The purpose of this essay is to review the incident raised by the family for the unreasonable death of the respite client at the Sunnyland Day Respite Centre. The ethical issues resulting from the incident will be discussed, and the aspects of law and legislations in the health care facility, and the implications for the nursing team and the family.
Consent, Restraint, Assault and Battery Consent in the health care facility can be indirect, verbal or written. But, consent to be legal it should be given willingly by a person who is totally knowledgeable and it’s not under any extraordinary legal control has the right to decline all treatment, no matter how difficult the denial, even if it could effect in their death (TAFE Queensland, …show more content…
Vicarious Liability is a common law that changes the actions of their workers or agents and the financial obligation from the nurses and carer found liable for damage to another different or person such as employer to employee.
Advocacy
The nurse’s role as an advocate for a client is to plan the client’s pathway through the health system and direct their journey through admission to discharge. Nurses must have a knowledge that includes system, technical, and ethical knowledge along with the personal knowledge of the patient. Nurses must be reinforced to advocate for patients’ rights, for complete availability to safe, quality health care, and for consumer- driven health system change (Queensland Nurses Union, n.d.).
Documentation
The purpose of documentation in the health industry is to identify and apply the legal requirements for nursing documentation (TAFE Queensland, 2014). In relation with this Case Scenario the document to be completed is Effective Documentation because all documentation must be generated in accordance with the health industry policy, which should be clear, brief and accurate date and completed in a timely manner and the writer of the report must be clearly identified, signed and designation should be included (TAFE Queensland, …show more content…
Davis. The EEN in this case study is evidently presented with a dilemma, which could be resolved by using ethical decision-making models. If I encountered this type of situation as an EEN, I would follow an ethical decision-making model called DECIDE, as discussed by Allen, Chapman, Francis and O’Connor (2008), as a guide to devise my response. The process is as follows:
• D – Define the problem(s)
The concerns surrounding this scenario include the request of the RN for the EEN to lie about the circumstances surrounding Mrs. Davis’ death. It has been identified that the main people involved are RN Jolie and the EEN. It is clear that what happened to the client was not accidental, as she had been restrained against her will and protested, which ultimately resulted to the fall that caused the client to hit her head and lose consciousness.
• E – Ethical review
Evidently, not only would it be immoral, it would also be illegal to lie about the truth concerning Mrs. Davis’ death, even though the RN has suggested telling a lie. There are ethical principles that need to be adhered to such as the Code of Professional Conduct, Code of Ethics and the Enrolled Nurse Competency