Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
It is the responsibility of a nurse practitioner to acquire a patient’s thorough health history record and perform an exam that is physical before making any prescriptions for the patient. There are several factors that need to be considered after a specific medication has been selected. The various aspects include costs, side effects, convenience, interactions, route, the difference in action, and efficiency, among other factors. There are also legal and ethical considerations that the nurse practitioner has to consider before prescribing the medication. This paper considers the scenario, ‘a friend calls and asks you to prescribe a medication for her. You have the autonomy but you don’t have your friend’s medical history. You write the prescription anyway.’
Legal and ethical implications
The various factors that a nurse practitioner needs to consider when it comes to prescribing for friends are as follows. First is the law in the state that describes the authority to prescribe medication for an advanced practice nurse. The situation in the scenario is a prescription error, and the legal implications that the APN may face include criminal allegations, civil actions, and discipline by the medical board. The legal implications that are associated with prescriptions are severe, and the prescriber may be caught in an ethical dilemma as to whether or not to disclose the error. The APN will also face the fear of the professional and personal repercussions, be upset, and feel guilty of their incompetence. It is essential that the APN be aware of the accurate and current information concerning prescribing in the state in which they practice. The pharmacist will be liable for compounding the mistake of the prescriber. The family of the patient and the patent trusted the APN, and therefore they are not faced with any legal issues as they are not professionals.
Strategies to address non-disclosure and disclosure
Nursing practitioners know that there is a possibility of medical errors occurring in the course of practice. The state government of Texas enacted the legislation HB 1614 into law in June 2003 (Quality and patient safety, n.d). The law provided that it is essential that practitioners in Texas record all the medication errors that occur. This strategy enhances the surveillance of practitioners to be able to identify those that make the most errors and take action. The recording of errors provides the disclosure required for legal action to be taken. Another strategy is implementing the legal frameworks that exist to underscore the seriousness at which medical errors get treated and manage the cases in courts. This minimizes mortality as the practitioners will be more careful with prescriptions and pay attention to the health of patients.
Decision-making strategies in the scenario
As an APN, the strategies that I would use in making a decision in the scenario include professional ethics in which I will abide by the ethical principles of nursing practice in which I will take action following the rule of law regardless of the consequences that may arise(Fowler, 2016). In this case, I will disclose the error by reporting as state law requires, and accept the punishment I will get for my mistake, and work on becoming a better practitioner. The second strategy will be to abide by the professional conduct code, which entails doing well under all circumstances. In this case, therefore, after reporting the error, I will follow up on the patient and make sure that they are doing okay.
Prescription writing process
Different countries have different standards of prescription writing (Sisay et al., 2017). The various prescription elements include the fact that it must have a language that is understood by the patient, the prescription must be in writing that is clear, it must state the frequency that the patient will use in taking the medication, and the number of days that have been projected for the patient to take medicine. With the development of technology, electronic prescribing has been recommended to be the most effective as it reduces errors in prescribing(Hodgkinson et al., 2017). Reliance on prescriptions that have been handwritten increases the chances of mistakes. Other strategies that can help reduce errors in medication are repeated counterchecking and rechecking, labeling of medication, and printing of the labels for the refilled prescription.
Conclusion
Errors in medication significantly affect the outcomes of health as they increase the risk of mortality. It is vital that healthcare practitioners adopt strategies that help reduce errors in prescribing, like adopting the use of electronic prescribing. States should implement strict laws and punitive measures against nnegligentt6 healthcare practitioners to help curb the issues of error in prescriptions.
References
Fowler, M. D. (2016). Nursing’s code of ethics, social ethics, and social policy. Hastings Center Report, 46, S9-S12. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hast.624
Hodgkinson, M. R., Larmour, I., Lin, S., Stormont, A. J., & Paul, E. (2017). The impact of an integrated electronic medication prescribing and dispensing system on prescribing and dispensing errors: a before and after study. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research, 47(2), 110-120. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jppr.1243
Quality and Patient Safety. (n.d). Public and Private Policy Medical Errors and Patient Safety. Retrieved from http://www.qups.org/med_errors.php?c=individual_state&s=44&t=all
Sisay, M., Mengistu, G., Molla, B., Amare, F., & Gabriel, T. (2017). Evaluation of rational drug use based on World Health Organization core drug use indicators in selected public hospitals of eastern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study. BMC health services research, 17(1), 1-9. Retrieved from https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-017-2097-3