NURS 6521 ETHICAL AND LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF PRESCRIBING DRUGS
Sample Answer for NURS 6521 ETHICAL AND LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF PRESCRIBING DRUGS Included After Question
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.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
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.
BY DAY 7 OF WEEK 1
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.
- 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 https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/templates/general#s-lg-box-20293632 Links to an external site.). All papers submitted must use this formatting.
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A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 6521 ETHICAL AND LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF PRESCRIBING DRUGS
Title: NURS 6521 ETHICAL AND LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF PRESCRIBING DRUGS
The promotion of safety and quality in the prescription of medications is imperative in nursing practice. Advanced registered nurses make treatment decisions based on best practices available and utilize interprofessional collaboration to optimize treatment outcomes. Therefore, this paper explores the ethics of prescribing a new drug, which has not been approved to a 7-year-old child for asthma.
Ethical and Legal Implications
The prescription of unapproved drug to the 7-year-old child is associated with significant ethical and legal implications to the nurses’ role in practice. First, the new drug has not been tested or approved for its efficiency and effectiveness in asthma treatment. The drug has also not been used in children under the age of 12 years. As a result, it raises the concerns related to the safety of the drug(Woo et al., 2019). The drug predisposes the 7-year-old to harm because of the lack of information about its safety in children below 12 years.
The prescription of the new drug to the 7-year-old violates the nurses’ code of ethics and standards of practice. Advanced registered nurses have the professional and legal responsibility of promoting safety, quality, and efficiency in their practice. They make decisions based on best available evidence, practice guidelines, and protection of the patient’s rights in the treatment process. The professional standards of practice require them to make decisions that minimize harm while optimizing treatment benefits(Grace & Uveges, 2022). The new drug has never been tested or studied to determine its safety and efficacy profile. Therefore, prescribing the drug will violate the stated codes of practice and ethics in nursing.
Strategies to Address Disclosure and Non-Disclosure
Disclosure and non-disclosure influence the actions that nurses implement in their practice. disclosure entails the provider informing the patient and their significant others about the events that have happened to them in the care process. Advanced practice nurses have the professional obligation to inform their patients about any health interventions implemented to promote their health and recovery. The code of ethics by the American Nurses Association requires that nurses should promote and advocate the patients’ rights, safety, health, and wellbeing(Passini et al., 2023). Non-disclosure entails not informing the patients about any events that have happened to them in the care process.
The state of California requires that healthcare providers to disclose any information that influences health and outcomes to the patients. The disclosure includes providing information about any error that has been made in the delivery of the care. The patient then makes the decision to either share the information with other people or not. The disclosure will also extend to the hospital’s management for the implementation of interventions that will minimize error occurrence in the future. Disclosure of information would promote patient’s autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence in the treatment process(Fairchild, 2021). Non-disclosure will translate into nurse’s lack of professional responsibility and negligence, which violates provision 3 of the American Code of Ethics for nurses.
Strategies to Guide Decision Making
One of the strategies that I will adopt to guide my decision-making is interprofessional collaboration. I will involve the other healthcare providers in assessing if we should prescribe the new drug to the 7-year-old. Interprofessional collaboration will ensure the collective examination of the potential alternatives that we may consider to optimize outcomes in the treatment process. Collaboration will also enable the team to examine any evidence that supports the use of the new drug in the treatment and potential risks if any(Donnelly et al., 2021). Therefore, interprofessional collaboration will ensure the adoption of an ethical and most relevant solution in the scenario.
The second strategy that I will use to guide my decision making is relying on the set organizational policies and guidelines. Health organizations have policies that guide nurses in making decisions. The guidelines limit the nurses’ involvement in activities that predispose patients to unintended harm. Relying on them will ensure that I make an informed decision about the issue(Grace & Uveges, 2022). I will disclose the error. As noted above, disclosure is crucial to promote the adoption of interventions that will minimize any harm. Disclosure will also ensure accountability and professional responsibility as an advanced practice nurse.
Process of Writing Prescriptions and Strategies to Minimize Medication Errors
Writing prescriptions should follow developed guidelines to minimize medication errors. One of the processes in writing prescriptions is writing clearly and accurately the patient’s data such as name, age, gender, and diagnosis. Information about the medication name should also be written clearly and accurately to avoid confusion. The prescriber should avoid abbreviations and illegible writing. The dosage information should be concise with clear and specific directions. The therapeutic duration of the drug should also be specific alongside the drug’s therapeutic intervention. Any supplemental instructions such as medication refill or warnings should also be included. The strategies that can be adopted to minimize medication errors include provider training and education about best practices, use of health technologies, double checking and encouraging open reporting of medication errors(Royce et al., 2019; Sutton et al., 2020).
Conclusion
The promotion of safety and quality in prescribing medications is important. I will disclose the medication error. The issue has significant and ethical implications to nursing practice. Advanced registered nurses should adopt best practices that minimize errors in their practice.
References
Donnelly, S., Ó Coimín, D., O’Donnell, D., Ní Shé, É., Davies, C., Christophers, L., Mc Donald, S., & Kroll, T. (2021). Assisted decision-making and interprofessional collaboration in the care of older people: A qualitative study exploring perceptions of barriers and facilitators in the acute hospital setting. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 35(6), 852–862. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2020.1863342
Fairchild, A. (2021). The ethical conflict of truth, hope, and the experience of suffering: A discussion of non-disclosure of terminal illness and clinical placebos. Clinical Ethics, 16(2), 130–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477750920959556
Grace, P. J., & Uveges, M. K. (2022). Nursing Ethics and Professional Responsibility in Advanced Practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Passini, L., Bouedec, S. L., Dassieu, G., Reynaud, A., Jung, C., Keller, M.-L., Lefebvre, A., Katty, T., Baleyte, J.-M., Layese, R., Audureau, E., &Caeymaex, L. (2023). Error disclosure in neonatal intensive care: A multicentre, prospective, observational study. BMJ Quality & Safety. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2022-015247
Royce, C. S., Hayes, M. M., &Schwartzstein, R. M. (2019). Teaching Critical Thinking: A Case for Instruction in Cognitive Biases to Reduce Diagnostic Errors and Improve Patient Safety. Academic Medicine, 94(2), 187. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000002518
Sutton, R. T., Pincock, D., Baumgart, D. C., Sadowski, D. C., Fedorak, R. N., & Kroeker, K. I. (2020). An overview of clinical decision support systems: Benefits, risks, and strategies for success. Npj Digital Medicine, 3(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0221-y
Woo, B. F. Y., Zhou, W., Lim, T. W., & Tam, W. W. S. (2019). Practice patterns and role perception of advanced practice nurses: A nationwide cross-sectional study. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(5), 992–1004. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12759
Rubric
| NURS_6521_Week1_Assignment_Rubric | ||||||
| Criteria | Ratings | Pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeExplain the ethical and legal implications of the scenario you selected on all stakeholders involved such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and the patient’s family. |
|
25 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDescribe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario selected. Be sure to reference laws specific to your state. |
|
20 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeExplain 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. |
|
20 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeExplain the process of writing prescriptions including strategies to minimize medication errors. |
|
20 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWritten Expression and Formatting – Paragraph Development and Organization: Paragraphs make clear points that support well developed ideas, flow logically, and demonstrate continuity of ideas. Sentences are carefully focused–neither long and rambling nor short and lacking substance. |
|
5 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWritten Expression and Formatting – English writing standards: Correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation |
|
5 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWritten Expression and Formatting – The paper follows correct APA format for title page, headings, font, spacing, margins, indentations, page numbers, running head, parenthetical/in-text citations, and reference list. |
|
5 pts | ||||
| Total Points: 100 | ||||||