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Legal And Ethical Concerns In Nursing

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Legal And Ethical Concerns In Nursing
The effect of Ethical/Legal Concerns in Nursing Now that lawsuits are on the rise in the healthcare profession, it is crucial that nurses follow legal and ethical guidelines in providing care for patients. The scope of nursing practice in today’s developed world has created a subtle and diverse trend in every aspect of the profession. Every nurse should uphold the standard of practice that entails following doctors’ orders, practice under the scope of state and federal guidelines, and the priority to meeting patients’ nursing needs. Before the fulfillment of the care needed for patients in the healthcare setting, nurses are under an obligation to carry out patients care with the availability of a physician’s order, which underscores …show more content…
However, due the circumstances at the time, the facility personnel decided to conduct the evacuation their own way and not taking into consideration the ethical/legal issues involved .The author was right when he said: Preoperative nurses often find ethical decisions difficult to make but necessary when caring for surgical patients in practice (Seifert, 2002). When a nurse is providing service to a patient, the weight of bearing the responsibility for any wrongful doing is upon his/her shoulders; nurses are faced with the fear of losing their licenses to malpractice incidences. The profession comes with intense pressure and unmeasurable sacrifices, seeking legal action against nurses for minor mistake is absolutely absurd. When nurses faced these ethical/legal issues, some of the best way to deal with them is by asking yourself some of these basic decision making questions: Is my decision beneficial to the patient? Does it respect the autonomy of my patient? Was it safe and ethical/legal in every way possible? These solemnly should serve as your yardstick in providing care when not sure what to do as nurses/heal care …show more content…
Zeitzer, M. B. (2009). Ethical issues and decision making related to resuscitation of severely injured patients: Perceptions of emergency department nurses (Order No. 3381887). Available from Nursing & Allied Health Database. (304979280). Retrieved from https://ezproxy.ccp.edu:2152/docview/304979280?accountid=9969
2. Dar, M., Bette-Lee, F., French, L., Heilbrun, M., Hoffert, B., Klose, S., . . . Williams, W. (2013). Best books 2013. Library Journal, 138(20), 26. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.ccp.edu:2152/docview/1465269347?accountid=9969
3. Seifert, P. C. (2002). Ethics in perioperative practice--duty to self. Association of Operating Room Nurses.AORN Journal, 76(2), 306-10, 312-3. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.ccp.edu:2152/docview/200685842?accountid=9969
4. Winland-Brown, J., Lachman, V. D., & Swanson, E. O. (2015). The new 'code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements' (2015): Practical clinical application, part I. Medsurg Nursing, 24(4), 268-271. Retrieved from

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