Assignment 2: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
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 a scenario and consider how to appropriately respond.
Assignment Scenario:
AC is a 72-year-old male who is admitted to your ICU after suffering a massive stroke that has left him unresponsive and unable to communicate. He is currently on a ventilator. His wife of 48 years is available along with their one adult daughter. The wife informs you that they don’t have any advanced directives, but she is “pretty sure her husband would not want to live like this.” However, their daughter is adamant her dad would want to be kept alive in case there is any chance to come out of this.
Write a 2- to 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. ( VIRGINIA)
- 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. The College of Nursing Writing Template with Instructions provided at the Walden Writing Center offers an example of those required elements (available at papers submitted must use this formatting.
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
As an advanced practice nurse, it is important to understand the ethical and legal implications of prescribing drugs. This assignment presents a scenario of an unresponsive patient where the family has conflicting views on their treatment plan. The paper will examine the ethical and legal implications of the scenario on stakeholders, strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure, decision-making strategies, and the process of writing prescriptions to minimize medication errors.
1) 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.
The scenario raises ethical dilemmas for all stakeholders involved. As a prescriber, the nurse has an ethical duty to provide the best possible care for the patient while being mindful of their autonomy and dignity. The pharmacist, on the other hand, has a legal responsibility to dispense medication as per the prescriber’s instructions. The patient’s welfare should remain at the forefront of their decision-making process. For the patient, the ethical question is whether they should receive life-sustaining treatment when they are unable to communicate their wishes. For the patient’s family, determining a treatment plan while respecting the patient’s autonomy and their family’s wishes becomes an ethical and legal challenge.
2) Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario you selected. Be sure to reference laws specific to your state. ( VIRGINIA)
In Virginia, physicians and healthcare providers have a legal obligation to obtain informed consent from patients or their representatives before any treatment is provided. Any person with the legal capacity to make a decision for the patient can provide consent. The nurse must disclose all risks and benefits of treatment to the patient’s representative and obtain their consent before initiating any treatment. In the scenario presented, the nurse must discuss the patient’s condition and the risks and benefits of initiating or withholding treatment with the patient’s wife and daughter. Even if the wife has no advanced directives, she has the right to make healthcare decisions on her husband’s behalf. The nurse must provide an accurate description of the patient’s medical condition to both parties and ensure that they understand the potential outcomes of life-sustaining treatment options.
3) 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.
As an advanced practice nurse, I would use the following two strategies to guide my decision-making process in this scenario:
a) Assess the patient’s clinical condition: Assessing the patient’s clinical condition is crucial to guide your decision-making process. In this scenario, the patient is unresponsive, and their response to treatment is uncertain. Nurses must use their clinical judgment to determine if life-sustaining treatment is justified or if it would only prolong the patient’s suffering.
b) Use an ethical decision-making framework: Using an ethical decision-making framework, such as Beauchamp and Childress’s principles of biomedical ethics, can help guide the nurse’s decision-making process. The four principles of biomedical ethics are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. These principles will help ensure that the nurse makes an informed decision that balances the patient’s autonomy with their duty to provide the best possible care.
Regarding whether or not to disclose an error, nurses have a legal and ethical obligation to report any errors or mistakes that occur while treating patients. Failure to report errors can result in harm to patients and can be considered negligence. Therefore, I would immediately disclose the error to the patient’s family, apologize, and take steps to rectify the mistake.
4) Explain the process of writing prescriptions, including strategies to minimize medication errors.
Writing prescriptions is a critical role of advanced practice nurses in prescribing drugs. The process of writing prescriptions involves accurately documenting the patient’s information, including their medical history, diagnosis, and medications being prescribed. Nurses should follow their state’s laws and regulations related to prescribing medications. This includes the type of medications they are authorized to prescribe and the dosage and manner of administration. To minimize medication errors, a nurse must double-check the medication and dosage before entering it into the prescription. Additionally, using electronic prescribing systems and software that maintain accurate medication lists and dosages can reduce the likelihood of errors. It is also essential to educate patients and their caregivers about their medication regimen to promote medication adherence and prevent errors.