Question

Consider this question: What are the ethical and legal responsibilities of the nurse who believes a home care patient needs to be cared for in a hospital or that a home care patient needs to continue to receive care and not be discharged from the service?

Answer 1

One of a nurse's primary ethical responsibilities is to work with the patient to provide care that maximally enables the physical, emotional and social well-being of the patient.

The nurses have both an ethical and a legal obligation to ensure a patient will be discharged safely.

*In some cases, the attending physician may have written orders for discharge from the hospital to the home care, but as a nurse, she believes that the home care patient needs to be cared for in a hospital or that a home care patient needs to continue to receive care and not to be discharged from the service. She has to :

$\rightarrow$ consult with the clinical ethicist regarding the health issues that develop to the patient when hospital discharge the patient.

$\rightarrow$ and the ethicist's role is to ensure that the discharge is safe or not or any mediating disagreements regarding discharge.

$\rightarrow$the ethicist may communicate reasons that why the nurse is trying to care for the patient in the hospital itself, instead of discharging

$\rightarrow$the ethicist can help negotiate a compromise, in case when hospital administration pressures clinicians to release patients.

In the present scenario as a nurse within the scope of practice, she has to consult with the clinical ethicist or attorneys who specialize in ethics and follows the ethical principle of beneficence she can promote the growth and well being of the client by considering the possible consequences.