Ethical and legal implications of disclosure and nondisclosure of medication errors

Disclosure and Non Disclosure
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The medical field has always been faced with various ethical, moral and legal dilemmas. Among them is the dilemma to disclose or not to disclose. Disclosure or non disclosure has plagued the medical fraternity from various fronts. On one front, the need to disclose or conceal some information from the patient pertaining his or her condition. One the other front is the disclosure or non disclosure stemming from medical errors. For example, what should one do after making an error in prescription? Should he or she disclose or not? And what are the ethical implications or either option? These arguments form a large fraction of the grey areas in the medical field, ones which are mostly left unanswered due to its controversial nature. This paper discusses the ethical and legal implications of disclosure and non disclosure of medical errors, particularly focusing on New Jersey state laws, then adds a personal opinion to the proceedings.
Making mistakes is a fundamental human characteristic. It is inherent in every person and what makes one less prone to errors compared to another, is just the frequency of presented opportunities to do so. Errors in prescriptions are usually a common occurrence in the medical field, whether they are publicized or not. However miniature the error might be, it will have obvious repercussions to the medical personnel, the patient, as well as the medical institution in general. Response to disclosure or non disclosure hinges upon personal, general, legal and medical ethical principles (Anderson & Townsend,2010).
In New Jersey however, this provision of personal duty to disclose or not to, was scrapped off through the enactment of a law. This was called the Patient Safety Act, passed in the year 2004.This law made it a mandatory legal obligation for a medic to disclose any medical errors that might arise during prescription. Such disclosure is supposed to be made to the patient immediately, or within reasonable time. In this case, the law specifies that the patient needs to be informed of the error within the period that he or she will be under medication (Ratkowitz, 2012).
Generally in the medical field, medics are required by their code of ethics to engage with the patient on disclosure of anything that might complicate the patient’s condition, especially within the domain of medical error (ANA, 2001). It is an ethical obligation mandatory to every practicing medical personnel. The legal decree by the state of New Jersey is further strengthened by Wusthoff (n.d), who notes that the essence of disclosure is supposed to be part of the fiduciary association between a patient and his or her doctor. This is because at the end of it all, disclosure would be advantageous to the patient more than the doctor.
As an advanced nurse, I would disclose to the patient any error in prescr...