Ethical principles and legal aspects of care

Ethics is a moral code of rules that dictates what is right and wrong and guides our behavior accordingly. In other words, we usually act a certain way because we believe it is the right thing to do.

On the other hand, a law involves legal rules that are dictated by the state or a governmental body to protect basic human rights.

In other words, the law tells us what we legally can or can’t do, and failing to obey these laws can result in punishment.

When providing care as a nursing assistant, you must always make sure your conduct is both ethical and legal.

Now, each profession has its code of ethics, which dictates ethical principles that guide the standards of behavior and professional practice.

The goal of the code of ethics is to guide conduct and practice and to help professionals make the right decisions when ethical issues arise.

The general ethical principles that apply to every healthcare worker are beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, autonomy, fidelity, and confidentiality.

Beneficence means doing good for your clients, taking care and treating them with respect and taking consideration of their dignity. On the other hand, nonmaleficence means to avoid causing any harm to your client.

Now, justice means you must treat all clients equally and fairly, regardless of their race, culture, disabilities, or socioeconomic situation.

Autonomy means respecting your client’s right to make their own decisions. Fidelity means acting with honesty, loyalty, and integrity to earn your client’s trust.

Finally, confidentiality means maintaining a client’s privacy by keeping sensitive issues a secret unless your client gives you permission to share them.

Alright, now onto the legal aspects of care. The law can be classified as criminal or civil. The criminal law involves the relationship with society in general.

Acts that violate criminal laws are called crimes and include abuse, stealing, and murder. People that commit a crime can be punished with a fine or even sent to prison.

On the other hand, civil law involves the relationship between people, such as the nurse-client relationship.

People that break a civil law usually have to pay a fine or settlement to the damaged person. When someone violates the civil law, we call it a tort.

Torts can be intentional, meaning they’re done on purpose, or unintentional when the damage caused was not on purpose.

Unintentional torts are considered negligence, meaning that the person that caused the damage didn’t act in a responsible and careful way.

Some examples of negligent acts include forgetting to check the water temperature when helping a client bathe, leading to them getting burns; forgetting to raise the side rail and the client falls out of bed; and forgetting to report and document bedsores you noticed.

When a negligent act is done by a professional with a practicing licence, such as doctors and nurses, it’s called malpractice.

The concept of malpractice is associated with the concept of standard of care, which defines the level of care and skill that all competent healthcare workers should have when caring for their clients.

So, a professional that fails to meet the expected standard of care can be charged with malpractice.

Okay, now, intentional torts include defamation, false imprisonment, fraud, invasion of privacy, assault, and battery.