NURS 6521 Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs Assignment

NURS 6521 Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs Assignment

NURS 6521 Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs Assignment

Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs

Health care delivery is sometimes associated with medical errors, which often pose danger to the recovery of the patient and sometimes it leads fatalities. Therefore, nurses should be cautious when prescribing drugs. The right use of medicine is crucial in realizing positive patient outcomes.

However, unsafe usage of drugs can harm the patient, lead to poor patient satisfaction, and prompt unwarranted legal consequences (Rehan & Bhargava, 2015). Whenever nurses prescribe drugs, they should do it in accordance with the legal and ethical standards. As such, it is imperative for nurses to understand the legal and ethical implications for drug prescription for the given patients and specific conditions. Therefore, this paper will explore the issue of wrong medical prescription by using a scenario where a nurse mistakenly prescribed an adult dose for a child aged five years. Specifically, the paper will use this scenario to discuss the legal and ethical implications of errors in writing prescriptions. Moreover, the paper will address the suitable legal and ethical strategies to address such errors.

Ethical and Legal Implications

In this scenario, the medical error poses remarkable ethical implications for the nurse, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family. To begin with, the nurse had an obligation to disclose the mistake to both the facility and the patient’s family. Ethical requirement is that the nurse to ensure beneficence in care provision, which was violated by occurrence of the error. Moreover, the nurse should uphold justice in practice. However, declining to follow the due procedure to address the error negated this obligation of seeking justice for the patient.

Moreover, nurses should apply the principle of fidelity by being faithful to the patient. As such, refusal to confess the medication error is a violation of principle of fidelity. From the legal perspective on the other hand, the error should be reported through appropriate channels, which is an expression of professional conduct. However, the reaction of the nurse in this scenario amounts to legal basis to handle the matter. On the other side, the pharmacist had both legal and ethical obligation to educate patient’s family on the best suitable use of the drug and possible side effects prior to giving them the drug.

As such, patient’s family can institute legal actions against pharmacist for failing to educate them. The patient’s family had a responsibility of report adverse reaction to medication and discontinuation of medication. Moreover, they could institute legal action against the nurse and the health facility for negligence.

Strategies to Address Disclosure and Nondisclosure

In this case scenario, it is advisable for the nurse to report the issue to the physician and find the best solution. In the state of Illinois, a nurse practitioner is expected to collaborate with physician through collaboration agreement to foster consultation and referrals. However, most of the nurses are reluctant to take this initiative for fear of probable job loss. The other strategy is to use the nursing code of ethics, which may entail relying on the state apology law. According to Westrick & Jacob (2016), this law provides an opportunity for the nurse to seek pardon for the wrong doings and be guaranteed that the confession cannot be used against him or her in the court of law. As a result, the nurse can easily indicate remorse for the actions and seek pardon without fear of legal action. However, failure of disclosure hinders the involvement of patients in their care, injure the patient, and lead to mistrust between the nurses and the patient.

Strategies to Guide Decision Making

If I were the nurse in this scenario, the first strategy is to get in touch with the family of the patient soon after realizing the medical error committed. This action is appropriate in ensuring that the family of the patient stops using the drug. Consequently, I would advise the family to bring the patient back to the clinic for examination and correction of the dose (Lavan, Gallagher & O’Mahony, 2016). The second strategy involves resorting to utilize the Illinois laws and regulations regarding medicine prescription to guide decision making. It is possible to work collaboratively with physician to find the best solution for the patient.

The Process of Writing Prescriptions Including Strategies to Minimize Medication Errors

According to World Health Organization (2016), prior to initiating the process of writing prescription, the

nurse should conduct patient examination and diagnosis to recognize the real medical condition that a patient suffers from and consequently, prescribe the correct medication for the condition. To help in reducing the errors, the nurse should include crucial information such as patient name, date, address, and date of birth while providing written prescription. Similarly, the prescribing nurse should also indicate personal details such as name, address, and contacts. Moreover, nurses may also resort to electronic prescription to help in eradicating medication errors (Puaar & Franklin, 2018). In addition, the name of the drug and related details such as dosage and means of administration should be clearly indicated.

Conclusion

Mistake is to human beings and nurses can sometimes make errors in medical prescriptions. However, these errors are often costly and result in dangerous outcomes and even fatalities. As such, nurses should understand the ethical and legal environment and exercise due diligence while prescribing medications. Moreover, they need to perform thorough medical reviews before starting prescription process.

References

Lavan, A. H., Gallagher, P. F., & O’Mahony, D. (2016). Methods to reduce prescribing errors in elderly patients with multimorbidity. Clinical interventions in aging, 11, 857.

Puaar, S. J., & Franklin, B. D. (2018). Impact of an inpatient electronic prescribing system on prescribing error causation: a qualitative evaluation in an English hospital. BMJ quality & safety, 27(7), 529-538.

Rehan, H. S., & Bhargava, S. (2015). Medication Errors Are Preventable. J Pharmacovigilance S, 2, 2.

Westrick, S. J., & Jacob, N. (2016). Disclosure of errors and apology: Law and ethics. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 12(2), 120-126.

World Health Organization. (2016). Medication errors. World Health Organization.

Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs

What type of drug should you prescribe based on your patient’s diagnosis? How much of the drug should the patient receive? How often should the drug be administered? When should the drug not be prescribed? Are there individual patient factors that could create complications when taking the drug? Should you be prescribing drugs to this patient? How might different state regulations affect the prescribing of this drug to this patient?

These are some of the questions you might consider when selecting a treatment plan for a patient.

As an advanced practice nurse prescribing drugs, you are held accountable for people’s lives every day. Patients and their families will often place trust in you because of your position. With this trust comes power and responsibility, as well as an ethical and legal obligation to “do no harm.” It is important that you are aware of current professional, legal, and ethical standards for advanced practice nurses with prescriptive authority. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the treatment plans and administration/prescribing of drugs is in accordance with the regulations of the state in which you practice. Understanding how these regulations may affect the prescribing of certain drugs in different states may have a significant impact on your patient’s treatment plan. In this Assignment, you explore ethical and legal implications of scenarios and consider how to appropriately respond.

To Prepare

· Review the Resources for this module and consider the legal and ethical implications of prescribing prescription drugs, disclosure, and nondisclosure.

· Review the scenario assigned by your Instructor for this Assignment.

· Search specific laws and standards for prescribing prescription drugs and for addressing medication errors for your state or region, and reflect on these as you review the scenario assigned by your Instructor.

· Consider the ethical and legal implications of the scenario for all stakeholders involved, such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family.

· Think about two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to guide your ethically and legally responsible decision-making in this scenario, including whether you would disclose any medication errors.

Write a 3-page paper that addresses the following:

· Explain the ethical and legal implications of the scenario you selected on all stakeholders involved, such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family.

· Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario you selected. Be sure to reference laws specific to your state.

· Explain two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to guide your decision making in this scenario, including whether you would disclose your error. Be sure to justify your explanation.

· Explain the process of writing prescriptions, including strategies to minimize medication errors.

Reminder: The College of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references.

ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs Assignment

SAMPLE 2

Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs

Different ethical challenges occur in the healthcare setting due to the increased broadening of the nursing practice. According to Darrowet al. (2015), nurses take into consideration various things when considering what treatment plan a patient needs, including what prescription is suitable as a form of medication. This paper discusses the ethical and legal implications of an error made while prescribing medicines to a five-year-old patient. Rather than providing the correct dosage based on his age, the nurse practitioner prescribed a dose that was suitable for an adult.

Strategies To Address Disclosure And Nondisclosure

Nurse practitioners must be made aware of the legal and ethical standards that govern the profession. Even the least of medical errors, no matter how insignificant they may seem, one must pay attention to their moral and legal implications. The fact that every mistake has a consequence may, at times, discourage nurse practitioners from disclosing their position in such cases. According to Tsukamoto et al. (2016), the Michigan State allows nurse practitioners to prescribe non-controlled drugs with written authorization or as a delegated act assigned by a doctor. The prescription of such drugs is limited to the confines of the hospital.

Ethical and Legal Implications

Some of the factors that we have to consider in such a scenario are the fact that when a nurse practitioner is tasked with the role of prescribing any medication, then it is their responsibility to ensure they calculate the correct dose and write the same. A nurse practitioner is required by the profession code of ethics to do everything to help the patient and not harm them.

The pharmacist has the sole role of cross-checking that the dose prescribed is indeed correct, and in case of any discrepancies, notify the authority. The pharmacist can, therefore, be held liable for any incorrect medication or dosage that is given to the patient. In the case of the patient and the patient’s family, based on the principle of autonomy, it is the patient’s right to be informed of all medical treatment information including cases of errors. If any medical occurs, the parents and family of the boy can file a suit against the nurse practitioner.

Two Strategies That I Would Use As An Advanced Practice Nurse

To handle the scenario, I would first collect all the relevant information, including the demographics before the prescription was undertaken. This information will help in understanding the structure and how the medication was administered. The demographic information will include information regarding name, weight, and allergies. The second step I would take is to be considerate of special population considerations. According to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (2015), children’s dosage is based on the weight, and therefore the prescribed has the responsibility of weighing and prescribing the correct dosage.

Process of writing prescriptions and strategies to minimize Medication Errors

Several things need to be considered when writing prescriptions. This means that different elements need to be included when writing prescriptions. Again, it is imperative to note that different countries have different rules that govern their prescriptions. The first element is the language, every prescription ought to have a language that communicates to the patient, and the second element is that the message should be clear and indicate the frequency that the patient ought to take the medications. Other factors depend on the laws of the state or country. To minimize medication errors, technology could be integrated. The electronic prescription will help reduce medical errors as the conventional handwritten prescription has become unreliable.

 References

Darrow, J. J., Sarpatwari, A., Avorn, J., & Kesselheim, A. S. (2015). Practical, legal, and ethical issues in expanded access to investigational drugs. N Engl J Med; 372, 279-286
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMhle1409465

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. (2015). Medicines, Ethics and Practice 39: The professional guide for pharmacists. Pharmaceutical Press.

Tsukamoto, K., Carroll, K. A., Onishi, T., Matsumaru, N., Brasseur, D., & Nakamura, H. (2016). Improvement of pediatric drug development: regulatory and practical frameworks. Clinical therapeutics, 38(3), 574-581. doi: 10.1016/j.clinthera.2016.01.012