Legal and Ethical Aspect of Professional Development in Nursing

Permitting a new driver to get behind the wheel of a car requires the driver to know the laws governing driving; however, the laws do not tell the whole story. For example, what is a driver to do when entering an unprotected intersection? What governs the driver’s movement into the intersection? How does the driver account for the weather, vehicle, and road condition? What is the driver’s knowledge and experience level? Any new driver needs guidance or rules to manage the inherent risks. Inherent risk is also a part of nursing. Patients are ill; medications and treatments have benefits and adverse effects; clinical situations are undetermined, open ended, and highly variable Providing nursing care sometimes feels like the new driver navigating that unprotected intersection. As with the new driver, education and standards provided by laws and regulations designed to protect the public provide guidance in nursing practice. Nursing requires specialized knowledge, skill, and independent decision making. The practice of nursing ivolves behaviour, attitude and judgement, and physical and sensory capabilities in the application of knowledge, skills, and abilities for the benefit of the client. Nursing careers take widely divergent paths – practice focus varies by setting, by types of clients, by different disease, therapeutic approach or level of rehabilitation. Burses work at all points of service in the health care system (sheets, 1996).