Question:
Discuss the benefits and responsibilities of the advanced practice nurse (APN), as well as the role of the nurse practitioner.
Discuss the legal aspects and professional regulations of the APN-NP roles
Critically and clearly explain the concepts and applications of ethics and accountability in clinical nursing practice
Discuss the health care system and advanced nursing practices in your country.
Identify any potential issues or challenges related to these roles in your current and future role in the health-care system.
Imagine that you are required to speak to a group of people to explain APN or NP.
How would you address the following issues?
What are some key issues you would like to raise at the meeting?
What would you say to the community in your most important messages?
What would you do to promote your new job to someone who is opposed?
What key messages do you want to share with other health professionals and patients?
Answer to Question: NURS6120 Contemporary Nursing
According to the Health and Safety Legislative Framework, professional misconduct can be defined as unsatisfactory conduct of a sufficient serious nature that justifies the suspension or cancellation the practitioner’s registration.
This means that professionals must comply with the legislation and professional conduct standards for nurses professionals (Katsikitis and co., 2013).
This assignment will focus on a case of professional misconduct in nursing and the consequences of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s decision on the nurses.
Further, the assignment would include the responsibilities for the facilities to reduce such types of misconduct.
Before analysing the particular case, it’s important to understand how professional accountability is handled in clinical nursing practice.
Clinical practice demands both individual as well collegial accountability.
When talking about accountability for registered nurses, it’s important to make sure that they are following the professional standards.
For example, RN standards direct an RN to meet personal accountability. Therefore, the nurse should think critically and analyze nursing practices.
However, in terms of collegial accountability the nurse should engage with professional and therapeutic relationships and should be able evaluate the outcomes to help inform nursing practice.
Andrew, as a competent nurse, must be familiar with and possess the competencies to adhere to all the standard guidelines.
The principal concern is the professional disagreement of Mr. Andrew Simonsen who is a registered nursing assistant.
The Health Care Complaints Commission sued the RN for breaching his professional conduct.
Andrew and his family joined Chesalon Aged Care on July 3, 2011.
He allowed his friend person A to stay, but he didn’t know that the person was addicted.
In addition, he did not check the patient’s medication charts during night shift.
Additionally, he was reported to have used the toilet to self-medicate and abuse the drug.
Other colleagues reported that the practitioner displayed unusual and wired behavior.
After his discharge from Chesalon, the practitioner moved to Sir Moses Montefiore Jewish Home. Here, he did no longer disclose his past professional history to his employer (Caselaw.nsw.gov.au (2016)).
He did not adhere to the Montefoire regulations regarding safe use of drugs.
As a result, it can be said that Andrew didn’t adhere to standard 6 for professional nursing practice. This is a requirement that nurses ensure that they practice nursing in a safe, appropriate, responsive manner.
Standard 7 also states that the practitioner failed to evaluate the implications of his misconduct as well as the impact on his patient and his own profession. In addition, the practitioner have also breach the ethical code of nurse practitioner as well as registered nurse (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2017).
According to the code statements, the nurse practitioner must ensure that nurses follow nursing ethics. These include respecting and dignity of care recipients and colleagues and aligning professional practices with health and safety legislation.
But Mr. Andrew didn’t adhere to these code statements.
In order to be accountable in collegial settings, employees must all contribute equally in their professional roles to reach their respective responsibility goals and improve the organization’s service quality.
A doctor was also found to have been addicted to drugs.
Doyle, Hungerford, Cruickshank (2014) argued collegial relationships are essential for the NP to negotiate the role delineation and to teach others about their role as their skill set becomes increasingly recognised.
In order to have collegial accountability, other members of the health team should talk with the applicant after they have identified his misconduct and inappropriate behaviour.
The first step in reducing or eliminating a practitioner’s drug addiction is to identify his guilt.
Additionally, security staffs must be more active and prone when allowing someone into an institution. They should evaluate the individual’s capabilities and needs for entry.
Andrew may benefit from counselling if he is trying to overcome his addiction.
The inappropriate behaviour should be identified by his colleagues and he should be informed about the consequences.
The care home administrator should consider the patient’s impairment. It should have a full discussion with the practitioner.
Collaboration and collegial accountability could prevent the repetition or misconduct of nursing professionals (Schneider & Whitehead (2013)).
Professional misconduct can be prevented by ensuring that the organization is accountable for all incidents.
In order to prevent misconduct in the workplace, hospitals should enforce strict safety standards.
The organization should use a risk assessment program to identify potential risky behaviours of staff and patients. This will help to protect the organization.
An organization should offer significant training and promotions to individual nurses professionals in order to motivate them and provide value.
Professional training is also beneficial for nursing staff to learn about organizational legal or ethical policies.
Possibilities for policies like zero tolerance that impose a high penalty for professional conduct or unprofessional behaviour, can help to limit these types of misconduct and empower professional standards in an organizational environment (Caselaw.nsw.gov.au 2016).
To sum it, professional conduct and standards are the guidelines that nurses must adhere to in order for them to reach their professional objectives.
In this context the case against Mr. Andrew highlighted significant misconduct and breaches of professional standards in his work. These issues should be addressed and prevented from becoming a problem in the current health care and social service sector.
Employees and employers must follow the professional competency standards. This will help maximize both the quality of care provided to service users and their lives in care homes.
Reference ListCaselaw.nsw.gov.au. (2016).
Simonsen V Health Care Complaints Commission NSW Caselaw. Caselaw.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 6 June 2017, from https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/577b49d6e4b058596cb9d1a8Doyle, K., Hungerford, C., & Cruickshank, M. (2014).
Reviewing Tribunal cases and nurse behavior: Reintroducing empathy into nurse education through Bloom’s taxonomy.
Nurse education today 34(7), 1069-1073.Katsikitis, M., McAllister, M., Sharman, R., Raith, L., Faithfull-Byrne, A., & Priaulx, R. (2013).
Continuing professional learning in nursing Australia: Current awareness, practice, and future directions.
Contemporary nurse, 45(1). 33-45.Masters, K. (2015). Role development in professional nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. (2017).
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Registered nursing standards for practice. Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. Retrieved 6 June 2017, from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspxSchneider, Z., & Whitehead, D. (2013).
Nursing and midwifery research: Methods and appraisals to support evidence-based practice.
Elsevier Australia.