The Role Law and Ethics Play in Practice
In exercise nine explore the roles the law and ethics play in practice and health professionals roles and responsibilities.
e suggest you start this exercise no later than the 21st March and submit your work by the 4th April.
The activities you need to undertake are
In the first link Pat Jones (lead for the fitness to practice issues) presents a session on the legal and ethical principles, and the slides she used are in the 2nd link.
The second link has contains NMC professional conduct committees, if you haven’t looked at these before its worth seeing why people have been investigated and the outcomes these have had.
There are then 2 reports exploring how ethical practice and its development are impacting on care.
Now consider the following points
You witness poor practice or care while you are at work, what are your professional responsibilities, and how should you approach reporting this?
Now consider the following points.
What do you see as your professional, ethical and moral position in terms of your practice
We want you to reflect on your practice and exploring the issues
You need to submit a 500-word essay.
I have included all the pre-reading plus some stuff from the CQC and NMC (I have had to add them on afterwards as they wouldn’t download with the rest of the stuff) which will useful. The CQC stuff contains stuff from the health and social care act 2014
Sample Paper
How to Address Poor Practice
If I was to witness poor practice or care in my work environment, my professional responsibilities would originate from the guidance of the two important proficiencies of nursing, which include being an accountable professional and improving safety and quality of care. My professional responsibility would therefore be to report the incidences of poor practice to the necessary authorities in the healthcare environment and to ensure that such an issue is resolved amicably (Maloney, 2016). Considering the standards of proficiency for a registered nurse, one of the main proficiencies of an RN is to be an accountable professional. Registered nurses are required to always act in the best interest of all people and always put their patients first when providing nursing care services in a safe, compassionate, and person-centered manner (Wintrup, 2015). Registered nurses are required to act professionally at all times and use their experience and knowledge to make evidence-based decisions about care while also communicating effectively and acting as role models for others in healthcare environments (Leigh & Roberts, 2018). RNs are also required to be accountable for their actions. Considering the proficiency of registered nurses to be accountable professionals, it will therefore be important for nurses to also be accountable for their team members in a healthcare environment. In an incident where a healthcare practitioner observes poor practice, they will therefore take it upon themselves to ensure that the issue is resolved by liaising with the necessary authorities to ensure that the patients that are involved in practice receive safe, compassionate, and person-centered care (Harper & Maloney, 2016). The professional responsibility of a registered nurse is also to report for practice following the proficiency of nurses that relates to improving safety and quality of care. Registered nurses should realize that they are the main advocate for patients and are the other ones that spend a lot of time with such patients (Brown, 2017). As a result of being the main advocates for patients, registered nurses should therefore promote quality care and safety for all patients, including those they attend to and those that they do not directly attend to (Samuels, 2017). Considering the role of registered nurses as patient advocates, it will therefore be prudent for a registered nurse to report poor practice to the necessary authorities and to ensure that such an issue is resolved effectively in a way that the safety of a patient is not compromised and that the patient receives positive outcomes (Glasper, 2018).
A registered nurse should always speak to the charge nurse or the supervisor in a unit so as to report poor practice. This is because the charge nurse or the supervisor has the authority to address the poor practice issue and may also possess the adequate leadership skills to provide effective correction to nurses that are involved in poor practice and enhance safe practice for patients in the future (Jacob & Raine, 2016).
Professional Ethical and Moral Position In Practice
I view my professional, ethical and moral position in terms of my practice as being related to service. My main duty as a professional registered nurse is to serve patients, while my moral and ethical positions are motivated by service to people, which means that I have to always look for the best interest of not only my patients but also my colleagues.
References
Brown, A. (2017). New standards of proficiency for registered nurses. British Journal of Community Nursing, 22(Sup12), S5. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2017.22.sup12.s5
Glasper, E. A. (2018). Promoting Honesty and Truthfulness When Things Go Wrong During Care Delivery for Sick Children. Comprehensive Child and Adolescent Nursing, 41(2), 83–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694193.2018.1467159
Harper, M. G., & Maloney, P. (2016). Nursing Professional Development. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 32(3), 171–173. https://doi.org/10.1097/nnd.0000000000000255
Jacob, H., & Raine, J. (2016). Openness and honesty when things go wrong: the professional duty of candour (GMC guideline): Table 1. Archives of Disease in Childhood – Education & Practice Edition, 101(5), 243–245. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2015-309631
Leigh, J., & Roberts, D. (2018). Critical exploration of the new NMC standards of proficiency for registered nurses. British Journal of Nursing, 27(18), 1068–1072. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2018.27.18.1068
Maloney, P. (2016). Nursing Professional Development. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 32(6), 327–330. https://doi.org/10.1097/nnd.0000000000000300
Samuels, A. (2017). The duty of candour: Openness, transparency and candour. Medico-Legal Journal, 85(3), 138–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/0025817216688387
Wintrup, J. (2015). The changing landscape of care: does ethics education have a new role to play in health practice? BMC Medical Ethics, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-015-0005-0
