin. This stage is a chronic situation wherein the pancreas of the patient is unable to produce insulin required by the human body. He was alcoholic and was lonely after the death of his wife of 40 years. He was admitted in my ward following complications arising owing to Shortness of Breath (SOB). In order to determine the notion of nursing practices, it is imperative to derive a comprehensive understanding regarding intricacies associated with nursing care. It has been ascertained that nursing care is delivered to every person in the world in order to cure people having diversified health issues and sickness. The nursing practice is of importance as it helps to describe what any individual can expect from the nurses while providing the nursing services to the people (Mallik & et. al., n.d.). The nurses in the periphery of the United Kingdom are facing several issues due to their vigorous working hours and pressure to offer the best service to the patients among others. In order to help the nurses in providing better services, the Principles of Nursing Practice create a framework to measure the quality of the nurse’s performance which helps in motivating the nurses. The aim of RCN is to provide continuous improved services to the people through the use of better equipment and better care entailing personal touch (2Royal College of Nursing, 2014). In accordance with my practice placement and the nursing knowledge, the Principles A and C are closely related with the path of nursing care followed by me to look after Mr. Jones. Principle A of the nursing practice focuses on four aspects i.e. dignity, equality, diversity along with humanity. This principle implies that nurses should take care of every individual in the same manner disregarding caste and creed. The notion of dignity in the field of nursing demonstrates dignified care, personal attention and emotional attachment while providing services. Principle A of nursing practice is one of the most common practices accomplished by the nurses to preserve the dignity of the patients. The concept of nursing describes the diversity in managing the people who are sick as well as unhealthy. Nursing as per my knowledge is the implementation of the clinical judgement in order to deliver care to the individuals so that they can improve, maintain and recover from their health related problems. Correspondingly, this principle supports the promotion of health, healing and disability by demonstrating emotional along with caring attitude. In this regard, I had a very caring and careful attitude towards my patient Mr. Jones and helped him in the process of healing through my emotional engagement. I followed the Principle A of nursing practice which states that the nurses need to minimise the level of distress of the patient and reduce their suffering level as well. I deeply believed in the concept of the nursing which gives importance towards providing quality services to the people till the end of their life (Royal College of Nursing, 2010). The motive of the principles of the nursing practice is to deliver care so that the patient recovers at a faster pace. I was of the view that giving personal care by maintaining the hygiene is the core responsibility that the nursing practice suggests and delivers. According to RCN, nursing is the process of delivering the knowledge gained through providing better service for the purpose of problem solving. Basic objective of nursing was followed by me by ensuring health, meeting the needs of the patients and trying hard to deliver better quality of life even in the healthcare premises (Jackson & Irwin, 2011). I practised a style of nursing care during the placement which incorporated dimensions such as humanistic, holistic and therapeutic approach. This is the basic nursing practice followed to provide patient centred service as depicted in the figure 1. Figure 1 Source: (Royal College of Nursing, 1998) Principle ‘A’ gives importance to the concept of humanity along with equality. Its major objective is to protect every individual in the healthcare sector without discriminating them. The nursing care provided should be fair and promote equality without considering any differences between the individuals on the basis of caste and creed. I have observed during my placement that few people show their resistance while treating individuals belonging to different religion, gender and age. This behaviour depicts the irrational aspect of nursing which is against Principle A of the nursing practice. Mr. Jones, my patient, was of an old age and belonged from a different origin but my behaviour and attitude was the same as it would have been in case of a young individual of my origin. I followed the concept of equality and dignity through my dedicated behaviour towards his treatment of Shortness of Breath (SOB). ‘Principle A’ values dignity which means treating the individuals in such a manner that the person feels through the nursing care that he is being valued and his life is of worth. I have observed that when the dimension of dignity is upheld, the concerned people feel in control, comfortable and confident regarding their improvement health wise. Dignity is the most important aspect, without dignity people feel devalued and the inspiration to live dies. This knowledge was gained by me during my study and I implemented it while delivering service. Mr. Jones was lonely and he felt left out, but with my nursing care and dignity towards him, it made him to believe in himself and express love for life. I observed that especially people in the old age are ignored and the nursing care provided is not proper but on the basis of my learning I expressed by humanistic behaviour and through my interpersonal skill I tried to recover Mr. Jones. The RCN is proud of its service provided on the basis of dignity, humanity, rights and also equality. All these aspects of nursing Principle A were implemented in my nursing placement practice. Through the deliverance of sensitivity in the nursing care, the belief and faith of the people are increased on us and our service. They believe that they will get cured and their quality of life will be improved through proper treatment. Moreover, the knowledge attained from Principle C was of great use as it implies the concept of safety of the healthcare people, patients and also the visitors. The aspect of health and hygiene is an important concept as it relates to the environment of workplace, clinical safety along with risk management. It is known to us that the healthcare facilities face a number of health hazards such as chemical, physical and psychological. I was very careful regarding the importance of health safety and the ill-effect that the hazards can cause. I was not only careful regarding my personal hygiene but was also attentive regarding the cleanliness of the healthcare facility. Before handling my patient, I used to wash my hands and use sanitizers so that the hygiene was maintained and the chances of transfer of germs was minimised (1Royal College of Nursing, 2014). According to Principle C, the safety and hygiene of the people is possible by maintaining little precautions and measures. RCN gives significance to Principle C which is health and safety along with risk management. Lack of hygiene gives rise to the risk of death and injury for the patients, visitors and also the nurses. It is the duty of the nurses and other health care people to take proper care of the cabins, environment and themselves. I was attentive regarding the safety factor and was taking every possible step to protect myself and my patients from germs. As Mr. Jones was suffering from air borne disease (SOB), so the consciousness towards safety of the patient was my responsibility (3Royal College of Nursing, 2014). I used to ask the housekeeping workers to clean the cabin using disinfectant to keep the environment clean. On the part of the healthcare workers, I asked them to maintain their safety as well by using gloves, masks and full covered dresses to avoid any chemical hazards. The bed sheets and clothes of Mr. Jones were changed regularly which ensured hygiene to the best of my knowledge. I too was careful regarding my safety because my cautious approach will not only ensure the safety of the patient but mine as well. These precautionary measures demonstrated the safe and effective care of nursing. Principle C also shares the knowledge regarding serving of nutritional food to the patients and to the health care people. The food served was high in nutrition and hygiene was maintained by the healthcare persons as they used gloves and clean clothing before delivering of food. This is important to ensure safe healthy environment for everyone in the healthcare facility. Principle C also shares the knowledge that old people require special care and so the old medical wards should be well maintained with greater safety and hygiene. Mr. Jones was of 70 years age thus I took special care regarding his safety as at this age the immunity power of a person reduces so was the case with him (Royal College of Nursing, 2009). Thus, the inherent knowledge that I had gained from the nursing practices specially the Principles A and C helped me in delivering proper care to the people especially Mr. Jones. The dimensions of dignity, humanity, equality along with safety and hygiene were the key practices that I followed during my placement while delivering the nursing services to Mr. Jones, who belonged to another origin. The nursing profession has its own code of conduct that needs to be maintained in order to uphold ethics while delivering the service to the patients. The issue of Bioethics is relevant with the nurses’ practice in their everyday life. The ethics and professional framework in nursing defines that ethics in nursing is interrelated with the discipline in the team and the environment (Butts, 2012). I have the same view regarding the ethical framework due to the fact that if the bond between the teams is strong then the elements such as honesty, dignity and quality will be maintained. Ethics in the nursing principles can be morally reasonable if the nurses take the initiative to take proper care of the people by maintaining hygiene. The code of ethics in nursing is followed by keeping in view the professional as well as moral obligations for the nurses in their practical approaches. They need to follow ethics while respecting the patients in a dignified manner. Practicing good judgement, being attentive to the needs of the patients and following the nursing practices without failure are the moral ethics which the nurses practice. During my placement I too followed the same code of ethics which helped me in providing better services and nursing practices to Mr. Jones (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2011; Butts, n.d.). The objective of this code of conduct is to ensure competency, capacity, quality of practice, standard and therapeutic relationship. Relationship building is an important aspect as the relation amid the nurses and the patient through emotion and professional knowledge helps in contributing better health outcome. In my case, I too maintained a strong relation with Mr. Jones which helped in his fast recovery due to the adherence to the code of conducts followed along with the principles. This code of conduct is of relevance as it supports in the process of decision making and helps in the personal professional development. The structure of the code relates to the principle of respect and dignity amid the people, which implies that the nurses need to respect each other and treat as a dignified individual. The other code is the Professional responsibility along with accountability which implies that the nurses require demonstrating high professional attitude and behaviour towards the healthcare people and also the visitors. Their behaviour makes them respectable towards others as I experienced during the placement that every individual was respectful with each other, with the patients and their family members as well. The nurses should provide all the information related to the patients to their family members. Nurses are also accountable for the safety of the healthcare environment in order to minimise the hazards. I was practising the nursing code by taking initiative of maintaining the workplace environment on the basis of hygiene. The other framework part of the code of conduct is Quality of Practice, which focuses on the aspect of safety, protection and caring to provide quality care. Trust and confidentiality are the other important aspects in every domain as trust is the core principle in the professional, ethical along with legal framework in the nursing practice. The treatment of the patients, their safety and rights are valued by the nurses which is possible only by ensuring trust and confidentiality regarding the patient details from the external world. I followed the code of conduct by ensuring that none of the personal and medical related details of Mr. Jones come out to the external world without his prior permission. The other code of conduct is the collaboration with others in the healthcare facility for maintaining the team work and proper documentation, records and accuracy carefully (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, 2013; Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2007). Law and ethics are the two major pillars in the healthcare sector which monitor the nursing services provided to the people by maintaining the nursing practices. General Medical Council (GMC) is a legal body in the United Kingdom, which provides safety to the people by maintaining the records of the competent doctors. “Nursing and Midwifery Council” was formed to ensure that high standard of service is being delivered to the patients and clients who are competent and have gained knowledge in the field of nursing (UK Clinical Ethics Network, n.d.). The council sets a legal standard for the nurses to mitigate the chance of any misconduct. It is noticed that the legal framework in the field of nursing is an opportunity of practice declaration and contains a list of well-ordered acts (College Of Nurses of Ontario, 2011). The nursing practice is of relevance as it provides relief to the sick people by maintaining few crucial guidelines. Principles A and C are of importance as deemed from my practice placement. I believed in invariably upholding dignity, humanity and safety within my professional practices beneath the healthcare setting as reflected in the nursing guidelines. Besides, ethics and legal aspects along with professionalism are the core frameworks of nursing and hence they need to be followed strictly. The code of ethics is of great significance as honesty is the key aspect in nursing along with maintaining relation with the patients and clients. Therefore, it can be concluded that nursing care is a vital facet within the healthcare premises if concerned principles, ethical and legal prerogatives are sincerely upheld. References Butts, J.B., No Date. Ethics in Professional Nursing Practice. Chapter 3, pp. 81-117. Butts, J.B., 2012. Ethics in Professional Nursing Practice. Chapter 3, pp. 70-98. College of Nurses of Ontario, 2011. RN And RPN Practice: The Client, the Nurse and the Environment. Practice Guideline, pp. 3-16. Jackson, A. & Irwin, W., 2011. Dignity, Humanity and Equality: Principle of Nursing Practice A. Nursing Standard, Vol. 25, No. 28, pp. 35-37. Mallik, M. & et. al., No Date. Nursing Knowledge and Practice. Chapter 1, pp. 1-29. Royal College of Nursing, 2010. Principles of Nursing Practice: Principles and Measures Consultation. Summary Report for Nurse Leaders, pp. 1-5. Royal College of Nursing, 1998. Defining Nursing. Introduction, pp. 1-20. Royal College of Nursing, 2009. Research Ethics. RCN Guidance for Nurses, pp. 2-13. 1Royal College of Nursing, 2014. Principle A. Practice. [Online] Available at: http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/practice/principles/principle_a [Accessed on March 04, 2014]. 2Royal College of Nursing, 2014. Measuring Up To The Principles - Example Measures. Practice. [Online] Available at: http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/practice/principles/measuring_up_to_the_principles/example_measures [Accessed March 04, 2014]. 3Royal College of Nursing, 2014. Principle C. Practice. [Online] Available at: https://www.rcn.org.uk/development/practice/principles/principle_c [Accessed March 04, 2014]. Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2011. The Code. Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives, pp. 1-12. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2007. A National Framework for the Development of Decision-Making Tools for Nursing and Midwifery Practice. Introduction, pp. 1-22. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, 2013. Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics. Code of Conduct, pp. 1-26. UK Clinical Ethics Network, No Date. Educational Resources. Section D: Professional Guidelines, Law and Ethics. [Online] Available at: http://www.ukcen.net/index.php/education_resources/support_guide/section_d_professional_guidelines_law_and_ethics [Accessed March 04, 2014]. Read More