Professional, Legal and Ethical Issues in Person-Centred Care
Professional, Legal and Ethical issues in person-centred care
For the purpose of this assignment the student will be discussing and analysing the professional, legal and ethical issues that influenced how person-centred care was delivered to a patient in an acute psychiatric hospital where the student was working. In accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2010) the patient will be referred to as Sarah to uphold confidentiality.
During a shift at the hospital the student attended a manager’s ward review. The student listened as approved mental health professionals (AMHP) discussed the wellbeing of patients who were being cared for in the hospital. AMHP’s are mental health professionals who have specialist training in mental health assessment and legislation (Barcham, C (2008) The first patient to be reviewed was Sarah, a thirty two year old female who suffered from schizophrenia. Sarah was an informal patient who had agreed to be admitted into hospital to be treated. As an informal patient Sarah has the same rights as a person being treated with a physical illness (NHS, (2010) meaning Sarah had the freedom of choice to refuse treatment and could self-discharge. However, doctors and nurses have the power to prevent patient’s from leaving if it is felt that there is a serious concern that the patient or public could be at risk of harm (Choa, O (2007) If this is the situation then the staff should respect the patient’s wishes by attempting to explain the concerns in the hope that the patient makes a decision to stay. If the patient still insists on leaving, it is then that detainment under the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) must be considered. (Department of Health (2005) (DH)
The student heard how Sarah’s mental state had deteriorated in the past week due to her refusing to take her medication. Sarah had demonstrated auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions about being poisoned. It was also mentioned that on a number of occasions Sarah had
For the purpose of this assignment the student will be discussing and analysing the professional, legal and ethical issues that influenced how person-centred care was delivered to a patient in an acute psychiatric hospital where the student was working. In accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2010) the patient will be referred to as Sarah to uphold confidentiality.
During a shift at the hospital the student attended a manager’s ward review. The student listened as approved mental health professionals (AMHP) discussed the wellbeing of patients who were being cared for in the hospital. AMHP’s are mental health professionals who have specialist training in mental health assessment and legislation (Barcham, C (2008) The first patient to be reviewed was Sarah, a thirty two year old female who suffered from schizophrenia. Sarah was an informal patient who had agreed to be admitted into hospital to be treated. As an informal patient Sarah has the same rights as a person being treated with a physical illness (NHS, (2010) meaning Sarah had the freedom of choice to refuse treatment and could self-discharge. However, doctors and nurses have the power to prevent patient’s from leaving if it is felt that there is a serious concern that the patient or public could be at risk of harm (Choa, O (2007) If this is the situation then the staff should respect the patient’s wishes by attempting to explain the concerns in the hope that the patient makes a decision to stay. If the patient still insists on leaving, it is then that detainment under the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) must be considered. (Department of Health (2005) (DH)
The student heard how Sarah’s mental state had deteriorated in the past week due to her refusing to take her medication. Sarah had demonstrated auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions about being poisoned. It was also mentioned that on a number of occasions Sarah had
References: Barcham, C (2008) Understanding the Mental Health Act changes – Challenges and opportunities for doctors. British Journal of Medical Practitioners. 1 (2) pp13 – 17 Barker, P Beauchamp, T, L and Childress, J, F. (1994) Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press Burnard, P NMC (2010) The code. Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives. Nursing and Midwifery Council, London. Tschudin, V. (1993) Ethics. Nurses and patients. 1st ed. Scutari projects Ltd. Wilmot, P. (2003) Issues involved in promoting patient autonomy in healthcare. Journal of Nursing. 12 (22) pp1323 - 1330