HNB3141 Nursing And Complex Care

Consent can be defined as a term that describes the permission for something to happen as well as the agreement for doing something. In relation to Healthcare, this term mainly applies to the general, legal as well as ethical principle where detailed content must be obtained from the service user before the Healthcare professionals commences with examination or treatment or physical investigation or even provide care to the service user (Bowrey and Thompson 2014). Mandatory reporting is also another important component for safe and quality care of the patient and to avoid any legal and ethical obligation by the healthcare professionals and the organizations. This essay would highlight more on the two concepts in details.

The principal of consent mainly is seem to be reflecting the rights of a person in determining what happens to their own body or what shapes care and support that they would receive. Registered nurses who do not comply by this ethical principle and do not respect this principle may be liable to both legal actions by the person in the care as well as by the nursing of authorities of the Healthcare departments. Consent is mainly provided because of two important purposes. The first purpose is the legal purpose that mainly helps in providing the service users with the defense to a criminal charge or assault and helps in battery or civil claim for damages for trespass to the person (Judkins et al. 2014). Another important purpose is the clinical purpose. It is because in most cases the cooperation of the person and the person’s confidence in the treatment are the most important determinant factors in the consenting to the examination of the care that they are providing. Before the advancement of treatment or physical examination to the patient, Nurses are advised to carry on informed consent. Informed consent is defined as the consent that the patient would be giving the Healthcare professionals after the professional provides detailed explanation of the disorder that happened to the person, intervention required by the person, as well as a positive and negative outcomes with associated with the interventions. In this procedure, the entire importance is given to the choice of the patients whether he wants to have the treatment after he had understood the treatment procedure, its benefits, adverse effects and the various alternatives associated with the intervention (Ruiz et al. 2016). Here the client gets the full legal right to autonomy as well as self-determination in accepting or rejecting all the treatment and intervention suggested.

Standard two of the ‘NMBA registered nurses standards’ state the importance of the engagement of the Healthcare professionals in therapeutic and professional relationships (Registered nurse standards for practice 2016). These standard States the importance of communicating effectively with the patients in a way by which healthcare professionals can provide respect to the dignity, culture, rights, values as well as beliefs of the service user. The Healthcare professional also has the right to recognize that patients are the experts in the experience of their own lives. Therefore, it is the duty of the professional to provide person centered care in a manner by which they would be placing the patients and his wishes in the centre of the decision making and thereby develop the care plants depending entirely upon the wishes of the patient (Johnstone 2015). That helps in understanding how interacting with the patient effectively and gaining consent from him helps in development of mutual trust as well as respect in the professional relationships. Taking consent from the patient makes the patient feels that his autonomy and dignity is respected by the professional and this makes them feel empowered. Many patients might suffer from anxiety or depression, as they might feel powerless in the Healthcare systems. However, gaining consent from them helps in making them feel confident about their own decisions as well as results in positive outcomes on their health (Buchan et al. 2015).

Mandatory reporting can be described as the situation where healthcare individuals need to report specific injuries that they find on the patient as well as the different symptoms of abuse present on the person that can be suspected by looking at the condition of the person. However the mandatory reporting is not only restricted to this component but also extends o other parts in the Healthcare sectors as well. It is advised that Healthcare professionals need to report about cases and situations when they come across other professionals who are practicing while being intoxicated on alcohol and drugs (Axson et al. 2017). They should also report about any sexual misconduct in the practice of the profession. They should also report of any service users who are put at risk of substantial harm because of impairment or even when any kind of breach in the professional standards by the Healthcare professional himself as well as by other professionals are noticed. Breaches in confidentiality of the patient by any Healthcare professionals as well as unprofessional demands of the patient and that of the family members should also be reported to the authority in authority in right time (Davidov et al. 2014).

Standard 6 of the in NMBA registered nurses standards of practice states the importance of providing safe appropriate as well as responsive quality care to the patients (Registered nurse standards for practice 2016).. The standard has marked the importance of using of the appropriate procedures by the Healthcare professionals for identifying and reporting potential as well as actual risk related system issues. The standard also States the importance for the professionals to report where they find that the practice is below the expected standards. The main reasons for conducting mandatory reporting are to ensure safety of the patients so that they do not get exposed to any harm from not only Healthcare professionals but also any perpetrators (Brosss 2015). It also ensures the quality of the care received by the patient so that the patient satisfaction is higher. Moreover mandatory reporting has been made a Legal procedure in order to stop any unprofessional activities in the Healthcare departments that might expose the patients to different kinds of adverse situations and the healthcare organizations to any criminal offences. Mandatory reporting also helps in development of the quality of care given by the professional such that in case of medication errors where the novice professionals get the scope of developing their skills and knowledge. It also helps in protecting the nursing professionals from bullying and unprofessional behaviors by their colleagues thereby helping them to practice in a stable mental and emotional state (Kennu and Abreu 2016).

From the above discussion, it becomes clear that consent and mandatory reporting are the two important components of safe and effective care delivery. Professionals following these two components in their care delivery along with NMBA guidelines would ensure higher level of patient satisfaction and would be able to gift patients with better quality lives.

References:

Axson, S.A., Giordano, N.A., Hermann, R.M. and Ulrich, C.M., 2017. Evaluating nurse understanding and participation in the informed consent process. Nursing ethics, p.0969733017740175.

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

Bross, D.C. ed., 2015. Mandatory reporting laws and the identification of severe child abuse and neglect (Vol. 4). New York, NY: Springer.

Buchan, J., Twigg, D., Dussault, G., Duffield, C. and Stone, P.W., 2015. Policies to sustain the nursing workforce: an international perspective. International Nursing Review, 62(2), pp.162-170.

Davidov, D.M., Jack, S.M. and NFP IPV Research Team, 2014. Nurse home visitors’ perceived awareness of mandatory reporting requirements: pregnant women’s and children’s exposure to intimate partner violence. Journal of advanced nursing, 70(8), pp.1770-1779.

Johnstone, M.J., 2015. Bioethics: a nursing perspective. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Judkins-Cohn, T.M., Kielwasser-Withrow, K., Owen, M. and Ward, J., 2014. Ethical principles of informed consent: Exploring nurses’ dual role of care provider and researcher. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing.

Kenny, M.C. and Abreu, R.L., 2016. Mandatory Reporting of Child Maltreatment for Counselors: An Innovative Training Program. Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling, 2(2), pp.112-124.

Nursing and midwifery Board of Australia 2016, Registered nurse standards for practice ttps://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/codes-guidelines-statements/professional-standards.aspx

Ruiz-Casares, M. and Thompson, J., 2016. Obtaining meaningful informed consent: Preliminary results of a study to develop visual informed consent forms with children. Children’s Geographies, 14(1), pp.35-45.