Discuss an ethical or legal issue you have encountered during the practicum experience and/or professional practice. Consider the ethical principles that were evident in the situation and how these principles were adhered to or violated. What did you learn from this experience and how will it impact your practice?
Discuss an ethical or legal issue you have encountered during the practicum experience and/or professional practice. Consider the ethical principles that were evident in the situation and how these principles were adhered to or violated. What did you learn from this experience and how will it impact your practice?
Reflective Journal
Advanced education nursing students and nurse practitioners encounter a host of legal and ethical issues during their practicum experience or professional practice (Luyckx, 2021). One ethical challenge that I encountered in my practicum was dealing with patient autonomy in the emergency room (ER) where as a provider I am expected to give care to stabilize the patient before making any other decisions and interventions. Patients presenting in the emergency room are mainly in critical condition and there is little room for negotiation before stabilizing them. However, a situation that occurred entailed the patient’s relative demanding that I ask if she wanted treatment yet they had brought her because of her increased blood pressure levels.
BUY A CUSTOM- PAPER HERE ON;Discuss an ethical or legal issue you have encountered during the practicum experience and/or professional practice. Consider the ethical principles that were evident in the situation and how these principles were adhered to or violated. What did you learn from this experience and how will it impact your practice?
The ethical principles in this situation were autonomy and beneficence. The core calling of a healthcare provider is to offer care that benefits a patient and in their best interest (Beauchamp & Childress, 2019). However, such can only happen when the patient is ready and consents to treatment interventions. These principles are essential as it implies that a provider can only offer treatment that confers benefits to patients based on their interests, preferences and with explicit consent founded on the principle of autonomy (Luyckx, 2021). Imperatively, I had to adhere to these principles as any violation would have led to possible suits and legal action.
I learned from this experience that as providers, the principle of autonomy may trump on others because of the legal provisions and the increased level of freedoms that patients enjoy in society. This impacts my practice as it informs me to be more vigilant and involve patients in care decisions irrespective of their health or medical status when they present to the facility, especially in the ER.
References
Beauchamp, T., & Childress, J. (2019). Principles of biomedical ethics: marking its fortieth
anniversary. The American Journal of Bioethics, 19(11), 9-12.
DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2019.1665402.
Luyckx, V. A. (2021, May). Introduction: ethical issues in nephrology. In Seminars in
Nephrology (Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 201-202). Elsevier.
Arrange this activity at your preferred location in which you observe, participate and or interact with the Mentor related to a nursing ethical or legal dilemma. Use the experience to complete the Journal Entry Assignment below that is due in Week Three.
Reflective Journal Entry
1. Discuss an ethical or legal issue you have encountered during the practicum experience and/or professional practice.
2. Consider the ethical principles that were evident in the situation and how these principles were adhered to or violated.
3. What did you learn from this experience and how will it impact your practice?
GRADE RUBRIC FOR JOURNAL ENTRY ASSIGNMENT
GRADING CRITERIA | EXCELLENT | ACCEPTABLE | MINIMAL | UNACCEPTABLE | COMMENTS |
Content | Response to
assigned topic thorough and well written, with varied sentence structure and vocabulary; opinions always supported with facts. 3 POINTS
|
Response
thoughtful and fairly well written; most opinions supported with facts.
2 POINTS |
Response
adequately addresses some aspects of the assigned topic; opinions sometimes based on incorrect information.
1 POINT |
Response
consists of unsupported opinions only marginally related to the topic.
0.5 POINTS |
|
Idea
Development |
Excellent
use of examples and details to explore and develop ideas and opinions.
3 POINTS |
Good reliance
upon examples and details to illustrate and develop ideas and opinions.
2 POINTS |
Incomplete
development of ideas; details and examples not always evident.
1 POINT |
Ideas not
clearly stated or developed.
0.5 POINTS |
|
Organization | Very logically
organized; contains introduction; development of main idea (or ideas), and conclusion.
2 POINTS |
Contains
introduction, some development of ideas, and conclusion.
1 POINT |
Topics and
ideas discussed are random, entry lacks clearly defined introduction or conclusion.
0.5 POINTS
|
Entry is
unstructured.
0 POINTS |
|
Mechanics | Flawless
spelling and punctuation. Flawless use of APA format. 2 POINTS |
Few or no
Spelling, APA errors; some minor punctuation mistakes. 1 POINT |
Several APA, spelling, punctuation errors.
0.5 POINTS |
Many
instances of incorrect APA, spelling and/or punctuation. 0 POINTS |
TOTAL POINTS |