Ethics and Law in Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ethics and Law in Nursing - Essay Example This paper will focus on the professional, ethical, and legal implications of the case scenario. Patient analysis Evidently, the patient is under severe depression. An untreated clinical depression may generally last from six to 24 months. Clinical psychologists opine that the chance of recurrence of this disorder is high unless the symptoms have not been resolved properly with treatment. Clinical reports reflect that the condition of major depression often co-occurs with a sequence of other psychiatric problems including lifetime anxiety. Richards (2011), indicates that anxiety symptoms will worsen the depressive illness with a slow pace recovery, increased risk of reoccurrence, greater health problems, and increased suicide tendency. It is also seen that individuals with severe depression may develop cardiovascular diseases if they do not obtain effective treatment on time. In the view of experts in clinical psychology, people with severe depression would not be willing to follow m edical recommendations for eliminating the chances of cardiovascular diseases, and this situation may further increase their risk. In short, people suffering from a major depressive disorder must get proper treatment to completely recover from the disorder. Similarly, the individual has been recently diagnosed with leukaemia and it greatly increases his risk as this disease may lead to complications including repeated infections that are potential to reduce the immunity of the patient. Physicians opine that kidney failure and a fall in number of neutrophils will be the common complications of leukaemia. Finally, the case context tells that the patient is currently undergoing an electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in a psychiatric care setting. The ECT treatment can have a great influence on the patient’s memory, general cognition, and brain structure and hence he may face troubles with normal thinking and decision making. Legal implications From the patient analysis, it is obviou s that the patient is suffering from a severe depression and leukaemia and he may also get impacted by the side effects of ECT treatment. However, the patient is not in an extreme critical situation and he has the ability to see and hear events around him and respond to it verbally. Hence, the nursing staff cannot legally plan a nasogastric (NG) tube insertion for force-feeding the patient. According to Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC), nurses must treat patients as separate individuals and respect their dignity. While stating the significance of treating individual differences, the NMC specifically says that a nurse has to act as an advocate for the patient and assist them to access relevant health and social care information. The case scenario indicates that the person had not been properly informed about why NG tube insertion became necessary for him. Hence the nurses’ practice is the violation of the code of conduct of the NMC. The NMC guidelines for NG tube insertion cl early say that care providers must obtain consent from the patient if he has the ability to express his views. In the given context, the nursing staff obtained consent from the patient’s relatives even if the patient had the ability to express his interests. Hence, the nurses violated the rule of NMC