The Ethical-Legal Decision in Nursing - Essay Example

"The Ethical-Legal Decision in Nursing" is an engrossing example of a paper on care.
How the problem would look from another perspective. The relevant stakeholders, in this case, comprise the patient and her family whose desire is to access quality healthcare, the nurses, the doctors, and the health care practitioners whose sole role is to offer quality service to the patient and her family. Hence when the probable conflict of interest is identified in the care of Emily, the nursing home should have involved the whole team in order to come up with an appropriate treatment to be accorded to the patient. Furthermore, the responsible physician should give information concerning the diagnosis of the patient and the desires of her family for treatment and investigate the wish of the family or patient to undertake the treatment process of the urinary tract infection and septicemia respectively. It is also the responsibility of healthcare workers to identify and solve any clinical incidence in their areas of operations (QHIMP, 2008).

The nurses are responsible for ensuring that the patient receives the right medication and their condition reported to the doctor. In the case study, Sue ignored the condition of the patient even after she made some complaints. The family of the patient has a right to being involved in the treatment of the patient as they desire to see their patient well. This means that the healthcare workers should involve the family of the condition of the patient as well as any new issue that develops during the treatment of the patient. The family was thus not informed of the complaints that their patient was bringing forward. This, therefore, constitutes maltreatment of the patient due to the failure of fulfilling the professional duty (Woodward, 1998).

The Ethical-legal decision

There is a need to balance the nursing proficient, ethics, tasks, and responsibilities together with putting the health needs of the patient as a priority. It is also important for nurses to delegate duties to those who are qualified to handle them effectively (Cornock, 2011). Therefore the nurse managers are bestowed with the task of caring and protecting families, patients, together with their nursing staff so as to achieve the provision of quality health care and at the same time meeting the organization's needs for efficiency and cost value. Health care facilities are faced with nurses who require and want to continue working in their profession but at the same time compromise their patient’s or personal well-being (Curtin, 2005). Hence such dilemmas appear when an aged nurse like Sue in the case study who has practiced for thirty years and gained experience is not capable of performing her duties despite her thirty years experience. It is also important for June to write an incident report to explain exactly what led to the problem. This is due to her close relation to the patient as well as being the one responsible for taking care of the patient. This will assist in the decision-making process that will ensure the problem is solved.

Conclusion

Ethical and legal principles provide a guide to nurses on how to act ethically on issues of dilemma so as to ensure the provision of quality health care to individuals and the society at large. Therefore these principles form a vital aspect in nursing practice. Hence nurses should strive to perform their duties ethically in regards to the health needs of the patients especially the most vulnerable in the society.