NUR222 Health Law And Ethics

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It is February 2019 and there is a zombie outbreak in Queensland that is threatening to spread globally.

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Introduction

Zombies are very aggressive and the zombie virus (Solanum virus) is biologically infectious and universally fatal (Smith 2015). Considering one of the modes of transmission as bites from the infected person, the epidemic raises many ethical and legal considerations in the emergency department (ED). As the nurses in the Emergency Department (ED), we are exposed to the danger of contracting this infection more than our clients and employees. For instance, as we shall discuss later, we may contract the virus through attending to the infected persons or by coming into contact with the infected blood (Ashlock, Brown & Innes 2014).

Ethical consideration of zombie attack

The first ethical consideration that arises is the expenses involved in the control of the outbreak. Zombies deplete resources within no time and they can run over a city or a town in a few days or week (Smith 2015).  As seen from the 2004 infection in London, military action was the only choice and that becomes an ethical issue when the officers have to shoot to kill the zombie to save his own life. Zombies are a risk to the extermination of humans. Zombies also have minimal chances of survival that makes them of no economic use as they will eventually die (Hannah & Wilkinson 2016). However, ethics protect life as it is not moral to take life from someone. In some other instances, the situation that the persons are in, such as we the nurses, forces us to either react positively or negatively (Schmeink 2017). If the nurse is sure of contracting the infection and has no other escape route, killing the zombie may be ethical to save him or herself. If the nurse has an escape route, it may be more advisable to escape as the zombie was once a person with sound mind and dreams just as the nurse (Edwards 2015). In other situations where containing or eliminating the spread of the virus may term the zombie killing acts as ethical since more people will be prevented from a higher percentage of infection (Leaning 2015).

The nurse prevention from the infection

The nurses need to be alert when attending to people affected by the Solanum virus. In most cases, nurses bear the maximum risk when performing both primary and secondary interventions for zombies (Stanley 2012). In the emergency department, for example, zombies should be separated from other patients and nurses in the Emergency Department should be in the best protective gears to prevent contamination to self (Zamudio, Chávez & Hernández 2017). There are other instances that the bacteria and virus infecting the patients inside the hospital arise. As such, the floor of the hospital must always be kept clean to avoid transmission. The nurses attending to these infected people must be vaccinated and always undertaken through several stages of purification before they are allowed to come into contact with the infected parties (Zimmerman & Mason 2017). This measure will ensure that the risk the nurses expose their clients and other nurses to is effectively reduced.

Other ethical issues for consideration

There are other ethical issues to be considered are whether zombies have rights, intrinsic value, or needs, whether zombies affect international justice, whether they should be controlled by the government or civilians (free markets), whether they are sustainable, or whether there should be care accorded to them (Thagard 2018). As an emergency nurse, before making any decision to terminate them, the above-mentioned factors should be considered. Looking at the ethical aspect of whether zombies have rights, a nurse can be in a better position to make decisions (AHPRA 2017). As we know, human beings and animals have the right as they have distinct characters. However, zombies too have their own rights. They are characterized by hard work and mutual relationships with their families. Thus, killing a zombie may be unethical if it possesses no risk to the people. Zombies should be controlled by the government in different locations from that inhabited by the safe people (Calderon & Schaeck 2016). In such a case, killing a zombie in its own habit may be termed as unethical if they have already been isolated.

Nurses and nurse employers’ responsibility to patients, other clients, and the community

Despite the risks associated with Zombie management, health providers, including emergency nurses, are legally bound to provide safe care to all people (AHPRA 2017). However, there is no particular standard in Australia that addresses how a nurse should act in an emergency epidemic that is a threat to her own life. In America, however, there is a non-binding professional behavior recommendation in the Medical Code of Ethics stating that care providers are mandated to provide care even when they are subjected to personal light or extreme risks.

Under the law, there is no total decree to a duty of care for patients during disasters or pandemics (L Thompson & S Thomson 2015). State laws regulate professional practice by preparing pre disasters and no professional is to perform any duty legally if it is outside the legal mandate. However, in practice, the roles would be blurred to provide care and contain the disaster. This has even been portrayed in the Zombie TV Series, The Walking Dead, when Hershel, a veterinarian does emergency cesarean section surgery on Grimes yet without medical training. In this case, nurses have no legal obligation of terminating life during a disaster like Solanum infection, but should any need be to prevent further spreading, then that is an option.

The law of contract in many agencies requires that health care providers report to duty even in case of infectious diseases like Solanum infection (L Thompson & S Thomson 2015). The nurses in the emergency department will be expected to attend to the patients as the disaster is deemed to be part of the job, and failure to do that would be a civil case of patient abandonment and therefore could lead to charges under the tort of negligence.

Duties and responsibilities to nurse’ self

Even when dealing with the contagion, nurses have duties to self, their families, patients, and the wider community as well as to their employers (Smith et al. 2013). The duty to self is attached to the nurse refraining from performing care to a zombie who put him or her at a risk of getting infected with the fatal virus (Banks 2015). In case the nurse is the breadwinner in her family, he or she puts the family at a poverty risk and that would be a deemed vague issue of negligence to the family. The duty to the employer is inclined to the contract noted above that binds the nurse to attend to duty. The duty to patients is protecting life and giving care. The duty to the wider community is inclined to containing the virus from spreading to affect others. Thus, nurses must always put their health and stability first even when they perform the zombie intervention as they are the most likely people to contract the virus is measures go against them (Mills, Wand & Fraser 2015).

Conclusion

To summarize, the issue of Zombie control has no definite position as to how an emergency nurse has to act. Laws and ethics conflict within themselves and unless the nurse acts under Good Samaritan laws, he or she would have a stand even when under prosecution. There is an indefinite stand as to whether charges would be civil or criminal.

List of Reference

AHPRA 2017, ‘Registered nurse standards for practise’, viewed 2018, <https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx>, Accessed from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx.

Ashlock, D, Brown, JA & Innes, C 2014, ‘ An evolvable linear representation for simulating government policy in zombie outbreaks’, Mathematical Modeling of Zombies, Robert Smith, pp. 233-248.

Banks, I 2015, ‘Self-care of minor ailments’, SelfCare Journal.

Calderon, C & Schaeck, K 2016, ‘The effects of government interventions in the financial sector on banking competition and the evolution of zombie banks’, Journal of Financial and Quantitative analysis, vol 51, no. 4, pp. 1391-1436.

Edwards, JD 2015, ‘Zombie Terrorism in an Age of Global Gothic’, Gothic Studies, vol 17, no. 2, pp. 12-25.

Hannah, E & Wilkinson, R 2016, ‘ Zombies and IR: A Critical Reading’, Politics, vol 36, no. 1, pp. 5-18.

L Thompson, A & S Thomson, A 2015, But if a zombie apocalypse did occur: Essays on Medical, Military, Governmental, Ethical, Economic, and Other Implications Contribution to Zombie Studies., McFarland.

Leaning, M 2015, ‘Mumsnet Zombies: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse on Mumsnet and YouTube’, In The Zombie Renaissance in Popular Culture, pp. 141-159.

Mills, J, Wand, T & Fraser, JA 2015, ‘On self-compassion and self-care in nursing: Selfish or essential for compassionate care?’, International journal of nursing studies, vol 52, no. 4, pp. 791-793.

Schmeink, L 2017, ‘New Ways to Think about Zombies’, pp. 623-625.

Smith, TC 2015, ‘Zombie infections: epidemiology, treatment, and prevention’, vol p.h6423, no. doi:10.1136/bmj.h6423, p. 351.

Smith, M, Saunders, R, Stuckhardt, L & McGinnis, JM 2013, ‘Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continously Learning Health Care in America’, Enganging Patients, Families, and Communities.

Stanley, D 2012, ‘The nurses’ role in the prevention of Solanum infection: dealing with a zombie epidemic’, Journal of clinacal nursing, vol 21, no. 11-12, pp. 1606-1613.

Thagard, P 2018, ‘Zombie Ethics’, Psychology Today, Accessed from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hot-thought/201111/zombie-ethics.

Zamudio, JJE, Chávez, GIR & Hernández, MEG 2017, ‘Surgical Wound Irrigation: Strategy for Prevention of Surgical Site Infection’, Nurse Care Open Acces J, vol 3, no. 1, p. 00062.

Zimmerman, PA & Mason, M 2017, ‘WhyZombie? Zombie Pop Culture to Improve Infection Prevention and Control Practices’, In Teaching Medicine and Medical Ethics Using Popular Culture, pp. 55-69.