Issues in nursing 2: Legal and ethical considerations in nursing practice
HBNUDG
Ms F Thompson
1.5 points * 18 hours per semester * Second semester * Gippsland * Prerequisites: GHS1410
Objectives Through learning activities during and outside class, this subject will provide the student an opportunity to reflect on nursing practice issues, using an empirical perspective; examine the basic ethical assumptions of nursing practice; explore the elements of the decision-making process in legal and ethical nursing practice; demonstrate an understanding of legal responsibilities as practicing professional nurses in Australia, under the various regulations and requirements so fixed by the Australian law but without needing to know the whole law on which those responsibilities are based; develop resolutions to ethical dilemmas, which are consistent with personal and professional standards.
Synopsis This subject focuses on the role of nursing ethics and the law in contemporary Australian nursing practice, and the use of theoretical frameworks and Australian law to support practice decisions. It is intended that the student understand ethical decision making and raise issues which are not only of individual concern but are also of topical import to the practice of nursing in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The student will be introduced to (1) the philosophical and ideological bases of ethical approaches (for example utilitarianism, deontology, natural law, caring and justice) as frameworks for ethical decision making and (2) Australian State and Federal law as it affects nursing.
Assessment Option 1 (one oral presentation of about 10 minutes to class): 50% * Option 2: (one major written essay of about 2000 words): 100%
Recommended texts
It is recommended that students acquire one law text and one ethics text from the following list of Australian publications and access others frequently as supplementary texts:
Bandman and Bandman Nursing ethics through the lifespan Norwalk, Appleton and Lange, 1990
Johnstone M J Bioethics: A nursing perspective Saunders, 1989
Staunton P J and Whyburn B Nursing and the law 3rd edn, Saunders, 1993
Wallace M Health care and the law 2nd edn, Law Book, 1995
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