Ethical and Legal Issue Impactin Professional Care
Ethical and Legal Issues Impacting Professional Practice
Angela Dunbar
Arizona State University
Ethical and Legal Issues Impacting Professional Practice
According to Code of Ethics for Nurses, the nurse in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth of uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems ("Code of Ethics for Nurses," 2001, p. 11). People have a right to quality medical care, even if they do not have insurance.
My scenario for this paper is: You observe a homeless person without any insurance being provided substandard care by the medical team. I have never experienced a situation of this kind. I could see this happening in the emergency room or a doctor’s office. I work in the intensive care unit; insurance is irrelevant to me. When case management is on my case to get them out of the unit and transferred to telemetry, it has come across my mind, is it an insurance issue? To read the scenario at first gland, I can see that it is unethical and illegal. I will inform you why this scenario is unethical and illegal in this paper.
As stated in my first sentence, the nurse must practice without restrictions by consideration of social or economic status. Healthcare needs are universal, and the nurse’s primary commitment is to the safety and well-being of the patient. As a patient advocate the nurse must take appropriate action regarding any instances of unethical, illegal, or impaired practice by any member of the healthcare team. Nurses also have the responsibility to assist those who identify potentially questionable practice ("Code of Ethics for Nurses," 2001, p. 19). As stated in Code of Ethics for Nurses “All nurses, regardless of role, have a responsibility to create, maintain, and contribute to environments of practice that support nurses in fulfilling their ethical obligations ("Code of
Angela Dunbar
Arizona State University
Ethical and Legal Issues Impacting Professional Practice
According to Code of Ethics for Nurses, the nurse in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth of uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems ("Code of Ethics for Nurses," 2001, p. 11). People have a right to quality medical care, even if they do not have insurance.
My scenario for this paper is: You observe a homeless person without any insurance being provided substandard care by the medical team. I have never experienced a situation of this kind. I could see this happening in the emergency room or a doctor’s office. I work in the intensive care unit; insurance is irrelevant to me. When case management is on my case to get them out of the unit and transferred to telemetry, it has come across my mind, is it an insurance issue? To read the scenario at first gland, I can see that it is unethical and illegal. I will inform you why this scenario is unethical and illegal in this paper.
As stated in my first sentence, the nurse must practice without restrictions by consideration of social or economic status. Healthcare needs are universal, and the nurse’s primary commitment is to the safety and well-being of the patient. As a patient advocate the nurse must take appropriate action regarding any instances of unethical, illegal, or impaired practice by any member of the healthcare team. Nurses also have the responsibility to assist those who identify potentially questionable practice ("Code of Ethics for Nurses," 2001, p. 19). As stated in Code of Ethics for Nurses “All nurses, regardless of role, have a responsibility to create, maintain, and contribute to environments of practice that support nurses in fulfilling their ethical obligations ("Code of
References: American Nurses Association. (2001). In Code of ethics for nurses. Silver Spring, MD. : Nursesbooks.org. Austin, S. (2011). What does EMTALA mean for you? [Entire issue]. Nursing Management, 42(9). Burstin, H. (2002). Socioeconomic status and risk for substandard medical care [Entire issue]. JAMA: the journal of the American Medical Association, 268(17). doi: 10.1001/jama.1992.03490170055025 Hughes, C. (2002, October 18). Health care for uninsured poor. Times-Union, p. B1. Retrieved from http://pl8cg5fc8w.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=news&rft.atitle=Health+care+for+uninsured+poor&rft.jtitle=Times-union+%28Albany%2C+N.Y.%29&rft.au=CLAIRE+HUGHES+Staff+writer&rft.date=2002-10-18&rft.spage=B.1&rft.externalDBID=UAAS&rft.externalDocID=214713461 Porterfield, D. (2002). Quality of care for uninsured patients with diabetes in a rural area [Entire issue]. Diabetes Care, 25(2). doi: 10.2337/diacare.25.2.319