Law and Ethics in nursing and healthcare †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Law and Ethics in nursing and healthcare. Answer: Review situation determine health problems, decision needed, ethical components and key individuals. Anna the nurse using the blog post she has created is writing about the patients that she has encountered during the course of her professional duty. She does not identify the names of the patient and the age but identifies the type of diagnosis by the patients (Avery, 2017). In her blog posts she highlights the various diseases suffered by the patients and probably the date that she attended to the patient before some of her former colleagues commented on her posts. The health problems associated with this is that, the colleagues or the nurses associated working with Anna will know who the patient is and is automatically in breach of the medical privacy policy (Avery, 2017). Another health problem associated with this is it exposes the medical conditions of all the patients that have attended the medical clinic and exposes their medical background. Confidentiality is an essential aspect in the relationship between the patient and the health professional. It revolves around ethical principles of non-malfeasance and autonomy that is linked to the preservation of a patients information (BarCharts Henry., 2013). Legal regulations make professional secrecy an obligation in the working environment.The sensitive information that the patient is giving to the medical practitioner and in this case it is the nurse should be guarded to the highest honors. The key individuals involved in this kind of setting are the nurse, Anne, her colleagues who are well known to her and the patients that are being discussed on her blog post. Other key individuals are her current employer, her former employer and the nurses board for ethical discipline to the parties involved. Gather information to clarify the situation Anne needs to understand that her blog post goes against and contravenes the ethical values of the nurses board. As a professional nurse, the first thing she should realize is that it is illegal to write confidential information on patients that have been treated in a clinic she works in as this is private information that can be used by other parties (BarCharts Henry., 2013). This is according to the code of ethics and professional conduct provided by the Malaysian nursing board in the third value statement which requires the practitioner to respect the clients rights to confidentiality (International, 2017). The additional information needed in this case are the patients names, the age, the gender and probably any other thing that specifically points out to a certain patient. This may also include the name of the clinic she works in, the time the patient attended the clinic and the doctor in charge. Although she has not given this information, the little that she used to describe the patients was clearly known by her former colleagues and this may well be giving out of confidential information (Brannigan Boss, 2001). Identify ethical issues in the situation. The issues arising from this situation is the professional secrecy issue in the practiceinclude ; Professionalism Professional secrecy in the practice of medicine has been a topic of interest throughout history (BarCharts Henry., 2013). According to the ICN (International Code of Ethics for Nurses), the elements of the code state that a nurse should hold in confidence personal information and is required to use judgement in sharing this information. Anna did not observe this code when she was blogging. She also breached the Nurses and Co-workers code stipulated in the International Code of Ethics for Nurses when she failed to respect her co workers(employer). Since time immemorial has taken special care to maintain the reservation of information collected Is formulated the "Hippocratic Oath" which among its five obligations includes the following ("Nursing Guidelines and Standards | SNB", 2017). Autonomy I will keep silence on all that in my profession, or outside it, hear or see in the lives of men who should not be public, keeping these things in a way that cannot be spoken of. Fidelity This point of oath, present in the Western medical tradition throughout the centuries is collected and adapted in the codes of ethics of the health professions Define personal and professional moral positions. In the personal and moral positions it is wrong for Anne, to write about the patients even though she has not written the names of the patients. Her colleagues should also not comment on her blog posts if they know the said patients (BarCharts Henry., 2013). Professionally it is morally wrong to divulge personal information to the public. The profession should respect the rights and privacy of the patients. Identify the moral positions of key individuals involved Anne, the nurse is completely wrong to write a blog post about the patient. Medical practitioners should take the Hippocratic Oath that guard most of the information of a patient from third parties and people who may take the documents (BarCharts Henry., 2013). Anne needs to correctly understand that ethical issues should be used to guide what she is writing on her blog post (Brannigan Boss, 2001). The employers after realizing that she has made a problem, Anne, should not only pull down the blog post but also the nurses board should punish her and her fellow colleagues as well as face the sack by her current employer. value conflicts There are various legislations in the nursing profession that protects a persons right to confidentiality and privacy of health and personal information (Brannigan Boss, 2001). Health care professionals and bodies should exercise care in the disclosure and how they use health information. Nurses should adhere to an ethical responsibility to secure and safeguard information obtained during the nurse client relationship (Brannigan Boss, 2001). Standard number 2 of the Singapore Nursing board(SNB) requires a Nurse to keep information collected in her practice as confidential as possible. Although Anna may have been relaying the truths as she viewed it during her community work, she may have gone overboard when she wrote disrespectful comments of her employer and clients(Code of ethics for Nurses,2017). As a nurse, Anna failed to keep the oath of secrecy that is require in the health sector. She failed in her role to safeguard the information that she had gathered from her clients as well as her employers working relationship (Code of ethics, 2010).. Anna has failed as a nurse to respect both her clients and her employer by using her blog and entertaining disrespectful comments on what she wrote. Although Anna does not mention the names of her clients, she breached the privacy Act and Personal information and protection Act. In her blog Anna is disrespectful to her clients and employer in her blog. Determine who should make the decisions. Her employer should decide whether to take legal action against Anna because of her actions, and because she has breached the client-nurse relationship of confidentiality. Anna should decide whether she wants to continue working at the clinic after her actions, and also she should decide whether to offer apologies to both her employers and patients if she decides to continue working there (Weber, 2001). The disciplinary council should decide if her actions meet the threshold required to deregister a member who has breached the bodies code of ethics and take the necessary disciplinary action. Identify range of actions with anticipated outcomes. Alternatives Consequenses No action Anna will continue blogging and disrespecting her clients and employers. The community and clients will lose trust on the organization and may opt getting their services elsewhere (Dimond, 2014). If no action is taken by the management of the clinic, she might get sued by the clients. Report to the relevant authorities There are several bodies that govern the profession, and the management together with the clients who felt violated by what she had written should take the issue up with the authorities (Code of ethics, 2010). Anna should be given a suspension or deregistered from the nurses union if she is found to have grossly breached the code of ethics (Harman, 2013). She should be fined in terms of penalizing her in monetary form to compensate those that have been affected. Confronting Anna Anna should be confronted and be forced to apologize to the clients that have been hurt by her actions. Terminating her contract Terminating her contract or dismissal is another action that should be explored. If she is terminated, the clients may feel that the problem has been addressed as it should be (Harman, 2013). This may give the clients confidence to return to the clinic knowing that their private information will not be exposed by Anna or any other health worker in that facility(BeauchampChildress,n.d). If there are other employees, they will refrain from any activities that may expose clients personal information to the world (Nursing, 2008). Her termination will serve as a lesson to her not to breach the patient nurse confidentiality code and other principles governing her profession. This action will force her to have respect to her employers as well as her patients. Decide on a course of action and carry it out. Anna should select a course of action that will not hurt her career, she should offer to apologize to both the management of clinic and the patients who have been affected by her negative sentiments written in the blog (Weber, 2001). The professional body for nurses should also take necessary action to ensure that all parties aggrieved are given a fair deal (Code of ethics, 2010). Evaluate / review results of decision / action Aggrieved parties and more so the patient must be the ones to determine whether the best action was taken against Anna, The professional body governing the nurses should ensure that Anna serves as an example to other medical practitioners who might be engaging in similar acts (Cordess, 2001). Although she may have not disclosed the patients name, it is wrong to post or disclose information that is too obvious for people to figure out who and what she was talking about. Thus, her actions were in contravention of the confidentiality that should be maintained by a medical practitioner towards the patients health information (Nursing, 2008). Confidentiality is a key aspect of the relationship between health professionals and patients. It presupposes the transfer of the patient from a reserved part of himself and the ethical principles of autonomy and non-maleficence are intimately linked with their preservation (Dimond, 2014). Numerous legal rules also oblige professional secrecy, imposing in some cases harsh penalties which are often unknown. As the clinical history is the document where the relationship with the patient is reflected, it requires extraordinary protection because of the especially sensitive nature of the information contained in it (Code of ethics, 2010). It is mandatory for the professional who prepares it to know some basic aspects of the fundamental laws that regulate it in different aspects. In this article a review is made for issues that are sometimes known in the abstract, but which are included in legal regulations, such as ownership of the medical history, subjective annotations, custody and rec tification or who and for what Access it (Code of ethics, 2010). References Avery, G. (2017).Law and ethics in nursing and healthcare. Sage Publications Ltd. BarCharts, I., Henry. (2013).Nursing. Boca Raton: BarCharts, Inc. Beauchamp, T., Childress, J.Principles of biomedical ethics. Brannigan, M., Boss, J. (2001).Healthcare ethics in a diverse society. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield Pub. Co. Code of ethics. (2010). Canberra, A.C.T. Cordess, C. (2001).Confidentiality and mental health. London, Eng.: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Code of Ethics for Nurses. (2017).Icn.ch. Retrieved 9 August 2017, from https://www.icn.ch/who-we-are/code-of-ethics-for-nurses/ Dimond, B. (2014).Legal Aspects of Patient Confidentiality. Luton: Andrews UK. Harman, L. 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