The Australian ethics

The Australian Ethical Conducts for Nurses


The Australian ethical conducts for nurses were designed to benefit both nurses and their patients. These principles must be followed by nurses at all levels and areas of practice, including those in management, research, clinical, and education. These laws were inspired by the concepts and standards established by the United Nations of Human Rights, as well as other treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It should be noted that these codes of conduct are intended for many audiences, including nursing bodies, employers, and general authorities that regulate nursing practice. The concept of ethics and morality are used interchangeably within the codes of nursing, while their application is the same (Ellis, 2016). To understand more about the standards and codes of conduct, this paper will evaluate the unacceptable behaviors in nursing in the case study titled, "HCCC v Conyard [2015] NSWNMPSC3."


Patient Comfort


In such a situation when a patient is admitted to a health center, the first activity that the nurse ought to have done was to make sure that the patient is comfortable. Comfortable in the sense that the pain that she was going through should be minimized if not eliminated. Secondly, the nurse ought to have worked to eradicate any adverse symptoms displayed by the patient; this could be done by reducing the jugular venous pressure and managing the patient's breathing rate. These two actions would have ensured patient comfort and well-being. Katherin Kolcaba who is a key proponent of the comfort theory states that a nurse has to make sure that the patient is comfortable when they resume duty. The same comfort should also be extended to the affected family, by offering professional advice, giving the necessary information and consoling the family in cases of bereavement. According to Peate, Wild, & Nair (2014), such comfort helps both the patient and the family, to be ready to take part in the healthcare process. When a nurse fails to ensure patient comfort, it means that she has been unable in her fundamental duties just like in the case study presented.


Professional Codes


From the case study, the nurse did not consider the fundamental nursing occupational laws aimed at making the patient comfortable such as;


Nurses should value nursing care for everybody;


respecting quality caregiving means that nurses should accept responsibility for the standards of care they deliver. They should do so by assisting them to improve the standards of nursing care and adopting the necessary actions when they deliberate on rational grounds that the rules of nursing care are undesirable. This comprises of an obligation to query and report what they contemplate, on foundations of unethical behavior (Weiss, Malone, Merighi & Benner, 2016). According to the NMBA code of ethics, Nurses should carry out their duties with high standards, which promote safety and quality and quality health care. Such responsibilities include documenting the patient's report, event analysis, and incident reporting. Failure to carry out such duties compromises the well-being of the patient. Weiss, Malone, Merighi & Benner (2016), adds that failure to adhere to this principle compromises the quality of healthcare and can lead to the death of the patient just as in the case study.


Nurses should uphold the proper supervision of information:


The generation and organization of data, which include patients' health accounts among other documents, should be done with ultimate proficiency and reliability. This calls for nurses to record information in an accurate and non-judgmental manner that is relevant to the healthcare and the medical interventions given to the patient. Such documents should not be altered other than by addition of more data (Grace, 2017). The respective nurse, in this case, failed to adhere to this code, when she decided not to record the data she had observed from the patient. NMBA codes stipulate that when necessary a caregiver should disclose information that is important to clinical decision making by other members of the healthcare team. Therefore, the fact that the accused nurse failed to adhere to this stipulation meant that she breached one of the fundamental codes of nursing as a practice.


According to the NMBA codes of conducts, Nurses should support the health, well-being and informed decision making of patients.


This ethical cord acts to supplement the overall need of comfort among patients. From the case study, it is clear that the nurse violated this principle too. Grace (2017), comments that in the case where the patient cannot speak for themselves, the nurses should contact the available family member on the appropriate measures for ensuring the patient well-being. If it is in a hospital setting like in the case presented, the nurse should also include other stakeholders when coming up with such decisions.


Why a Nurse should adhere to these professional conducts


The accused Nurse in the case study could have conducted various measures that would have somehow prolonged the life of the patient. The main aim of nursing is to help in the process of healing or extending the life of a patient. Therefore, failure to adhere to the professional codes of nursing jeopardizes the existence of Nursing both as a field of study and as a practice.


Information Management


Information management includes noting down sensitive data and sharing it with the relevant authorities to realize a positive change (Harris, 2015). The accused Nurse could have noted down the transition of symptoms exhibited by the patient and involved the relevant stakeholders, who could have helped the patient. Krautscheid (2014) states that proper managing of information system helps the nurse to keep track on their patient's progress. For example, noting down the signs and symptoms that a patient exhibits helps the nurse to determine whether the patient is improving or not. De Villiers (2015) adds that information management is particularly important when managing a patient in pain. It is from this information that a nurse can determine whether the patient is still in pain or is comfortable. Such information also helps the nurse to plan for the future and the next necessary intervention that can help the patient.


Ensuring Comfort and Well-being of the Patient


This was the first step the nurse could have done when she arrived at the hospital and found the patient in a critical condition. As stipulated above, a nurse can ensure comfort by reducing the pain that the patient is undergoing, minimizing the severity of the symptoms displayed, and making sure that the patient is on the recovery path and not in a deteriorating one. An individual nurse or a collaboration of various medics can carry out the process of comfort (Cannaerts, Gastmans, & de Casterlé, 2014). From the days of Nightingale, the primary purpose of nursing has been to give the patient the freedom from suffering. Ideally, it is believed that nurses enter this profession because they have a desire to help other people. The fundamental value of assisting patients to or managing their suffering is a significant part of nursing. Nurses can achieve patient comfort through physical, emotional, and psychological interventions. Nurses should, therefore, care for both the patient and the affected family and address all their needs. First by making sure that, the patient is free from pain and second, by disseminating the relevant information to the affected family, in a professional manner.


Conducting Consultations


When faced with situations that one cannot handle by themselves, it is always advisable to seek further consultations from colleagues and other health professionals (Bowrey & Thompson, 2014). In this case, the nurse had judged that the hospital was ill-equipped to treat the patient but was not sure of the necessary actions to be taken, she should have consulted with other nurses to determine the best possible response that could help the patient. Furthermore, as a registered nurse, one of the accused obligations was to escalate issues to the Health service manager or the clinical manager, which she failed to do so. O'Keeffe (2016) posits that whenever a situation comes up and a nurse is not sure of the best remedy, it is vital that the nurse consults first with her colleagues. If they cannot come up with a conclusive decision, it is better if they escalate the issue to the management level, to come up with the best solution.


Lesson Learned from this Case Study


This case presents several lessons that one can learn to improve their practice or to nurture young nursing professionals. From the case study, the following lessons could be drawn.


First, the nursing codes and ethics are not just an academic philosophy, but they are essential practices that could help save human life and improve nursing care (Jirojwong, Johnson, & Welch, 2014). If the accused nurse could have paid attention to the stipulated nursing codes and followed her Job description to the latter, this situation could have been averted. Since the nurse failed to do so, the patient lost her life, and the nurse is also on the verge of losing her career. Such a situation brings adverse effects to both parties (both the nurse regarding the risk of losing her job and the affected family for losing their beloved one). The easiest way for a nurse is to stick to the nursing codes of conduct and ensure quality healthcare service. The NMBA codes state that unprofessional behaviors include (but not limited to) providing health services that are unnecessary or unreasonably required, such was the case in the case study.


Secondly, from the case study, it is evident that patient comfort is among the principles of nursing. Making a patient comfortable involves reducing the pain a patient is going through. This implies that the first step a nurse should take when receiving a patient is to make sure that the patient is a comfort and free from pain. Afterwards, the nurse can continue with other interventions as stipulated by the doctor (Jirojwong, Johnson, & Welch, 2014).


Conclusion


The above case study is significant not only to the aspiring nurses but also to the professionals who might somehow get complacent and ignore the basics of nursing. It is also clear that as a nurse, one is responsible for the well-being of a patient and in case a patient dies under unclear circumstances, the nurse is answerable. Therefore, nurses should at all times pay attention to the needs of their patient. Besides, recording a patient's progress is fundamental not only to the nurse attending to the patient but also to other stakeholders involved in the well-being of the patients, such as doctors, clinicians, and the patient's family.


References


Bowrey, S., & Thompson, J. P. (2014). Nursing research: ethics, consent and good practice. Nursing times, 110(1-3), 20-23.


Cannaerts, N., Gastmans, C., & de Casterle B. D. (2014). Response to Commentary (1): ffectiveness of Nursing Ethics education: Much more research needed. Nursing ethics, 21(6), 743.


De Villiers, J. E. (2015). The theory and practice of undergraduate nursing ethics education programs in South Africa and Namibia: a critical appraisal (Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University).


Ellis, P. (2016). Evidence-based practice in nursing. Learning Matters.


Grace, P. J. (2017). Nursing ethics and professional responsibility in advanced practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning.


Harris, K. T. (2015). Nursing Practice Implications of the Year of Ethics. Nursing for women's health, 19(2), 119-120.


Jirojwong, S., Johnson, M., & Welch, A. (2014). Research Methods in Nursing and Midwifery: Pathways to Evidence-based Practice. Sydney: Oxford University Press.


Krautscheid, L. C. (2014). Defining professional nursing accountability: a literature review. Journal of Professional Nursing, 30(1), 43-47.


O’Keeffe, S. (2016). Legal and ethical considerations in involuntary admissions to long-term care. In Donnelly M. & Murray C. (Eds.), Ethical and legal debates in Irish healthcare: Confronting complexities (pp. 117-132). Manchester University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18pkdtd.13


Peate, I., Wild, K., & Nair, M. (2014). Nursing Practice: Knowledge and Care. Hoboken: Wiley.


Porter-O'Grady, Senior Partner Tim. Leadership in nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2015.


Weiss, S. M., Malone, R. E., Merighi, J. R., & Benner, P. (2016). Economism, efficiency, and the moral ecology of good nursing practice. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 34(2).

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