Legal Aspects Of Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Legal Aspects Of Nursing - Essay Example The bed restraints were meant for not only securing the patient from much movement but also for ensuring his safety against falling from the height of the bed, which would be fatal. In this regard therefore, the nurses would be said to have responded appropriately to ensure the safety of the patient through the application of the principles. However, as the excerpt reveals, despite the great effort taken by the nurses to ensure the safety of Mr. Abraham, he eventually manages to untie himself from the restraints and in efforts to climb down the bed, he falls and sustains serious head injuries from which he later succumbs. From a legal point of view, the nurses would have applied other principles to ensure more safety to the patient besides what had been done. For instance, when they noted the patient’s unrest, they would have probably administered sleep-inducing medicine to the patient in order to have him asleep as they carried out their tests. Besides, one-hour intervals of monitoring such a patient who showed higher chances of untying himself was long durations and the nurses ought to have adopted lesser periods in order to be effective. Through the relatively shorter periods, the nurses would have probably chanced on the patient before the fall. Moreover, we would reason that the nurses failed to prioritize on the patient as is seen from the statement that they visited him on hourly intervals from the room he was restrained from as he awaited tests and treatment. From a legal point, this would be interpreted as negligence on the part of nurses because they would have prioritized on attending to the patient as a safety measure. Failure to have employed these measures by nurses in effect is blamed to have resulted to the injury, which... There is no greater ethical duty to such a patient than as accorded in the case scenario. Ethics explain an acceptable code of conduct by individuals within a given context. In this case, therefore, the patient portrayed no ethical behavior as described by his intention to leave the hospital and go for revenge in the bar besides being assisted by the nurses and the fire rescue to safety. It would be interpreted morally wrong and ethically accepted behavior where the patient shows no sense of cooperation when being assisted by the nurses. In fact, it is more wrong to have the patient struggle to untie the wrist and chest restraints as applied by the medical staff for having him cooperate as tests and treatment were done on him. Such efforts by the practicing nurses and the fire rescue indicate very high ethical concerns towards the patient and under such, no higher duty would be accorded to him than this. Life is interpreted to be very precious and as such, despite his condition of being drunk and unruly, the nurses and other persons in contact with such a patient has the ethical responsibility of saving his life. It is also ethical to handle the patient with care as the family members would reiterate and accord him the respect due to human beings. Finally, it would be ethical to have such a patient attended to quickly, which would reduce the level of suffering that the patient would be undergoing from the injuries sustained before. It is ethically correct for the nurses to minimize the level of pain suffered by a patient.