Question

what are law and ethics governing nurses misconduct to patient?

Answer 1

Nurses inspires confidence in patient by treating them professionally, objectively and ethically. Patients and their families always expect nurses to always act in their best interest and to adhere to the standards of professional conduct while maintaining a respectful and professional relationship. But nurses have a type of authority and influence that comes from their professional position. Their specialized knowledge and skills as well as access to private information make the patient vulnerable.

The board of nursing is one legal and recognized organization that regulate nursing is a state. Law makers validates the Nurse Practice Act for a state. In every state there are certain Nurse Practice Acts that regulates the legal duties and responsibilities for the nursing community towards their patients. . Disciplinary procedures in the If any case of negligence, malpractice, defamation, abuse, impairment or wrongful death is found, then nurse are vulnerable to strong disciplinary actions. There are certain ligitation issues that can occur if a nurse fails to follow the defined standards of care, communicate, document, monitor or delegate a patient's condition. Also there are certain professional standards and boundaries defined by the healthcare organizations that a nurse must follow in each case failing to which could result in loss of job or nursing license as well as civil action, on the basis of the severity of violation. There are also HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations that limits a nurse from breaching or compromising the privacy and confidentiality of a patients and prevent a nurse from sharing any personal protected information of the patient. HIPPA privacy rule safeguards all important data noted or recorded in electronic or paper form as well as the private conversations between the patient and healthcare providers.

There are also some ethcal principles that are said to be the core of nursing profession and enables them with a proper framework to make correct ethical decisions. These principles are beneficence which defines a nurse's actions should always promote good to the patient, nonmaleficence which defines a nurse's actions should prevent harm to others or to inflict the minimal harm possible, autonomy which defines a nurse's actions should respect an individual’s right to decision-making, justice that can be defined as acting fair towards all individuals, treating everyone equally and with same level of respect and concern, veracity which defines a nurse's actions of being truthful, trustworthy, and accurate, fidelity means being loyal and faithful and Integrity which defines a nurse's actions of being honest and have certain moral values.