Legal Principles In Nursing

Legal principles

Nurses like other healthcare professionals need to practice according to a complex web of federal and state statutes – while making decisions in an ethically responsible manner. Nurses tend to consider the ethical implications of their decisions to ensure their actions are in the interest of their patients and do not cause harm. At first glance, it may seem that making these decisions should be straightforward, but many situations are not clear-cut, and there are times when what seems legal is not ethical and vice versa.

The nursing, legal principles fall on the licensure, federal and state laws, the practice scope and the expectation of professionalism. Their license and nursing standard offers a framework that stipulates

The statutory law arises from the Congress and the state legislatures (Masters, 2015). Examples of these laws include the Nurse Practice Acts. State Boards are responsible for establishing regulatory law when they enact rules and regulations. A good example is that of reporting of incompetent nurses and those exhibiting unethical behavior. Courts are also legislators of the rules which govern the conduct of the nurses. They emerge when the individual legal cases are decided (Masters, 2015). An example is that of informed consent and the right of the patient to refuse

Normative ethics addresses what is right and wrong in human action (what we ought to do); what is good and evil in human character (what we ought to be); and good or evil in the ends that we ought to seek (ANA, 2015). It attempts to prescribe the values, behaviors, and ways that people should adopt. It focuses on inquiring how a human being should behave, what they should do in certain situations and the characters they should possess. The outcome of normative ethics rests on making an inquiry using normative questions (Chadwick & Gallagher, 2016). The prescriptions consider the accepted moral standards and codes of conduct. The common morality is a good example that comprises of the normative behaviors and beliefs which the society members regard as appropriate and familiar to everyone. For example, it offers a framework of ethical stability. The code of ethics for nurses posit that nurses need to be compassionate to relieve