Nursing in Australia

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Ethical and Legal issues in nursing.

Conclusion.

References.

Introduction to Mrs. Ramirez Case Study

The case study depicts that Mrs. Ramirez got admitted to the hospital for wrist surgery. She was however stabilized and this was the reason, she got shifted to the general survey unit. Her medications involve digoxin, Lasix as well as captopril along with aspirin and prednisone. However, the lady after some days had started rejecting these medicines and on a slow basis, she had lost her consciousness. However, these activities had not been recorded or documented by the nurses. This way the patient daily had been suffering from severe weakness as well as fatigue. One day, it has been observed that the patient bleeding for the operation site as well as the dressing already been removed (Cashin, 2017).

It can be stated from this, that the nurses in the hospital have been facing ethical challenges where they are offering minimal benefits to the patients and at the same time also not looking after the problems of the nurses. One of the ethical problems mostly faced by the nurses in the hospitals is the failure of rededicating themselves towards a particular mission which is ultimately based on altruism and community services. It should be the responsibility of the hospital in deciding on the ethical choices regarding whom they will serve and in what manner, the allocation of the resources can be made with adequate leadership as well as providing quality healthcare (Grech, 2019).

Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing

It has been found that according to the Code of Ethics for the Nurses in Australia, the nurse in the hospital have failed in valuing the quality nursing care for the patients like Ramirez. Also, the nurse had failed in valuing the respect as well as kindness for self and others and hence the diversity among the people not being valued by the nurses. In this section, the nurses as a professional need to value the culture as well as safety within the nursing and healthcare along with valuing the ethical managerial information. In addition to this, it is the responsibility of the nurses in maintaining cultural safety within nursing and health care (Grech, 2019). In this context, the purpose of the code of Ethics among the nurses in Australia is in making an identification of the fundamental ethical standards as well as organizational values where the nurses are committed and also got incorporated in certain professional nursing guidelines and standards of conduct.

The Code of Ethics in Australia outlines the professional commitment among the nurses so that the fundamental rights among the patients can be achieved in the context of respect, promotion so that the individual fundamental rights can be greatly upheld those who are both of the recipients as well as the nursing and health care’s providers. The professional standards help in defining the nurses as well as midwives’ behavior which ultimately involves organizational standards of practice, ethical codes (Kreimer, 2010). In Australia, The Registered Nurse standards for the practice comprised of certain standards like thinking critically as well as analyzing nursing practice. It is also the responsibility of the nurses to engage themselves in therapeutic as well as professional relationships. The Registered nurse standards for practice should maintain the capability in organizational practice. As per the International Council of Nurses and the International Confederation of Midwives, the nurses need to jointly make the adoption of both of the ICN as well as ICM ethical codes (NHMRC, 2020).

“The principles of the code apply to all types of nursing practice in all contexts. This includes any work where a nurse uses nursing skills and knowledge, whether paid or unpaid, clinical or non-clinical. This includes work in the areas of clinical care, clinical leadership, clinical governance responsibilities, education, research, administration, management, advisory roles, regulation, or policy development. The code also applies to all settings where a nurse may engage in these activities, including face-to-face, publications, or via online or electronic means” (Kreimer, 2010).

The nurses should honestly practice and at the same time should not engage in unlawful behavior. This is under Principle 1: Legal Compliance. On the other hand, under Principle 2, the nurses should make an application of the person-centered decision making aspects along with evidence-based aspects based on which the safety, as well as the quality care, can be ensured and delivered (Nursing Midwifery Board, 2018). The reasonable steps need to be undertaken by the authority of the particular nation to ensure that the nurse can be able to delegate, handed over as well as referred over care. In this context, organizational decision making can get influenced well which involves both the type as well as the location of the practice setting (Nursing Midwifery Board, 2018).

Particularly in the case study, the responsibility of the nurse towards Mrs. Ramirez is the development of the cultural practice and at the same time development of a respectful relationship. Here the nurse should make an engagement with the people in such a way so that the culturally safe as well as compassionate professional relationship can be integrated and also developed. Principle 4 states proper monitoring and the development of positive professional relationship which had been built on the effective communication process. Again under principle 4 that is the professional behavior, it is the responsibility of the nurses to embody integrity, respect, compassion as well as honesty with respect. Certain aspects need to be explained to the professionals regarding practice area, purposes as well as assessment extents that need to be readily performed. To prevent conflicts of interest, it is the responsibility of the nurses to act with integrity and also work in the best of the people’s interests at the time of arranging or providing adequate care. The nurse should get proactively informed and none of the financial as well as the commercial interest within any entity should not be allowed so that the people will be getting negatively treated (Trollor, 2016). In addition to this, it is also necessary for the nurses in the hospital to be transparent as well as honest with the patients to ensure that there will be no perception with context to actual or personal gain.

Again principle 5 highlights that teaching, assessing as well as supervising is also one of the effective components to develop the mind-set among the nursing student and also handed them the supervisory power to learn and can also be benefited from oversights as well as feedbacks. The Values and Ethics as being developed by the Australian Health Ethics Committee should get highlighted in the broader perspective and here as per the Human Research Ethics Committee (Cashin, 2017). it is the responsibility of the institutions as well as hospitals to get involved into research, setting of the government standards as well as the processing of the ethical reviews where both the data as well as the record management turns out to be important which will be helpful by the higher hospital authorities in Australia to handle any form of allegations in the context of research misconduct so that the statutory obligations can be readily fulfilled. The responsibilities that have been set out under the National Statement got intended to be consistent so that their responsibilities complied with the Australian human rights (Lalloo, 2016).

Conclusion on Mrs. Ramirez Case Study

To conclude, it can be stated that certain actions like the nurses should be valuing quality nursing care which involves accepting the account through which the standard nursing care can be raised. Along with that, the nurses should recognize the people who will be entitled to delivering quality nursing care and will also strive in securing the best available nursing conditions.

References for Mrs. Ramirez Case Study

Cashin, A. (2017). Standards for practice for registered nurses in Australia. Collegian, 24(3), 255-266. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2016.03.002

Grech, C. (2019). Ethical issues in critical care. Critical Care Nursing. Journal on Ethical issues in critical care. Critical Care Nursing, 76.

Kreimer, S. (2010, July 07). Five Ethical Challenges in Healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.amnhealthcare.com/latest-healthcare-news/five-ethical challenges-healthcare/

Lalloo, D. (2016). Core competencies for UK occupational health nurses: a Delphi study. Occupational Medicine, 66(8), 649-655. doi:10.1093/occmed/kqw089

NHMRC. (2020, May 07). National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) - Updated 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/national-statement-ethical-conduct-human-research

Nursing Midwifery Board. (2018, March 01). New codes of ethics in effect for nurses and midwives. Retrieved from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/News/2018-03-01-new-codes-of-ethics-in-effect.aspx

Trollor, J. N. (2016). Intellectual disability health content within nursing curriculum: An audit of what our future nurses are taught. Nurse Education Today, 45, 72-79. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.06.011

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