Informed Consent

Registered nurses are accountable to offer their clients or patients with the high-quality healthcare. Nursing practice requires constant thinking as well as analysis that provides intellectual development and ensuring a constructive interrelationship between them and patients. To continue engaging with patient professionally, registered nurses are required to maintain the high level of capability in their practice (Health Workforce Australia, 2013). The registered nurses are considered to be responsible, accountable and ensure a better service is provided as required. Most of their practice is not only restricted just to the provision of the direct clinical care but also in assisting the patients in various medical dimensions. Nursing experience can as well extend to paid and also unpaid responsibility in which nurses can utilize their skills and expertise. Although they experience different ethical challenges in their profession, they are required to deliver services more professionally. For that reason, this paper will analyze how a registered nurse will ensure their practice is professional and safe in relation to documentation, informed consent, and function by relevant legislation

Functions by relevant Legislation

As a nurse, making sure that one act professionally and safely is an important aspect especially in delivering quality services. According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2015), Nurses can ensure that their practice is professional and safe by engaging in therapeutic and professional interrelationship with the client. The mutual interdependence involves collegial generosity in the contest of respect in their practice. In this way, they are required to communicate effectively and ensure the patient dignity, culture and beliefs are respected in the best way possible. The nurse provides more support to people and ensures resources are optimized when health-related decisions are being made. Fostering a culture of safety is also important which includes engaging with the health specialist and others to share required knowledge and various practices which support person-centered care. It is through the person-center care approach that nurses can carefully understand the situation or circumstance at hand. Accordingly, they can use the person-centered approach to ensure communication is effective with the key aim of understanding one another.

Registered nurses have core responsibility of maintaining the capability for practice as being regulated by the health professional. Therefore, they are accountable for making sure they are safe and have the capacity for the practice. This involves continuous self-management and responding in care, and there is concern about the health of another professional capacity for practice (Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002). Providing information or data together with education to ensure people make better decisions and take appropriate action regarding their healthcare. Nurses play the essential role in responding promptly regarding the health and wellbeing of self and also with others. Using long life learning methods for continuing professional improvement for others is important for providing quality services to the people.

According to Health Workforce Australia (2013) Nurses are required to conduct a more systematic assessment of the situation when handling a given scenario. It is interlinked to the process of analyzing information and data and ensures the same is communicated as required. Also, nurses use various assessment methods to systematically collect related and accurate information with the key aim of informing the practice and what needs to be done. The available resources can also be assessed for better planning on ways the services will be delivered to the population. Lastly, Nurses can evaluate the outcome of treatment and ensures they take responsibility with the aim of evaluating different practices by agreed goals as well as priorities. Nurses also have authority to delegate roles and responsibilities to other co-workers who are professional in their job. The delegation of authority in most instances is interlinked to how quality services are being provided in healthcare set up.

Documentation

Documentation is an important way of conveying important clinical information concerning every patient diagnosis, medication, and outcome. It ensures there is communication among the clinicians with the payers. Health practitioners must respond effectively to any questions that are needed for the patient to receive better services in healthcare set up(Cashin et al., 2015). Nurses have a responsibility to ensure there are complete and accurate records concerning patient medication. Documentation is one way of fostering quality together with ensuring there is continuity of care. About documentation, nurses ensure they are professional in their practice by establishing and organizing records so that the medical records can be easily and quickly be retrieved when needed. Furthermore, they also make sure such information is available for use and also when needed by another specialist. Storing and maintaining a medical record in a centralized and protected place that is only accessible to authorized individual and offer equivalent security for the electronic medical record (Nursing and midwifery board of Australia, 2008)

According to The Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002, individual personal information as well as other records for the patient should have required safety safeguards to protect the unauthorized person from accessing them. For instance, all the records that has personal health information to be kept in lockable storage. This is one way of preventing and making sure that patient medical information is not accessed. Therefore, professionally it is the responsibility of the nurses to ensure the patient information is available at a given point especially at the point when services are being delivered (MacLellan et al., 2015).

Informed consent

Legally, informed consent requires that the patient or their surrogate is informed of any risk, benefits as well as alternatives to treatment (Menendez, 2013). Ethically, consent involves patient autonomy, which means the patients has understood, accepts and agrees to be treated. Informed consent might be withdrawn at any given time. Nurses should support and accept any refusal or the withdrawal in the case they disagree with the patient.

However, for the nurse to remain professional and safe in their practice, they are supposed to consider all the information provided or that has been obtained in the process of providing care as professional secrets (Cook, 2014). They are not required to reveal patient information without their permission except in lawfully acceptable cases. ‘Also, it is essential for the nurse to employ medical information of the client or patient only for the health-related objectives and in the interest of the patient. Besides, Nurses can inform the patient that some of their medical records may be revealed to some team members for the medical consultation (Cook, 2014). A nurse forms an integral part in informing the patient concerning their rights and the best decision regarding their medication. Also, nurses can facilitate documentation of the consent. This provides the easiest way in which information can be obtained when needed and also offers new ways in which medication can be done as efficiently as possible. In the process of documenting consent, nurses can also address issues interlinked to patient anxiety. At times the patients might fear to respond and accept the scenario related to their treatment, and for that reason, they need further counseling and consultation with the health practitioners. Nurses are also required to obtain the informed consent or any other legal authority before carrying out any examination or the investigation or offer treatment (Barry, 2012). However, this might not be easier within the emergency as well as the nature of the treatment. Also, the patient can be provided with more opportunities to respond to questions and make key decisions regarding their medication. Advising individuals on the key benefits together with the cost of the risks, at the time of referring the person for treatment that they might wish to clarify before proceedings (Barry, 2012)

Conclusion

Conclusively, there are various ways nurses can ensure their practice is professional and safe. They are required to engage in therapeutic and professional connection with their clients so that services can be delivered in the best way possible. Therefore, to ensure this, they are supposed to communicate at the same time make sure the dignity, beliefs, and culture of the patient are protected or safeguards as required. Nurses can also ensure resources are optimized mainly when key decisions are made concerning the treatment. They have the responsibility of responding promptly when information is needed concerning the patient. It is one way of making the appropriate services are being offered in the healthcare services. About documentation, nurses have the role of making sure patient information is available when the patient needs to be treated. The information is only provided to the physicians and not another party. Furthermore, patient information is delivered at the point of service. It is essential if the patient information is kept confidential and no other individual can access it for any other purpose.

On the other hand, informed consent involves patients understanding and accepting to be treated as per the guidelines indicated in the document. A nurse forms a key role in informing the patients concerning their rights regarding medication. They also facilitate documentation of the informed consent so that in case it is needed. It can be obtained in the quickest way possible. Therefore, nurses are important people especially in healthcare set up. And for that reason, they have a duty of making sure their practice is professional and safe as a way of providing quality services needed.

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