Law and Ethics in Nursing :: Nursing Ethics Research Paper

In every nurses career, he or she will represent with legal and honourable dilemmas. One of the professional competencies for nursing states that nurses should integrate intimacy of ethical and legal aspects of health care and professional values into nursing practice. It is important to know what types of dilemmas nurses whitethorn faceduring their careers and how they have been successfully dealt with in the past. Itis also important for nurses to understand what malpractice is and how theywhitethorn protect themselves from a malpractice lawsuit.LAW VS. ETHICS It is important to source understand the difference amid law and ethics. Ethics examines the values and exertions of people. Often times there is no one right course of action when one is faced with an ethical dilemma. On the other hand, lawsare binding rules of conduct. When laws are broken, it is punishable by anauthority figure. There are four types of situations that pertain to law vs. ethics. The fir st would be an action that is both legal and ethical. An example of this would be a nurse carrying out appropriate doctors orders as ordered. A nurse may also be faced with an action that may be ethical solely not legal, such as allowing a cancer longanimous to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes. The opposite may arise where an action may be legal but not ethical. Finally, an action may be neither legal or ethical. For example, when a nurse makes a medication error and does not report it.ETHICAL DUTIES Nurseshave many a(prenominal) ethical duties to their clients. The main ethical duties are nonmaleficence, good-will, fidelity, veracity, and justice. The duty of nonmaleficenceis the duty to do no hurt. The nurse first needs to ask him or herself whatharm is. When a nurse gives an injection she is causing the patient pain butshe is also preventing additional harm such as disease knowledge or prolongedpain. Therefore, the nurse must ask herself a back up question abou t how muchharm should be tolerated. The duty of beneficence is to do good. In a sense,it is at the opposite end of nonmaleficence or at the positive end of the nonmaleficence beneficence continuum. The duty of fidelity federal agency to be faithful, or tokeep to your promises. Therefore, if a nurse tells his patient that he will