Ethical Implications of Disclosure and Non-Disclosure (Essay Sample)

Ethical Implications of Disclosure and Non-Disclosure
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Ethical Implications of Disclosure and Non-Disclosure
As patients visit healthcare facilities, they expect to receive quality health care without any medication errors. Prescription errors are mistakes or lapses that arise when giving prescriptions and are the most common form of medication errors. After making errors during prescription, nurses have to deal with the consequences which often revolve around ethics and legalities. Following prescription errors, nurses often face the dilemma of disclosing the mistakes to patients and relevant authorities or keeping the information from them. Ultimately, the decision of nurses to reveal information regarding prescription errors plays a huge role in the quality of care and patient safety outcomes. Prescription errors can be minimized by strict adherence to procedures of medication administration. Nurses should be guided by the Five Rights of Medication Administration to reduce medication errors and disclose prescription errors under the nursing code of ethics to improve patient safety.
Disclosure of nursing errors is an ethical and legal requirement that ensures the accountability of nurses and improves patient safety outcomes. Nursing is guided by a professional code of conduct that highlights ethical responsibilities of all nurses. The Code of Ethics for nurses requires that any nursing error is disclosed and reported. Westrick (2017) points out that nurses have an ethical responsibility to promptly disclose medication errors. A comprehensive reporting framework has been established, and nurses are required to inform patients, authorities, and supervising physicians at the healthcare facilities. Disclosure of medication errors improves communication between nurses and patients and among other healthcare professionals, such as physicians and pharmacists.
The construct of disclosure has been included in the healthcare setting as part of the legal framework. Enforcing the statutes ensures the nurses adhere to establish a code of conduct and improve patient outcomes. Professional bodies and healthcare organizations have disclosure standards and policies which ensure that patients and relevant organizations are informed of all medication errors. The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum set clear guidelines on disclosure of medication errors and require that nurses disclose unintended medication errors (Westrick, 2017). Individual states have also enacted legislation to ensure that nurses disclose and report medication errors and all events with the potential of causing harm to patients. Approximately 1.5 million medication errors are reported annually in California. The state has established the California Medication Error Law, which provides a legal framework for reporting and disclosure (California Legislative Information, 2007). California requires that errors which may result in clinically vital injuries need to be reported to the family and patients within five days. California Nurses Association has developed the Health Care Perspective, which provides procedures and policies to guide admission of error and the apology process.