Negligence In Nursing Practice

ntroduction
Ethics is the study of different moral theories where its importance in nursing practicing is illustrated in the knowledge and competency that prepares nurses in examining ethical and legal issues in relation to their responsibilities, rights and moral role as a nurse. Through the study of bioethics, the nurse is able to develop a better understanding of the decision-making process that are made and assists with the application of moral theories within nursing practice (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2013).
With ethics also comes legal policies, legislation and statues that are relevant within the healthcare professional settings. The existence of law for health professionals serves to protect the public health to ensure nursing practices
are safe and are of high quality care to the patient. It is important for healthcare professionals to consider legal issues that may arise when making any clinical decisions for the patient (Forrester & Griffiths, 2015). In nursing practices, nurses encounter a lot of different legal and ethical issues within clinical settings that relate to patient care (Ulrich et al., 2010).
Based on the clinical scenario, Mr X had diabetes with wounds presence and his risk for developing pressure ulcers is high. Pain is the main concern for patient with various types of chronic wounds which include pressure ulcers, venous leg ulcers, malignant wounds and diabetic neuropathic foot ulcers. Pain management is important in clinical setting because inadequate pain management for a patient can lead to adverse physical and psychological outcomes to the patient and their families. According to Neugebauer 2007, negative psychological outcomes that due to poor pain management related to depression and anxiety disorders. Besides that, poor pain management can restrict patient mobility and have a negative effect on cardiovascular system, renal system and also gastrointestinal system. Furthermore, inadequate pain management can result in the occurrence of infection and delay the wound from healing (Wells, Pasero & Mc Caffery, 2008).
Inadequate pain management can be claim as a legal action as the nurses had the responsibility to help patient managing their pain during hospitalization. As pain management is part of the Human Rights, untreated pain can also cause the arise of ethical issues in this case scenario. In the clinical case scenario above, there are several legal and ethical issues that arise from the case study. The legal issue that arise from the case study has been identified as negligence within civil law. Ethical issues of respecting the patient’s dignity, autonomy, maleficence, beneficence, human rights, unprofessional conduct and moral distress have also been identified within this clinical scenario.
It is important that these legal and ethical issues are identified and addressed. The implication of such issues on the patient’s healthcare outcome, morality of the nurse and compromise on the delivery of quality care to the patient are discussed and supported with evidence from literature. Furthermore, these legal and ethical issues will also be discussed in the context of shortage of nursing capacity within hospitals and how this has impinged upon the nurse’s ability to conform to their duties.

Negligence Discussion
Negligence in nursing practice refers to the failure to care for one’s patient that nurses are supposed to take care of, resulting in the infliction of injury or loss to the patients, physical, psychological or even death (Grant & Diana Ballard, 2011).
Negligence falls under civil law as the plaintiff is entitled to seek monetary compensation from the defendant by reporting the incident or filing a complaint or case to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Plaintiff refers to the injured patient or the patient’s family members whilst the defendant refers to the healthcare professional or the
institution.
For a claim to be legal, there are four elements of negligence that are necessary for plaintiff to prove.
If the plaintiff fails to prove one of the elements, the plaintiff will not be able to seek compensation for their injuries. The first element of negligence is duty of care. According to Grant & Diana Ballard (2011), a nurse has the legal duty to provide safe and quality nursing care at a competent level according to the nursing standards given that the therapeutic relationship has been established between the nurse and the patient. For this element, the plaintiff needs to prove that the risk of injuries caused by the defendant actions to the plaintiff was foreseeable by the defendant. Reasonable foreseeability is the main determination and proof for duty of care.
Although the nurse didn’t get to choose her own patient, however the nurse has a duty and responsibility to provide quality care and treatment to their patient when allocated to the patient. In this case scenario, the nurse had the responsibility and duty to provide pain management to the patient by administering pain relieve medication for Mr X. Although the nurse clearly understand Mr X was a diabetes patient and his conditions, however, she had made decision to take care of other patients first instead of focusing on Mr X condition. The risk of damage to Mr X at that moment was foreseeable by the
nurse.
The second element of negligence is the breach of the duty of care. Nurses have the responsibility to provide standard of care for the patient throughout their stay in the hospital. A breach of duty is determined on the basis of whether the practice and conduct of the healthcare professionals fell below the standards. The plaintiff has to prove the defendant had breached or violated the duty of care according to the standards that dictated by Nursing And Midwifery Board (NMBA) in order for the claim to be legal (Alexander, Corrigan & Hankins, 2009). Healthcare professionals who failed to act or the outcomes of the act may consider as the breach of duty.