Ethical-Legal Influences in APN
It is the responsibility of healthcare professionals to consider the needs of the patients to ensure the provision of quality medical and healthcare services. Nurses practitioners and medical assistants assigned to them can be reliable for their activities and or negligence of their duties in the cause of providing healthcare and medical services(Minami et al., 2017). The failure of the medical assistant to ask me can result in legal and ethical implications. The mistakes undertaken by healthcare professionals can harm the patient. Various concerns arise as a result of the failure to provide unauthorized or incorrect medication. In this case, it was quite clear that Stephanie provided Mrs. Smith with medication because the patients insisted without carrying out diagnosis and administering the correct medication(Choi et al., 2016). Stephanie being a medical assistant should understand the danger of providing medication to patients without carrying out proper diagnosis and treatment.
It is considered unethical to provide patients with wrong medication, and legal action can take against you. Additionally, providing patients with wrong medication is a medical malpractice because this may harm the patient. Giving Mrs. Smith amoxicillin without conducting diagnoses was wrong and could lead Stephanie or me to jail. Additionally, the fact that Stephanie failed to consult me is another legal issue(Karanjekar & Shrotriya, 2015). It is the responsibility of the medical assistant to consult their superior before making a decision. Stephanie failed to do that. It is also the responsibility of healthcare to decide what is best for their patients. Patients lack the knowledge of the best treatments that should be administered to them. They have no authority therefore to decide the best medication that is appropriate for them. All that Stephanie did was unacceptable and legal action could be taken against her.
Reference
Choi, I., Lee, S., Flynn, L., Kim, C., Lee, S., Kim, N., &Suh, D. (2016). Incidence and treatment costs attributable to medication errors in hospitalized patients. Research In Social And Administrative Pharmacy, 12(3), 428-437. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2015.08.006
Karanjekar, R. V., & Shrotriya, R. J. (2015). Patient Safety: Impact of Medication Errors. ASCI Journal Of Management, 44(2), 17-30
Minami, C., Sheils, C., Pavey, E., Chung, J., Stulberg, J., & Odell, D. et al. (2017). Association Between State Medical Malpractice Environment and Postoperative Outcomes in the United States. Journal Of The American College Of Surgeons, 224(3), 310-318.e2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2016.12.012
