Paper should cite a minimum of three peer-reviewed sources (textbooks do not count as a peer-reviewed source in this assignment)

Running head: IMPACT OF HEALTH CARE LAW ON PATIENT CARE 1

IMPACT OF HEALTH CARE LAW ON PATIENT CARE 2

Impact of Health care Law on Patient Care

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Impact of Health care Law on Patient Care

Question 1

A stable and efficient public health workforce for nurses is a critical aspect in the provision of quality care, especially in situations where the workforce is dealing with a pandemic situation. The nursing workforce is a crucial part of the care in such cases as they are equipped, through their nursing training, with sufficient knowledge and skills to be able to provide education to patients on how to stay safe and avoid contacting the COVID-19 virus by isolating themselves as well as staying in quarantine (Edmonds et al., 2020). This entails teaching them the basics like keeping a social distance in their association with other people, maintaining proper hand and general sanitization and other essential skills that will be able to help the patients avoid acquiring and spreading the virus for those that already have it. The training of nurses and the standards of care in their practice facilitates their reliable response to emergencies during the outbreak of diseases that are infectious, providing care in a way that is effective, safe and non-discriminatory to everyone in the communities in which they provide their services. Despite the vulnerability of their practices that expose them to the risk of acquiring diseases that are infectious and chronic diseases, nurses are bound by their oath of service and are thus under a legal and moral obligation to ensure that they provide care to their patients without discrimination despite the condition the patient may be suffering from. They have a moral duty to the patient to provide the best care they can. The failure to follow the care standards when providing care can amount to an action in tort for negligence against the nurse practitioner (Austin, 2017). The relevance of this article to the readings on Health Care Law is that a nurse has to adhere to the regulations of practice and to provide patient care to enhance positive outcomes.

Question 2

The role of a nurse as an educator still comes down to the moral obligations and adherence to the care standards in providing quality care to the patients. The nurse is obligated to consider what is in the best interest of the patient. In situations like those that require vaccination, the nurse will require the consent and free will of the patient to be obtained before initiating the vaccine. Before vaccinating a patient, it is essential that they read and sign the forms of consent to provide evidence of the agreement between the patient and the nursing practitioner, which proves that he consented to the vaccination exercise. The legal standards of practices also protect the patient’s right to refuse treatment (Austin, 2017). In a situation where the patient is resisting the vaccine, it is the duty of the nurse to talk to the patient and educate them on aspects like the purpose that the vaccine intends to serve in their body, the importance of the vaccine in boosting their immune system and helping their body better fight infectious disease-causing mechanisms and how being vaccinated minimizes their risk of acquiring diseases that are infectious. In equipping the patient with knowledge on these aspects, the provider of healthcare also has to listen to the reasons that the patient presents for refusing the vaccine and try to understand their viewpoint (Perkins, 2018). The nurse can engage in a conversation with the patient and help them make the most appropriate decision for their well-being. With immunization refusals on the rise, healthcare professionals need to establish ways of improving the provision of patient education on vaccination in terms of explaining how immunizations function in the body, the different types, the misconceptions, the safety and contraindications among other related aspects. The relevance of this article to the Health Care Law is based on the legal provisions requiring informed consent to be obtained from the patient and signed in an agreement before they are given the vaccine.

References

Austin, N. (2017). Health care law. In J. F. Giddens (Ed.), Concepts for nursing practice

(2nd ed., pp. 533-540) Retrieved from https://pageburstls.elsevier.com/#/books/978-0-323-08376-8/

Edmonds, J. K., Kneipp, S. M., & Campbell, L. (2020). A call to action for public health nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Public Health Nursing, 37(3), 323-324. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/phn.12733

Perkins, A. (2018). Immunizations: What nurses should know. Nursing made Incredibly Easy, 16(4), 30-37. doi:10.1097/01.NME.0000534111.98635.e4