Contemporary Ethical Legal Issues Reflections
As a result of enhanced medical technology, dynamic ways of communication, and expanded obligations for nursing professions, the nursing and healthcare profession is facing rising ethical and legal difficulties. The majority of these legal and ethical issues
Challenges are closely related to legislation developments regarding confidentiality issues and
Ethics in relation to medical technology Confidentiality is a problem that has been addressed.
over many years by the nursing profession, however legislative developments have raised the demand for
Maintaining confidentiality is essential. The introduction of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enhanced the need of safeguarding the sharing of sensitive information. Contemporary Ethical Legal Issues Reflections Essay Help Research Paper.
information for patients (Lachman, 2006). Several regulations for spreading and logging in
Access to private information was tracked using methods that were put in place. Tracking of data and usage of password systems ensured that employees could not access
files of patients they were caring for.
Moffitt Cancer Center is embroiled in a scandal after it was uncovered that patient permission for a research project was fabricated. The center is examining if hundreds of signatures on paperwork were forgeries, which recruited patients in one of the hospital’s major cancer research studies (Martin, 2010). When either a physician or a healthcare
provider seeks to carry out a procedure on a patient, it is the duty of a nurse to acquire an
informed consent signature. This implies that the patient knows the procedure and available
alternatives, has clarified with the provider about the procedure, knows the risks involved and
the benefits, and is at liberty to either sign or refuse to partake in the activity. When the nurse
fails to obtain and instead falsifies the signature, both the provider and the nurse can be held
accountable for any damages incurred.
Dr. William Dalton, president and CEO of Moffitt Cancer Center, admitted that an employee had faked a patient’s signature on a permission document, and the committee was looking at 492 dubious signatures. The Total Cancer Care study is an observation experiment that follows cancer patients throughout time but not the type of treatment they get. Because patient confidentiality and permission are critical to the study process, the revelation prompted a comprehensive audit of all staff’ activities on July 29. (Martin, 2010). This issue raises an ethical concern since patients’ permission to be studied
must be obtained, and the patients must believe that the study is a serious matter. The
employee who had worked for two and a half years in the hospital as a clinical consenter was
fired on July 30 due to the seriousness of his actions. Moreover, Ernest & Young, an auditing
firm, was hired to begin investigations and a handwriting expert was asked to analyze 6,464 consent signatures.
Some nurses have little or no formal education in law and ethics, rendering them unqualified to deal with such concerns in a clinical context (Kleiman, 2007).
Organ donation, euthanasia, genetic engineering, physician-assisted suicide, end-of-life care, and dealing with patient confidentiality are all ethical and legal issues in modern nursing practice, and there are legal, ethical, and regulatory mandates that require healthcare professionals to be knowledgeable on these topics. Lack of fundamental understanding makes nurses feel helpless and causes them to retreat from such concerns, resulting in frequent errors. As a result, it is critical for nurses to obtain this information and be guided through this critical subject in their work. Contemporary Ethical Legal Issues Reflections Essay Help Research Paper.
Recognizing a lack of ethical understanding among some of its employees, Moffitt Cancer Center launched an extensive training program for supervisors and consenters.
Furthermore, it intends to alter the consent procedure to offer greater confidence and accuracy.
According to the president, the entire procedure might entail contacting the patient to see if they signed the consent form. The loss of faith in the study process is one ethical quandary caused by the forgery of the patient’s signature. The CEO concurred that the breach may result in patients refusing to participate in the research, resulting in the collapse of a procedure that began over four years ago and had over 60,000 participants. In addition,
grant funding into the project may be suspended and according to Dr. James Omel,