Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs (Essay Sample)

Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
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Ethical procedures and the legal implications are essential aspects that are necessary for the nursing process, where several effective procedures need to be taken to ensure that drugs are administered effectively. In this context, several parties are involved in drug administration, involving the prescriber, the pharmacist, the patient, and the patient's family. Failure to follow the outlined ethical issues leads to several challenges for both parties mentioned above. The results show that doctors' negligence in giving out medical prescriptions has caused over $750 million to the health sector in the recently conducted research (Fick, Semla, Steinman, Beizer, Brandt & Dombrowski, 2019). The value represents the effectiveness and intensity of medical prescription. To avoid such expenses and losses of lives due to poor drug administration and prescription, the health sector has developed several ethical practices that need to be addressed by the nurses and other medical providing personnel to ensure that they conduct effective prescriptions.
According to the reports and guidelines from Good Medical Practice, drugs or treatment and prescriptions should only be done by a doctor who understands the patient. Besides having a good understanding, the doctor is supposed to follow up on all drugs administered to the patient to ensure that the prescribed medicine will effectively help the patient support the initially administered drugs(Mead, 2019). The Great Medical Practice has also outlined explanatory guidance and good practices that doctors and other health practitioners need to familiarize themselves with to ensure appropriate prescription without personal influence on the prescription being issued. Another medical law and an ethical prescription include the quality standards of the medicine being prescribed. Quality involves factors such as the patient's strength, route and frequency, and other personal factors of the patient such as allergies and other underlying medical conditions.
In this context, the practitioner's wrong prescription is likely to affect the entire team, from the prescriber to the patient's family. The prescriber is supposed to understand the standard of the patient adequately and give the best prescription (Baker, 2017). On the other hand, the pharmacist is supposed to adequately understand the recommendations from the prescriber to ensure that he or she gives the exact prescriptions that were given by the prescriber. The patient, however, can practice ethical and legal implications by ensuring that he or she reveals the exact problem he is going through. By revealing the cause of the problem, the patient enables the prescriber to identify the best drug necessary for the patient. Besides, the family can also play a key role in ensuring that medical ethics and legal implications are upheld by encouraging them to take drugs as prescribed.
Strategies on Disclosure and Nondisclosure
In addressing the disclosure and the nondisclosure in this context, several strategies are put in place to address the prescription errors. It entails stating that there has been an error and the course of the event (Baker, 2017). Though admitting that there is an error, the medical practitioner provides room for correction so that necessary measures can be taken to help out the patient. Another important aspect is stating the nature of the mistake that has occurred, consequences that are likely to occur, and the corrective measures that need to be taken to ensure that the patient is helped. The prescriber is always required to express personal regrets and apologize for the consequences.
Besides, to avoid incidents of drug misuse, health practitioners need to carry several drug safety practices. The practices include knowing the various risks and factors that might lead to medical errors. Besides, the practitioners are supposed to identify the patient's drugs and the main reason why the patient requires the drug(Mead, 2019). The practitioner must also consider the drug containers' proper labeling to avoid medicine's wrong prescription due to wrong labeling. Through proper labeling, the doctors and other involved parties know the exact medicines they are prescribing to a patient. However, in a case of mislabeling of the drug containers and health practitioners realize after the prescription, the health practitioner is supposed to admit the error and provide effective solutions to the affected patient to ensure that the danger inserted in his life is minimized through providing medical assis