Nursing

Legal and Ethical Concerns Professions are governed by s of ethics that require the right procedure be followed, given the specific activity being undertaken. Health care provision is a delicate issue to deal with, since gambling with the patient’s health and general life welfare attracts both ethical and legal liabilities. Both parties to nursing procedures (caregivers and the patients) have rights to be observed (Ginny, 2009). In this case, if the nurse chose not to fill out the incident report, there are a number of concerns that would emerge. These concerns are both ethical and legal.
The nurse failed to follow the 6 rights prior to the administration of a medication. This went against the required nursing practice. The consequence of this act put the patient’s life at risk because the patient had a negative effect from the dosage administered. The nurse went ahead and ignored filling out the incident report. The physician and the supervisor get information from filled incident reports. Failing to fill implied that the nurse was concealing certain crucial information. The nurse’s act to ignore the incident report violated rules of practice in caregiving. It further put the patient’s life at risk which is opposite to what nurses should do. Patents are entitles to a healthy life, and the caregivers should do their best to see this done. However, the nurse’s actions did not match this requirement. Failing to fill out the incident report did not depict an aspect of duty to care, since it encompasses all that is required of the nurse.
The nurse who failed to verify the correct dosage as a witness is also implicated in the failure to fulfill duty to care. This is a procedure carried out in order to ensure that the patient’s life is not endangered, given the practices undertaken by the nurses. This nurse ignores her duty and the result is a negative effect on the patient. This does not only raise concerns in the care giving institutions, but also externally, since patients have a right to proper treatment and administration of medication.
Concealing what had unfolded during shift change would complicate the matter even further. During shift report, the nurse had already presented what had happened, evidenced by the fact that the patient was in ICU. Contradiction of information between that presented during shift report and the one the nurse is to present by filling out the incident report would require that investigation into the matter be undertaken. Nursing ethics require transparency and accountability (Ginny, 2009). Concealing the information by compiling a false report does not observe the two. The physician and the supervisor have a case against the nurse, and so does the patient. The rights of the patient prior to treatment and medication administration hold the nurse legally liable for what happened to the patient.
Reference
Ginny, W. (2009). Legal & Ethical Issues in Nursing. New York: Pearson Education, Limited.