Nursing: Legal and Professional Ethical Principles - Essay Example

? Nursing: Legal and Professional Ethical Principles Nursing: Legal and Professional Ethical Principles Ethics entails the application of moral values in the practice of medicine. However, it is not enough to offer medical services to a patient as you would wish to be offered yourself. If such tenet is blindly followed, one would find him/herself on the wrong side of the law. Therefore, ethical medical provisions are usually aligned to legal medical provision requirements. There has been rapid advancement in medical and social ethics to an extent that medical attendants can regularly be faced with controversial issues. Hence, as a clinician, I usually ensure that I am up to date with advancing improvised legislation subject to all laws and guidelines laid down by my professional body. In UK, certain principles have been enshrined in good medical practices that ensure every health worker must follow regarding patient treatment. Notably, these legal principles bound me to numerous principles of care for my patients. Personally, I consider treating patients as a significant practice; nonetheless, I usually relate all the requirements as suggested by the General Medical Council in the UK. For instance, dignity and total respect for patients are my greatest importance in offering medical services. Clinicians are expected to provide care that meets the individual’s expectations despite that it very difficult when face with the need to make efficient use of the available resources. Therefore, it is upon me to put into consideration the public interests and practice within the specified legal boundaries. According to the UK specifications, all treatments and care should take into account the individual needs and preferences of the patient. Moreover, patients are entitled to the best possible care irrespective of their age, ethnicity, sexuality, religious beliefs, color or politics. Thus, as medical practitioner it is my responsibility to provide total support for the patient regardless of their age, ethnicity, sexuality, religious beliefs, color or politics. On the other hand, as part of offering the best to our patients, there should be efforts in maintaining a good standard of clinical practice. Notably, medicine is changing rapidly. For this reason, we cannot maintain the good standards of clinical practice unless we keep our knowledge and skills updated. This has been made a fundamental requirement and is no longer an extra. In ensuring the best clinical practice, we must have an individual development plan. Therefore, we should allocate sufficient time to offer medical services to patients in a strategized manner. Good clinical practice entails being conscientious and ensuring that enough time is devoted to providing safe and effective support and care (Hendrick et al., 2013; Pg. 25). Therefore, as an individual within the practice, I usually read medical book regarding my practice and all the entailed requirements. Confidentiality is also a vital element in offering medical services to patients both in the hospital and at home. This element is protected in the Hippocratic Oath. The legislation that governs the process of private information is contained in the data protection act. The act requires medical practitioners to respect and keep in secret all personal information regarding the patient. Moreover, the act requires that information concerning the patient’s sickness should only be disclosed upon the patient’s permission. All clinicians are subject to the confidentiality legislation. Notably, breach of confidentiality may have strict consequences for the clinician/patient relationship as well as the clinician’s reputation. However, in some occasions, one’s obligations to the people’s safety and public good override the confidentiality duty to the patient. Nonetheless, as a clinician I may be forced to disclose patient’s information in case of a serious crime; however, I am obligated to keep such information confidential. Other occasions where the confidentiality principles can be neglected include situations when there is the need to disclose records for administrative and financial purposes. Hence, I am obligated as a clinician to violate the confidentiality principle in occasions of reporting knife wounds or gunshots. Moreover, I may disclose information regarding serious communicable diseases or when responding to critics in the press. It should be noted that the developed General Medical Council guidelines do not absolve medical officers from applying their personal judgments. Thus, when I am in doubt, as clinicians I can get assistance from their medial defense organization. Is such occasions, I can seek detailed information from relatives and family members. Therefore, this can make me, as a medical practitioner to find it very difficult to obtain all necessary information from the patient. In this situation, I will be obligated to involve the patient’s relatives or friends and provide them with continued information regarding the patient for as long as such a patient remains in a critical condition. Legal aspect also requires Informed consent that provides guidelines to the provision of the best medical service. This requirement requires me as legal practitioner that all my consent obtained to be informed. While informed consents apply to every medical intervention, they raise questions of the amount of information required and how precise it should be that the patient clearly understands. The patient must understand the percentages of risks associated with their sickness. The clinician should therefore avoid all technical terms and abbreviations that would confuse the patient. Doctors have the responsibility of assessing the capacity of a person in making an informed decision on their care. This has been approved by the courts and is has been defined as sufficient understanding to enable patients understand fully whatever is proposed. Removal of the patient is another aspect governing the health sector. The General Medical Council warns that patients should not be removed if they make a complaint or if they refuse to follow an advice about lifestyle changes. Removal of the patient should always come the last option after all other possible options. The clinician should engage the patient in a discussion on his/her removal or rather right to the patient with detailed justifications on the decision. Work Ethics entails what people think and do about their work. Despite the fact that these thinking come with responsibilities, clinician should never be afraid to think towards a conclusive ideas. Moreover, they should never be afraid to discuss or seek advice from other members and medical related bodies. Clinicians should record all ethical considerations just like they would record clinical matters. On the other hand, Patients have the right to make decisions. They have the freedom to follow adverse lifestyles while they can also refuse treatments. Therefore, as a clinician, I may not have the right to prevent the patient from doing things in a way that I consider inappropriate. However, I have the right to express my observations but without enforcing such ideas. Patients and Clients from diverse Cultural Backgrounds There has been different and numerous concerns on the marginalized persons especially concerning their medical care. Currently, there has been a developing interest in the nursing care of clients from minority ethnic communities. The provision of nursing care is included with training of health care professionals. This is aimed at providing care for patients from a diverse range of ethnic groups. The momentum for the promotion of trans-cultural competence and the infliction of the specific required skills for nurses, which would ensure that they provide an appropriate and a high quality car within a multi-ethnic society is originated from numerous issues (Duquenoy et al., 2008; Pg. 43). The demographic changes in the United Kingdom and the government have showed serious responses on the issue. These responses involve a shift in the policy of addressing ethnic variations in health to the focus on inequalities on service provision and managing diversity. Significantly, nurses are shaped to become culturally competent. They are also provided with the means of acquiring competency within the curriculum of nursing. The UK government has modified the nursing curriculum to include programs that would assist trainees acquire knowledge and skills to function in a community of numerous groups of people and from designated cultures. The acquired knowledge and skills should enable nurses meet all specific needs of individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Clients from diverse cultural backgrounds would be distrustful and discontented with their care if nurses from the UK show little knowledge and skills required in meeting the needs of individuals from different ethnic origins. These knowledge and skills acquired would ensure that their care is therapeutic and meaningful (Simpson and Robinson, 2002; Pg. 55). In order to meet the diverse cultural needs, nurses should begin by gaining understanding of the specific cultures that form part of the population or community they are providing healthcare services. These should include the beliefs, the lifestyles, the religious practices, and their significant values, believes, and practices. Qualified nurses in the trans-cultural nursing observe human rights that every culture should have their beliefs, practices and their values understood and respected by the health care providers. If the patient has a different faith or culture from the doctor’s, the doctor will need to consider how they do things; including their personal routines and the significance if symbols and tools. It would be necessary to do some research if the doctor is unfamiliar with the client’s customs, rituals or traditions. Health care is a critical part of many cultural groups. While UK is a country of people of numerous cultural backgrounds, such aspect of culture are put into consideration whenever a medical service is provided. For the Jewish women living in UK, they may wish to put on a swig while some men from Sikh may put-on their hair in wrapped and coiled under a turban (Chambers et al., 2000; Pg. 57). These lifestyles should never be factored in while attending to these persons on medical grounds. Mealtimes and meals are important in many cultures and religions. Catholics do not eat meat on Friday. Nurses should be respectful to such cultures to ensure the best service for a patient and should never insist for these people to eat on the dates or meals that they never subscribe to or use. Additionally, different cultures, ethnicity, and originality may lead to difficulty in communication. In a place of language barrier, nurses should be patient enough to extract the exact information being relayed by the client and patient. In cases where communication barrier is too diverse and no information is relayed, the medical practitioner should seek the assistance of another person for translation to ensure fluent and effective communication with the client or patient. In his situation, the nurse would be able to understand the client’s problem while the client can express him/herself in an understandable manner (Wright, and Hill, 2003; Pg. 25). There is much accessibility of health care in UK. This is carried out in great observation of its effectiveness and equity for all individuals. Nurses are faced with a great challenge in some parts where the population takes up diversity in culture and race. Health care workers have been enrolled to the nursing schools which offer nursing studies with the incorporation of the study of diverse cultures. Hospitals in the UK are crammed with clients from all sorts of color, culture, race and religion. It is very evident that patients in these hospitals obtain the required treatments that meet their needs (Swage, 2003; Pg. 46). On reviewing some recorded articles on an interview with different patients from different ethnicity, it has been revealed that health care workers in the UK offer the best treatment services to their patients regardless of their originality, color, and religion among other diversities. Previously, ‘black’ was the word that was frequently used to describe individuals from the minority ethnic groups. It is frequently used to mean the Africans and African-Caribbean groups. In a health care situation, when a client or a patient is admitted into a hospital and takes the initial assessment, the health care worker may choose to describe the patient as black in the attempt of identifying their ethnic origin this occurs out of the assumption that all the minority groups a refer to themselves as “blacks”. However, with the presence of the minority ethnic in UK, hospital ensures equity in the provision of all medical services. All cultural backgrounds are respected and observed to the letter. The clients’ cultural issues are given the first priority before any prescriptions are made (Chambers et al., 2007; Pg. 25) ‘White’ and ‘black’ are terms that have ambiguously been used to have some political implications; however, medical field has eliminated such notions and are providing health care services without any discrimination along such lines. By classifying people into either white or black, has been an inclination to assume that a community can be divided into a dominant white majority and the oppressed black minority. This has lead nurses to the use of other terms in the effort to avoid causing an offence to clients. However, some terms have been identified for the nurses who would describe the ethnicity of a client/patient. The words “colored” and “immigrant” are the best words to be used in the place of describing the ethnicity of a patient. Nurses should keenly examine the client before they make any word to describe them. Some clients would turn to the nurse and make her/him a target of abuse in case the nurse do not describe the client in the right and correct manner. White clients would want to be addressed as immigrants while the immigrants would not want to be addressed as colored clients (McSherry et al., 2011; Pg. 90). Ethnicity, religious, and cultural disparities among other social factors have affect health sector among other service delivering sectors greatly. However, changes in social relation in regards to national and international policies have helped in changing such social relationships immensely. Therefore, the health sectors are no longer affected by these vices and patients from all over world and walks of life are treated regardless of the origin, believes, and colors among other factors, but are attended to medically from their medical requirements. The Concept of Clinical Governance Clinical governance is a system through which the National Health Service organizations are accountable for a continued improvement on the quality of medical services and safeguarding high standards of care (Lugton and Mcintyre, R. (2005; Pg.56). This is enabled through the creation of an environment whereby excellence in clinical care flourishes. It is a systematic approach aimed to the maintenance and improving the quality of patient care in a health system. Clinical governance was the major aspect of an NHS white paper that had been introduced after the labor government resumed office in 1990s. Clinical governance allows for the understanding and leaning on how to develop the basic components required facilitating the provision of quality care. It ensures the establishment of a climate with no blames, no questioning and with much learning of culture. Such environments are comprised with excellent leadership and with ethos whereby the staff are highly valued and supported in their partnerships with clients. Clinical governance entails re-examination of the traditional boundaries and roles aimed at showing the public that the NHS will no longer tolerate poor practice, but the best for the public (Burton and Ormrod, 2011; Pg. 76). Clinical governance is implemented in health care centers by making continued improvements on the quality of services. It represents a systematic joining up of ideas to improve quality. Since the NHS governance was introduced, structures have been put in the right place to set standards and ensure that the set standards are met. There is the requirement of new approaches to leadership, patient involvement, and management of stuff, strategic planning and management of processes. HHS clinical governance support team provides task based program which provide guidelines towards the implementation of the clinical governance (Harris et al., 2013; Pg. 88). Components of Clinical Governance Clinical governance is usually regarded as a systematic approach towards improving and maintaining quality health care services to patients. The clinical governance is vital component of health care system in the United Kingdom and it emerged in the year 1995 after the Bristol heart scandal. The main components of clinical governance are (Brack et al., 2003; Pg. 99). 1. Risk Management. This is about reducing risks to patients by first, identifying what can go wrong during care. The risk to patients can also be minimized by understanding the factors that influence the risks, through learning lessons from diverse events, ensuring actions are taken for the prevention of recurrence and by establishing systems which help in reducing the risk. 2. Clinical Audit. This is a way that health care workers can measure the quality of the care they provide. Clinical audit help the health care workers in comparing their performance against a standard and to see that they are identifying improvement opportunities. 3. Training, education and continuing professional development. The involved staff with care for patients must be equipped with knowledge and skills required foe the best performance. For this reason, they are given an opportunity to update their knowledge and skills to adjust to the latest development in ideas. The health sector practice and development teams’ work together to ensure that the clinician staff have the skills required to provide the best care for patients. 4. Effectiveness and evidence-based care. Health care professional should base their care on good quality evidence from a relevant research. 5. Patient and care involvement and experience. The rust is to provide quality care for patients. As a result of this, there is the need to work in partnership with curers and patients. This takes up gaining a better understanding of the concerns and priorities of the people who benefit from our services by involving them in what we do, including our planning and policy. 6. Staff management. Staffing is a significant factor in providing a high quality care. There is the need to have the highly skilled staff, which works in an efficient and in a well-supported environment. Nursing and Midwifery Council The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent legislative regulator of midwives and nurses in the UK (James et al., 2005; Pg. 12). As a requirement from the Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001, the NMC is mandated to establish and maintain registration of all qualified midwives and nurses eligible to practice in the United Kingdom, to set their practice, conduct and education standards and to take action in the question of the standards. The NMC has powers to set rules for the regulatory of the midwife practices (Walsh, Crumbie, and Watson, 2007; Pg. 84). The order calls for the establishment of local supervising authority for midwives in all areas. The order allows the NMC to set rules and standards for the Local Supervising Authorities and midwives responsible for statutory supervision of midwives (Marshall et al., 2006; Pg. 45). The Nursing and Midwifery Council (UK) standards make much contribution to the clinical governance. This is demonstrated in its continued support to the establishment of rules and guidelines in the health care provision (Janisch, 2010; Pg. 98). Components of Effective Communication All human communication interactions have three basic components; sending information, receiving information and feedback (Pearson and Spitzberg, 1990; Pg. 67). The first component entails sending constructing and transmitting a massage to a certain receiver. The constructed message must be understandable to the receiver. Receiving messages is the second component of an effective communication. This entails the means through which a person receives information. The receiver should be a good listener and should pay much attention to the information communicated (Steinberg, 2007; Pg. 68). Feedback come the last component of communication. After receiving the information, the receiver should give a feedback. Feedback is offered to make communication complete. Communication can be both verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication takes up altering of sounds by humans in a communication process. In this way, communication involves the verbal skills and sounds which have relevant meanings. Non-verbal communication can take up the use of gestures or writings. The ultimate goal of the two means of communication is to pass information in a clear and understandable manner (Lin, 2004; Pg. 34). Reflecting on my own communication skills, for example, when talking to a teacher in a classroom, I must ensure the application of the three components of communication. I should first of all construct understandable and meaningful information that should send to the teacher and in a clear manner. My point of concern must be directed to a specific person, in this case-the teacher- who should thereafter provide the feedback (Gustrau, 2006; Pg. 56). My emphasis on the three components of communication greatly influences the way I pass information to other people. This makes a complete communication with the emphasis of clarity and precision. However, the observation of the herons six category theory of communication would increase the effectiveness of communication. This takes up two categories of communication; the Authoritative and the Facilitative. The prescriptive intervention in the authoritative category involves issuing directions and advices to a person. The authoritative category involves prescriptive, informative and confronting. The Facilitative category involves interventions like Cathartic, catalytic and supportive interventions. Effective communication is very vital in the provision of services. Health care professionals should exercise an effective mode of communication to allow for a clear understanding and undertaking of the duties. Bibliography BRACK, G., FRANKLIN, P. & CALDWELL, J. (2013). Medicines Management for Nursing Practice: Pharmacology, Patient Safety, and Procedures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 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