Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs for Nurse Practitioners

Prescription Errors Nondisclosure and Disclosure: The Legalities and Ethics
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Prescription Errors Nondisclosure and Disclosure: The Legalities and Ethics
Human oversight happens in all professions. In the health care settings, medical mistakes occur, and this poses danger to the patient’s recovery and health, and sometimes it can be fatal. These errors can be system-based, judgmental, knowledge-based, technical, rule-based or expectation inaccuracies (Saleem, 2014). Nurses and other medical practitioners are trained on procedures to eliminate these medication errors. However, there are instances where these mistakes happen, and both nurses and doctors face the dilemma of disclosing or not disclosing the information to the patient or their family. The paper expounds on the legal and ethical effects of medical error nondisclosure/disclosure, what a nurse should do in such cases, and the methods that can help minimize them.
The Legal and Ethical Implications of Nondisclosure and Disclosure
The nursing code of ethics demands that nurses disclose and report any medication error to the proper authorities. According to Hannawa (2012), the caregiver ought to promote, protect, and advocate for the patient’s safety, health and rights. The nurse can only achieve this by ensuring that they are honest with their patients irrespective of the circumstance. The principles of autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence require that the caregiver tells the truth at all times and hence, the need to disclose any mistake. In a situation where the clinician does not reveal the errors, they are putting their interests above those of the patient and this is against the ethical principles. Many physicians and nurses are afraid of exposing these mistakes because they might lose their patients, reputation, license and privileges.
The lack of disclosure or giving partial information limits patient involvement in their care, may harm the patient, and create mistrust between the provider and the patient (Edwin, 2009). As a result, laws have been established, including the federal and state regulations that are meant to mitigate medication errors. The Virginia State requires physicians and caregivers to report any medical mistakes and give complete information about the error to the patient/family. According to the regulations, it is the nurse’s moral obligation to ensure that the patient is aware of the prescription inaccuracy, and information of how this will be tackled. A grave medication error attracts disciplinary measures either by the facility or a regulatory body (Mastroianni et al., 2010). The probable consequence of non-disclosure can be a clinician losing their licensure to practice or further training on how to avoid such mistakes.
Decision in this Scenario and Rationale
As an advanced practice nurse (APN), it is critical to be a promoter of the safety and patients’ rights to enhance their recovery and well-being. The best choice would be to ensure that in the case of a medical error, the APN reports this to the correct authority. The process makes sure that the hospital can develop ways to deal with the issue and prevent further harm and also devise mechanisms of mitig...