Importance Of Rules And Regulation In Medical Institutions - Case Study Example

Importance Of Rules And Regulation In Medical Institutions This case is of a physician being accused on misconduct of allowing her nurse to sign his pre written prescription of medicines for patient. It is a case of both ethical righteousness and accusing the law of institute. If one observes this case in general then many people might see this case as not a big issue, as the prescription of the doctor was pre written. But when we talk about law of an institute then there are some rules and regulations which every employee has to follow in any case. In any institution rules and regulations are made clear to every employee. And if to talk about why these rules and regulations are important to follow then one should know what are the motives and vision behind rules and regulation. IMPORTANCE OF RULES AND REGULATION Rules and regulations are not just written statements which an employee needs to sign before joining an institute, but these rules and regulation shows the structure of the institute, the norms over which it is built. It shows the discipline of institutes which tells the values of the institute. LAW AND ETHICS When we study and evaluate this case, we come to see the main objection which was professional misconduct; which means breaking the rules and regulations of the institute. And plus it’s unethical and against veracity towards the professionalism. When we study ethics we come to know a deep and strong relation of law with ethics, as all the laws are made under the light of ethics. Laws are always kept moral and ethical. And ethics tells what’s moral and what is not moral. Ethical law explains and emphasize on the moral conduct of people. Government and almost all the institutes usually make their laws under the rules and values of ethics. (wise geek, 2011) So when we study this case the first thing which ethics and law both object is that it was against the ethics of the doctor to allow the nurse to sign her prescription even of it was pre written. Medical is already a field which is very sensitive to the topic when it comes to moral and ethical values as it is related to dealing with patient and the life of a person. The other point which comes in this case study is of Beneficence. That there are huge differences in the duties of doctor and nurse, if the prescription signed by the nurse goes under a legal system then the patient who was prescribed by this prescription can take an action against a doctor that the medicine was not signed by a doctor but by the nurse. And the nurses are not supposed to prescribe medicines. Beneficence in the medical ethics had great importance which purely focuses what are the ethical values of doctors related to patient dealing. The prior thing which differentiates doctor and nurses is their knowledge to human body and medication. And the doctor is the only person which can prescribe medicine to patients. Here in this case a sign of nurse over a prescription is not only an ethical and autonomy issue but also over what a nurse is allowed or not allowed to do. Medical jurisprudence is another concept in medical field which deals with the law of medicine and application of medical science in legal issues. (MedicineNet, 2011) In this case under the medical jurisprudence any misconduct made by the doctor and nurse is also illegal and unacceptable. TAXES BOARD OF NURSING Taxes board of nursing, which is a state governing body for nurses, ensures that under the state of Taxas the nurses working and practicing in this field hold a valid license to work as this occupation. They have made rules and regulations for the nurses working in Taxes, which aims on their professionalism. (Texas Board of Nursing, 2011) According to Taxes board of nursing, under which the nurses came; was culprit for accepting the request of signing the doctor’s prescription. This was not only the doctor’s misconduct but a mutual misconduct. The action which the Taxes board of nursing will take will be against that nurse. This issue is not only an issue of misconducting the rules and regulation, but also letting down the ethical and moral values of medical profession. BENEFICENCE The term which means kindness and humanity towards other; often this word is used as in terms of medical ethics is important for it meaning in medical field .This word is used in very border sense in ethical theory. In ethics beneficence means acts which are intended to provide benefits to other people. The Beneficence principles of rules focus on the acts which provide moral benefits to other. (Stanford university, 2011) VALUES IN MEDICAL ETHICS If we study and evaluate this case, we can see that there are four commonly applied medical ethics vales, which will also help us to understand this case better in the misconduct of ethical issue. (Priory Lodge Education Ltd, 2010) AUTONOMY: It means a right which a government or an organization gives to specific person or group of people for specific activities after gaining credibility over them. Here the autonomy was given to a doctor, which he gets after becoming a doctor, to prescribe medicines to patients. Prescribing a medicine under his name was his duty, for which he got the license. Where as on the other hand the nurse did not have the power to sign the doctor’s prescription in any case, as her abilities nor does her profession allow this. BENEFICENCE These are the actions which are intended to benefit the patient. Under this principle the doctor’s treatment was for the betterment of the patient. In any case, the medicine doesn’t suit the patient and later he shows the prescription which was signed by the nurse instead of the doctor would cause a trouble for the doctor as well as the nurse. As according to prescription, though it was pre written would tell that the nurse instead of the doctor prescribed the medicine. NON-MALEFICENCE This is the principle which strongly applies over this case study. It says no such action should be taken which intends to harm the patient. Allowing the nurse to sign the prescription is a careless attitude which might portray a wrong message for nurses or other junior doctors, who repeat this mistakes which ends in devastating incident like we discussed in previous point. JUSTICE: The other principle of ethics which tells and focus over justice in medical field tells to do only those acts which you are allowed to do. This means doing justice to your field and profession. In this case, the doctor and the nurse, both didn’t do justice to their professions. The doctor was careless to allow the nurse sign his prescription, which he knows that a prescription is such an important paper in hospital record and for the history of patient. PHYSICIAN AND NURSE GUILT OF PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT The physician should be guilty for his misconduct, and should apologize to higher authorities as such mistakes can lead to devastating accident. And such accidents also lead in building a careless attitude. If such cases aren’t looked into then not only the one who have done a mistake take things leniently, but those who observe also start to take system rules easily. The nurse here should be equally guilty for letting slip the ethical and moral values in a profession which doesn’t allow any conscious mistake. Even if the doctor has made misconduct under his board of medicine under any other scenario, the action over the misconduct should be the same. There is some ethical, moral and equality based values, which applies over all and cannot be neglected. Works Cited MedicineNet. (2011). Medical jurisprudence. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from MedicineNet: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=23312 Priory Lodge Education Ltd. (2010). Medical Ethics. Retrieved from Medicine on-line: http://priory.com/ethics.htm Stanford university. (2011). The Principle of Beneficence in Applied Ethics. Retrieved march 14, 2011, from plato.stanford.edu: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/principle-beneficence/ Texas Board of Nursing. (2011). Texas Nursing Law and Rules. Retrieved march 14, 2011, from Texas Board of Nursing: http://www.bon.state.tx.us/nursinglaw/ wise geek. (2011). What Is Ethics Law? Retrieved march 14, 2011, from wisegeek: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-ethics-law.htm Read More