Discussion: Legal and Ethical Conduct

All nurses need to be familiar with the laws and regulations that govern their practice: their state’s Nurse Practice Act, ANA’s Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, specialty group standards of practice, etc. In addition, basic ethical principles guide nurses’ decision-making process every day. ANA’s Code of Ethics and ANA’s Social Policy Statement are two important documents that outline nurses’ ethical responsibilities to their patients, themselves, and their profession. This said, there is a dilemma: The laws are not always compatible with the ethical positions nurses sometimes take. This Discussion focuses on such a dilemma.

To prepare:

Review the relationship between the law and ethics.

Consider the ethical responsibility of nurses in ensuring patient autonomy, beneficence, non-malfeasance, and justice.

Read the following scenario:

Lena is a community health care nurse who works exclusively with HIV-positive and AIDS patients. As a part of her job, she evaluates new cases and reviews confidential information about these patients. In the course of one of these reviews, Lena learns that her sister’s boyfriend has tested HIV positive. Lena would like to protect her sister from harm and begins to consider how her sister can find out about her boyfriend’s health status.

Consult at least two resources to help you establish Lena’s legal and ethical position. These resources might include your state’s Nurse Practice Act, the ANA’s Code of Ethics, ANA’s Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, and internal or external standards of care.

Consider what action you would take if you were Lena and why.

Determine whether the law and the ANA’s standards support or conflict with that action.

 I NEED A POSITIVE COMMENT BASED IN THIS ARGUMENT..BETWEEN 120-150 WORDS

Personal affiliations and networking are important for nurses in leadership positions. Research shows that nurses occupying leadership roles share the same challenges and, therefore, learning from one another can be significant in advancing the services offered by the health care facility (Huber, 2014). Some of the restrictions to the delivery of quality health care services have been solved by nurses exploiting the existing networks and affiliations. The world has become a global village and hence the need for nurses in leadership positions to exploit the vast network of information to gain more knowledge.

Leaders who have exploited the existing networks have been able to advance their careers while at the same time improving the quality of health care services offered at the facility they serve. According to Huber (2014), personal affiliations and networks enable leaders in nursing to acquire new information thus, commanding a competitive edge out of the new information. With leaders operating in the same field and sharing information,Szumlas (2013) observed that new evidence-based practices have been shared across this platform. The use of personal affiliations and networks exposes leaders to open positions in the job market, with each new position occupied, the nurse leaders is able to move up the ladder in the employment circles.

References

Huber, D. (2014). Leadership and Nursing Care Management – E-Book. London: Saunders.

Szumlas, S. (2013). Leveraging Staff Nurse Engagement to Design Effective Patient Care Assignments. Nurse Leader, 11(2), 46-49.