Legal and Ethico Moral Practice of Nurses

Nurses are facing many legal or ethical dilemmas in their career. It is very essential to know what kind of dilemmas nurses may face during their profession and how they have been dealt with in the past. Nurses should combine knowledge of ethical and legal aspects of health care and professional values into nursing practice. It is very essential for the nurses to know the difference between law and ethics. Ethics observes the values and actions of people. On the other hand, laws are necessary rules of conduct. A nurse may be faced with an act that may be ethical but not legal.
The purpose of this study was to look into the level of compliance to the Legal and Ethico-Moral responsibilities of Staff Nurses of Selected Tertiary Hospitals in Lucena City and the assessment of their head nurses. To achieve this purpose, the researcher determined the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of age, gender, employment status, educational attainment and length of service; the analysis of the level of compliance in terms to the legal responsibilities and ethico-moral responsibilities and in determining the significant difference between the head nurse assessment of their staff nurse followed and then the significant relationship between the demographic profile and the assessment made by the staff nurses.
Using the descriptive correlational and descriptive comparative method of research, the study presented the demographic profile on the level of compliance of staff nurses and head nurses based on the gathered data. The study adapted the questionnaire utilizing the Core Competency Standards for Nursing Practice in the Philippines, PRC-BON Resolution No. 112, s. 2005 and the National Competencies in the Context Entry-Level Registered Nurse by the College of Nurses of Ontario. Simple percentage, weighted mean, t-test and chi-square, and were used in the treatment of the data. The findings of the study revealed that on the profile of respondents, most of the staff